Set Your Voice Free: How to Get the Singing or Speaking Voice You Want

by Roger Love

Do the exercise on audio 11 (male) or audio 12 (female), record it, and then play it back. As you do, use the following checklist to help yourself listen for the same indicators I do when I’m with a student. I want you to understand what’s going on in my head so we can effectively share the same set of ears. Pay close attention, and take note of the answers to the following questions: 1. What happens in the range you normally speak in, those comfortable notes that feel as though they vibrate mostly in your chest? What is that comfortable voice like? Is it thick or kind of reedy or whispery? Does it have a nice resonance? 2. What happens as you approach the top of this range? Is there a buildup of pressure as you go higher? Do your throat muscles feel tight, as though you’re doing the equivalent of lifting weights? Are you straining hard? Are you getting louder, and shouting as you move higher? (Notice that in the demonstration, I am just moving up and down the range, not changing volume at all.) 3. As you try to go higher, what happens? Does your voice seem to get thinner and less powerful? Does your voice crack, or yodel and flip into an airy nothingness? Does your sound change so dramatically that you sound like a completely different person?

Comfortable is somewhat deeper than my usual speaking voice. Straining hard. Higher pitches are tougher.