Talking Tip #14: Projecting your voice the right way will make your message clear and understandable.

 

 

What do we do if we want to speak louder?  How do we make ourselves heard in a noisy restaurant or through a mask?  Do we yell? Do we force our speech?  Or is there another way?

 

Why projecting your voice is important

We talked about our breath being the foundation to our speaking.  We also learned how our vocal cords vibrate when we talk, giving the buzz to our voice.  This happens whether we speak quietly or loudly.  However, when we yell, we actually can damage that process because we cause our vocal cords to come together with force.  That force overtime can cause damage to the actual tissue by creating callouses.  The way we know this has happened is by the change we hear in our vocal quality. It becomes hoarse or strained sounding.  This isn’t good nor is it a path we want to venture down.

 

How do we project and not yell?

So how do we project our voice safely?  Well in some ways it’s through visualizing how we speak.  It’s seeing the words we say leaving our mouth and reaching their destination.  When we focus on visualizing this process, we are able to project our voice without the strain.  Here’s how it works.

 

Focus on your breath

We start by focusing on our breath, taking in a good belly breath (inhale with stomach out and shoulders down).  We begin speaking as we exhale, and we think about the words leaving our lips, not our throat.  When do this, we subconsciously make the focus of our talking in the front of our mouth, away from the vocal cords.  Our neck doesn’t strain, nor does our throat.  Instead, we focus on the release of our words from the front of our mouth, making sure we have adequate breath underlying this.  When if feels we are running out of breath, we stop and replenish before continuing.

Open your mouth more

As our words leave our mouth, we visualize them traveling through the air, reaching their destination with enough volume to be heard.  We also use our mouth to help by opening it more.  The mere act of opening our mouth more when we speak gives the acoustic energy a place to go.  We keep our throat open rather than constricted, and we move our tongue and lips in a slightly exaggerated posture.  All of this helps in the release of the words in as relaxed of manner as possible.

 

Give it a try.  Stand in a room across from a person or object and practice aiming your voice right at them.  Start with good breath support. Visualize your words leaving the front of your mouth.  Move everything a little more than normal.  Keep your throat open and see what happens.  And remember this: project, don’t yell.

Talking Tip #14: Projecting your voice the right way will make your message clear and understandable.

What do we do if we want to speak louder? How do we make ourselves heard in a noisy restaurant or through a mask? Do we yell? Do we force our speech? Or is there another way?

We talked about our breath being the foundation to our speaking. We also learned how our vocal cords vibrate when we talk, giving the buzz to our voice. This happens whether we speak quietly or loudly. However, when we yell, we actually can damage that process because we cause our vocal cords to come together with force. That force overtime can cause damage to the actual tissue by creating callouses. The way we know this has happened is by the change we hear in our vocal quality. It becomes hoarse or strained sounding. This isn’t good nor is it a path we want to venture down.

So how do we project our voice safely? Well in some ways it’s through visualizing how we speak. It’s seeing the words we say leaving our mouth and reaching their destination. When we focus on visualizing this process, we are able to project our voice without the strain.

Here’s how it works. We start by focusing on our breath, taking in a good belly breath (inhale with stomach out and shoulders down). We begin speaking as we exhale, and we think about the words leaving our lips, not our throat. When do this, we subconsciously make the focus of our talking further front in our mouth, away from the vocal cords. Our neck doesn’t strain; nor does our throat. Instead, we focus on the release of our words from the front of our mouth, making sure we have adequate breath underlying this. If we don’t and feel ourselves running out of breath, we stop and replenish before continuing. As our words leave our mouth, we visualize them traveling through the air, reaching their destination with enough volume to be heard. We also use our mouth to help by opening it more. The mere act of opening our mouth more when we speak gives the acoustic energy a place to go. We keep our throat open rather than constricted, and we move our tongue and lips in a slightly exaggerated posture. All of this helps in the release of the words in as relaxed of manner as possible.

Give it a try. Stand in a room across from a person or object and practice aiming your voice right at them. Start with good breath support. Visualize your words leaving the front of your mouth. Move everything a little more than normal. Keep your throat open and see what happens. And remember this: project, don’t yell.