Personal Narrative: My Voice

Notwithstanding Treasure’s use of vocal coach jargon, he does not go so far as to assume his audience fully understands their meaning as they relate to the topic. He therefore provides definitions and oral examples that connect listeners to the idea. As Treasure used lists, supporting points, and definitions, he does fail to provide much testimony regarding the success of these tactics – other than simply stating what is positive and negative. This is likely a sign of understanding his audience’s common knowledge. Clearly there is a tremendous amount of practice and awareness involved in aptly utilizing the tools Treasure discusses, far and beyond splattering them within one’s speaking. Treasure notes this perfectly, as he states: “First of all, I think absolute honesty may not be what we want. I mean, my goodness, you look ugly this morning. Perhaps that's not necessary. Tempered with love, of course, honesty is a great thing. But also, if you're really wishing somebody well, it's very hard to judge them at the same time. I'm not even sure you can do those two things simultaneously,” (2013). The same rings true with the use and understanding of register (depth), timbre (smoothness), prosody (melody of voice), pace, pitch, and

For example, students were asked to sing a glissando up and down the scale, intone “Ah” for as long as possible, practice diaphragmatic breathing, and other vocal exercises (see Appendix B for an example of directed exercises). Although students were initially reluctant to use their voices, the justification for these activities was that the clinician must demonstrate a procedure or task for the client so that the client understands what is required. If the clinician is tentative in using his or her voice or if the clinician’s model is flawed, the client will also behave tentatively and the output will be equally flawed. Practice produced proficiency so that students were able to provide an efficient model for the voice client. Moreover, students were counseled to learn to love their voices. This was necessary because an informal survey on session one of the class revealed that every student, without exception, did not like the sound of their voice. To be a potential voice specialist, students needed to be unashamed of their voices and to behave as if they were performance artists. This appeared to have a positive effect on their voice use in class and in the clinical settings. Many students reported that they were more comfortable working with voice

Speaking in an incorrect pitch, volume, or with poor placement may be even more damaging to the larynx than singing because people speak more than they sing. In most cases, the problems include speaking in a pitch that is focused in the throat. While serious problems in this area are best resolved with the help of a licensed voice therapist, the singer can make some changes based on experience with their preferred placement when singing. Misconceptions include the idea that speaking very softly or whispering will help save voice. People who speak softly do so by blowing breath through the tone stopping the glottis from closing completely. Since the glottis' function is to close, it may compensate with a time of no closure by creating an edema or swelling to fill up the empty space (Greschner, 2017). Therefore, the singer who thinks they are protecting or reserving the voice may be creating a bigger problem threatening their vocal health. In addition, whispering is often focused in the throat. This may be particularly true when speaking on the phone or in situations they may not want to be overheard. In such cases it may be necessary to raise the volume of the speaking voice in order to raise the focus or

Voice may be high-pitched and have an unusual rhythm and intonation – may sound sing-song like or monotonous.

CAPE-V is an auditory method of evaluating voice quality. The CAPE-V was created to provide a consistent scale and consistent parameters for professionals evaluating the voice while also allowing clinicians to identity differences among a client’s voice (Nagle, 2016, 47). Clinicians determine if a person has a voice disorder or if a person has a normal voice. Six voice qualities are specifically examined when a CAPE-V is used; however, the evaluation includes blank lines to allow a clinician to write additional voice features he or she perceives that are not originally listed on the CAPE-V form. Qualities examined by a professional utilizing a CAPE-V are overall severity, roughness, breathiness, pitch, and loudness. A tick mark is placed on a visual analog scale to denote the severity of each vocal quality; the left portion of the scale signifies a normal vocal quality, while the right portion of the scale represents an extreme deviance in voice parameters. The assessment requires the client sustain vowels /a/ and /i/, read six sentences, and speak in a conversational manner to the statement, “Tell me about your voice.” Prolonged vowels enable a clinical to hear a client’s voice with no articulatory influences, speaking the sentences permits a professional to evaluate specific voice qualities, and conversational speech allows a clinician to further assess a client’s voice for abnormalities (Kempster et al., 2009, pp. 126-127). Clinicians agree that

My presentation strengths consisted of both verbal and non-verbal skills. While listening the recording of my presentation without any visual, I could hear my animated voice tone. When speaking about exciting parts of Janette’s life such as her dream to move into Finance and her current occupation at Pepsi my tone changed. This voice

Phonation resistance training exercises (PhoRTE) is treatment adapted from the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (Ziegler et al, 2014). PhoRTE uses Silverman’s “loud voice” approach while using “high-intensity phonatory exercises to overload the respiratory and laryngeal systems.” (Berg, E., Hapner, E., Klein, A., Johns, M., 2008). In their 2008 study,

When I felt that my voice was constrained; either I stretched my arms outwards or placed them on my hips, bending backwards whilst pushing out my chest. I felt that this was a highly energising movement that aided in releasing tension. Vicky explained in lectures that this is because space has opened in the larynx and the vocal folds are able to vibrate more freely. Simultaneously I associate the kinaesthetic action of spreading my arms the sensation of a more open throat. The result of practising this movement along with full body stretches and foam roll exercises has relived the feelings of constraint when I sing above middle C. Consequently, as the term progressed my voice was less strained in the upper register. I was able to comfortably sing the chorus of Don’t dream it over, Royals and If you’re out

You also want to focus on your vocal cord, also known as the larynx. This is because it regulates the air speed and will help make the sound clearer.

I took voice lessons when I was ten; something I had always wanted to do, but had never tried. I wanted to be like Carrie Underwood, writing hit songs, making tons of money, and getting into all kinds of trouble with “cowboy casanovas”. Although singing was something I’d always wanted to do, I was afraid of being substandard, so I kept talking my parents out of it. Finally, my mom dragged me to the class and I was extremely nervous, I was shaking harder than Taylor Swift in her new music video. My mother’s assurance that I was a great singer and that the instructor would love me proved to be a poor buffer against my fears.

All human beings come into the world with a desire to speak; babies babble from the moment they are born, and in time, idle coos evolve into coherent words. Speech is, no doubt, a cornerstone of human society, but some humans are less inclined towards speaking than others. I am a prime example of the latter case. Growing up a wide-eyed girl with frizzy blonde hair, I was much quieter than my eccentric outer appearance led most people to believe. Biting my tongue before I knew how to speak, and sitting on my hands before I knew how to write, my childhood was a vicious cycle of sitting down, shutting up, and hanging low my frizzy blonde head. For so long I believed myself doomed to live the rest of my life in this painfully shy manner. That is, until, I met my voice teacher one year ago.

I was acutely aware of the danger posed by mixing up distinct characters and tone of voice between my three separate speeches, jeopardising the overall coherence and integrity of the work. While I considered the possibility of technically distorting my voice to exaggerate the different personas, I conceded it would corrupt the sanctity of the voice and thus my decision to invoke distinct but complementary voices. This was followed by the recording process, which was undoubtedly the most curiously enchanting part of my Major Work. Currently, I have experimented with my voice with fluency, enunciation, and modulation of pace and tone to engage in radically different personas for my speech, to which I am proud to say characterises each speech.

I agree with the quote from Jacques Copeau. From personal experience, people who don’t breathe well tend to make their voices becomes sad. Singing lessons forced me to learn to breathe, so later on it helped project my voice loudly and with emotion. Before singing lessons, my voice didn’t capture others attention easily since it sounded like a whisper and I never seemed excited for things. Learning to breathe better showed me how to be able to interpret my emotions easily. The relaxation exercises that we did to help with our breathing, definitely made everyone have a more enthusiastic voice. In the beginning of class, many people, when asked to speak, had a quiet and monotone voice. After doing the breathing exercises, even if the voices

The truth is until taking this class, I never knew there were two categories of the soprano voice. Thus, I often wondered why I could not sing as high as some other soprano singers, even though my vocal range was not as low as an alto singer. From the information in our text, I can boldly say that my singing voice is mezzo-soprano because my vocal range is in between the soprano and alto voices.

Researchers estimated that open throat strategy would create discernable contrasts in vocal quality and this was affirmed by the perceptual investigation. Audiences were solid in their judgements and reliably distinguished the strategy in rehashed tests. Singers ' vocal quality created discernable sound quality contrasts in 85.3% of optimal and 80.0% of sub-optimal tests, which audiences credited to the educational guideline of “open throat”. This investigation affirmed teachers ' acknowledgment of a central system in established singing beforehand characterised by master educators by a particular sound quality. Facilitate investigation of the perceptual characteristics of this strategy is the subject of progressing research by these authors.