We all enjoy the luxury of taking our voices for granted. We are a bit shocked when we get laryngitis and can’t speak. It’s a reminder of how important our voice is in our daily lives and how dependent we are on our ability to speak. I’d like to talk about healthy vocal production and voice improvement. I get a lot of questions about how much to exercise a voice without abusing it.
Speaking is a physical activity that can be perfected or abused just like any other sport. In regard to vocal exercise, more is not simply better. I have heard of people who yell and scream to build up the strength of their voice and yet are unaware that they are damaging their voices at the same time.
You only have one voice in this life and it has to last through the whole trip. Vocal Strength and stamina are necessary whether you’re a CEO, manager, teacher, lawyer, public speaker or politician.
When the voice is properly produced with good breath support, we can speak all day long and still sound as fresh as when we started in the morning.
When you are doing exercises you should never do them until your voice is tired and never do them until your voice hurts. You don’t want to try and create everything in the same hour or the same day.
It is more important to do vocal exercises 5 to 10 minutes twice a day, than to try and set aside an hour. Shorter sessions, more often, are more beneficial than long haul workouts.
Get in the habit of always warming up your voice before you give a talk or presentation. You want to standardize the feeling of speaking with an agile resonant warmed up voice. This will make you much more effective in any communication.
The natural responsiveness of your voice will sense the rhythm and cadence of a sentence much better when it is warmed up and this will improve your ability to express yourself clearly and persuasively.
