If you’re spending hours and hours on Zoom these days, you might find your voice getting tired or hoarse. If so, it might be time to re-calibrate.
In vocal pedigogy, a vocalise is is an exercise singers use to train their voices, it translates in the real-world to “vocal-ease.” This is the most fundamental quality of singing. If it ain’t easy, you’re probably not doing it right. The same thing is true of your speaking voice, if it ain’t easy…
I’m lucky, my first career was as a singer and later, a vocal coach. I had the fundamentals of vocal production ground into me. Let me tell you a little of what I learned.
First, your voice is not your own. You are in fact a recording and playback device. From the first sentence you spoke you were imitating what you heard. Because of this, the timbre and pitch of your speaking voice may not be what is called your “natural voice.” The first thing I do with new students is to help them discover where their voices lay without affectation.
Step one – record yourself. Pick something to read aloud from any source and record it on your smartphone. Listen carefully to the “Pitch” or relative low-ness or high-ness of the sound. Now go do something for an hour or two. Open your voice recorder again and this time without thinking about it, hum a single pitch or note.
Wait a while longer and listen to both sounds. If you notice a difference in the pitch of your reading voice and your “hum” it is time to re-calibrate. Let that difference sink in. Start pitching your speaking voice where your hum lives.
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