10 things to keep your voice beautiful!...
- Limit intake of dehydrating fluids - coffee, tea, alcohol; up water intake.
- Avoid whispering if you "lose" your voice. Speak quietly instead with support.
- If you must shout, use support muscles!
- Match your phonation to your breath length
- Excessive throat clearing is too harsh for the vocal folds. Try to avoid this.
- Improve your posture, so muscles can work effectively.
- See if you can have voice naps during the day.
- Try to develop a personal warm up routine.
- Articulate well at front of mouth.
- When you have a cold, avoid decongestants; steam instead
Become aware of voice use. What demands are you making of your voice "off-duty"
in addition to "on-duty"? If you have overdone it, try and take it easy.
POSTURE - a reminder
Knees over ankles, Hips over knees, Rib cage over hips, Shoulders over rib cage
Ears over shoulders, Stand with your feet hip width apart so you have a good base
BREATHING
If you have an important "speech" to make, low abdominal breathing as opposed to clavicular breathing will ease muscle tension and help abate nerves by circulating the oxygen instead of going into "fight or flight" syndrome. It is a great stress buster. A quick way in, is to imagine you are smelling something wonderful and feel your ribs expand without raising your shoulders. The air has the sensation of dropping into the bottom of your lungs.
Focusing on your breath will help you relax and give your vocal folds much needed moments of rest!
SPEECH
There are many simple techniques which can help. Some of these might seem obvious, others need practice.
- Speak for a breath's length.
- Energise your speech with different voice qualities; add in pauses; don't be afraid
to experiment with dynamics and pitch. It is the contrast which keeps people listening.
- Speaking above noise for any length of time will have a detrimental effect as
will yelling at a sports event whether as a spectator or participant.
- If you must shout, activate your lower abs - belly button to backbone - and keep your
throat un-constricted!
- Limit the distance between you and your pupils as much as possible in the classroom
so they are nearer your voice.
- Factor in rests when the pupils can be listening to a CD or watching a DVD or at the
computer, maybe debating amongst themselves, or even writing!!
- Look at the environment in which you teach - is there a bathroom acoustic?
Is it poorly appointed - noisy heating? Are you outdoors where there are no hard
surfaces to bounce off acoustically? Are you at a swimming pool?
Is your environment drying? Are there a lot of chemicals about?
(Art, Science, DT) Is it too cold? - when we are cold we raise our shoulders
and tighten our necks and jaws. Are you constantly going from warm to cool environments?
(PE) Are you having to yell to students far away?
- How aware are you of what your body is saying to you? At the end of your day,
maybe sitting in your car or at home, just do a quick check as to where tensions may be.
The more you get to know your body, the easier it will be to undo the building tensions.
One way to release is to imagine breathing warm, relaxing air through the affected
muscles. Visualise lengthening your muscles and opening up your lungs, wider/ broader.
- How much exercise do you do? Do you talk while exercising? Do you have long
conversations immediately after, while the cords have extra blood supply pumped into
them? They are slightly swollen in this state and no singer would sing for an hour
after exercise! Nor would they go out into the cold and stand around without
wrapping up - singers and their famous scarves!
INFORMATION on the INTERNET
You will find a little information on this site, but the principal aim of this site
is to make you aware of what I can do to help. Much more is available on the internet,
set out by others whose aim is to give this information. Above all however, remember that
the science of voice is not an exact science. Good singing teaching and speech therapy
requires a lot of intuition. By putting any combination
of "voice, vocal cords, teachers and voice, vocal function, vocal dysfunction" etc
into a search engine, you will come across numerous sites dedicated to this matter.
On Wikipedia you can learn more about the actual physical anatomy of the voice and
larynx and attendant muscles with clear diagrams - type in "human voice" and you will
find a wealth of information.
The Voicecare Network (Voice Care Network UK 29 Southbank Road Kenilworth CV8 1LA)
has a book (£4.50 with postage) directly targeted at teachers and voice care - "More
care for your Voice" and it has sensible and clear information. The website is a
good starting place: www.voicecare.org.uk.
An American foundation at the university of Iowa has an inspirational man with the
unlikely name of called Ingo Titze, whom I have heard lecture and he has set up a site
for teachers called The Voice Academy. You can access that at www.ncvs.org - home page -
current research - The Voice Academy. There you will see some of the information you have
today with some good graphics. NCVS stands for the National Center for Voice and speech.
This is packed with fascinating information.
Vocal Osteopathy is a relatively new and controversial strategy - by manipulating
the larynx, the muscles which have gone into compensation mode are released. Jacob
Liebermann is its founder and leading practioner. He has a private practice and many
confirmed devotees. www.jacobliebermann.co.uk.
To download a printable version of this page, click here.
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Teachers
