Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
« A Voice like Honey - 6 | Main | A pause to contemplate »
A Voice like Honey - 7
Once you you can achieve a good resonating sound in your voice, all you have to do is articulate it. This is achieved by a combination of the shape of your mouth, the use of the tongue, your lips and teeth. Many people do not use their mouths fully and so what they’re saying can come out as a mumble. When the speaker isn’t being heard well and is asked to speak up, they can make the mistake of just trying to speak louder. What may actually be required is more resonance to the voice in all the high and low harmonics (see previous blog post), as well as better articulation.
Simon Cowell - good articulation
If you listen to a French person speaking, you will notice that there is a very wide range of sounds coming from their mouth. And if you look at them as they speak it is likely that you will see a full movement of the lips, tongue and a constantly changing shape of their whole mouth. Speaking French demands this. Next time you’re watching TV look out for the UK newscaster Trevor McDonald and listen to his beautifully articulated and clear voice and notice the generous movement of his mouth. When the words are shaped well in this way, and there is a good range of resonating harmonics, then the speaker can talk quite quietly and the sound will be easily heard some distance away. This technique is used by stage actors so that they can whisper on stage and the audience at the back of the stalls will still be able to hear what they’re saying.
Fiona Bruce, TV presenter - Clear resonant voice
Exercise – Articulation
When you are speaking normally, endeavour to articulate your words so that they have consonants at both the beginning of the word and also at the end! It’s very easy for us to drop the ‘t’ and other consonants so that our words are just a series of vowels. By enhancing your consonants, your voice will be clearer and more easily heard from a distance without raising your voice. As I've mentioned several times in this series of blog posts, use as little effort as you can when speaking and allow your neck to be free and your lips and tongue to be relaxed. It will all work beautifully well without making a huge effort.
A clear, resonating voice that is well articulated and not rushed can be a very useful tool in any business situation, presentation and negotiation. A voice that has lots of clear consonants can be gentle, sexy and soft in sound, but will also be extremely clear. These qualities can only be achieved if you have good natural poise, and avoid tensing your throat, stiffening generally and shortening your stature.
Work on the tips in this little series of posts, and you can develop a voice like honey.
To see all the posts in this series 'A Voice Like Honey' click Here.
