Lisa Peake: The Authentic Voice

August 02, 2006

The Authentic Voice

When I was a teenager, I reluctantly recorded my first answering machine message of my very own. I remember recording it over and over again, frustrated by how repulsive my own voice sounded to me. Despite this, many of my friends growing up told me they liked my voice, and I always had success presenting oral reports and speeches.

So why did I hate my own voice? I hadn't yet uncovered my "authentic voice", which I had the pleasure of discovering recently thanks to Tom Boyer.

I was lucky enough to take a half day workshop on Voice with Tom Boyer, a longtime musician and voice coach. It comes as no surprise that how you express yourself through your voice speaks worlds about who you are, and what you bring to the world. Tom talks about three types of natural voices- voices of strength, beauty, or wisdom. I was thrilled to discover that when I "produce my voice correctly" I have a voice of beauty, and it does sound beautiful to me, even relaxing to listen to. What a relief! In voice lessons I was told that my voice was too breathy, and that for a soprano I just couldn't hit high notes properly. Well after all of that negative feedback, I had decided that my voice was mediocre at best, and my singing voice was something to be ashamed of.

Thanks to this Voice workshop, I am now embarking on a journey of voice discovery. I'm continuing with the little exercises Tom taught us, deep breathing, relaxing and stretching the jaw, projecting more air through an imaginary tube to increase volume, etc. And I'm singing more and more, discovering which songs I sing along to well, and which onces tend to pull me away from my own natural voice. It's opened up another world to play in, a sensory experience that I never much cared about before since I tend to be a highly kinesthetic and visual person.

Michael Bungay-Stanier published this excellent July issue of his Outside the Lines newsletter called Are you loosing your voice?. Fortuitous for me that he points us to more resources and commentary on the importance of using your natural voice in presenting, which is something I am continuing to expand into. I've always loved Michael's insightful newsletters, and these great articles on voice happened into my inbox in perfect timing. I hope you'll enjoy the articles, too.

Posted by Lisa at August 2, 2006 09:59 PM