- 25 Nov, 2023
- 0 Comments
- 2 Mins Read
Tone part 2.
Something I’ve known for a long time but haven’t really seen or heard a lot of in real life, except for last week, is a high pitched voice carries and not in a good way.
If you want your message to carry as opposed to your voice, it’s best to lower the pitch to your chest, not directly from your vocal cords. Try to harden your tone, this can happen naturally as it’s just a tensing of the muscles at the back of your throat and slow down your speech. Whatever message you are wanting to deliver the chance of it being received in a much more positive way is higher if your pitch is lower.
Oh and leave out the ‘f’ word too. It’s just a filler word and does nothing but weaken your stance.
Back to the hard tone for a minute. This is my natural tone and it can come across as patronising or condescending, which comes in handy sometimes, but sometimes I can be taken the wrong way not because of the words I’ve said but how I sound. I practise daily to soften my tone up so I don’t sound grumpy or rude. I had a flatmate once who said “get that harshness out of your tone, Miriam”. It’s still a work in progress.
Here are some how to’s…
Lower your pitch – Hum. Direct your hum into your chest, if you don’t know what I mean just hum naturally and you’ll notice a vibration in your lips. Then focus on directing the hum to your throat, then down to your chest. Try to maintain the hum until you have to take a breath. Time yourself as to how long you can maintain that hum and then practise so you can hum for longer periods of time.
Soften your tone – Yawn. Pretending to yawn or yawning for real relaxes the muscles that are tense and make you sound like you’re unhappy or angry about something. Yawn as big as your jaw will allow, yawn with your lips closed, yawn for real or just fake it. Whatever the yawn slow it on down and really feel the stretch into the back of your throat.
Harden your tone – Swallow. Swallowing uses the muscles in your throat that also tense up when you are nervous, that’s when your voice comes out wobbly. When you are afraid, depending on the intensity of your fear you may not even be able to speak but if you are facing something frightening try to remember to take a deep breath, all the way down to your tummy button, preferably through your nose but if you take a breath through your mouth, that’s better than not taking a breath at all. Breathing frees up the stress on your brain as well as your vocal cords. We are inclined to hold our breath when we’re nervous or frightened so training your brain to breathe in those particular times when you are calm, you’re more likely to remember when you are stressed.
It’s December on Friday.
Are you feeling Argghhhh! I haven’t done everything I’ve wanted to this year. Or you feeling YAY! Bring on the holidays. I belong in camp two this year and come Christmas it’ll be nothing but relaxation because in 2024 there are big changes in store for Say It Clearly.