***Be a Chest Talker and Watch What Happens When You Speak!

Do you find that people do not pay as much attention to you as you might wish? Does you voice trail off at the end of your sentences, leaving your listeners struggling to understand what you are saying? Maybe the sound of your voice is strident and irritating or perhaps you speak so softly that your words go unnoticed.

Do you think this ever happens to people like James Earl Jones or Kathleen Turner? Both of these actors are using their chest cavity as their primary resonator to power their sound which means that their voices captivate you when they speak. When they speak, others are drawn to listen.

You have the same ability as those actors. The difference is that you are powering your voice primarily from your voice box and throat cavities. The result is a sound that will be higher in pitch and thinner in quality. It may be weak or wimpy, loud and shrill, too fast, too slow, too throaty or too nasal. Once you change your voice placement, however, you will discover the same warmth and depth that one finds in the voices of George Clooney, vin Diesel, Cher, Julia Ormond, and Peter Coyote.

What all of these actors are doing is normal. What the vast majority of the population is doing is not. Because most people are shallow or lazy in their breathing habits, the voice that results is not capable of being powered by the chest cavity because air is not moving past the upper chest. When you breathe correctly with the support of your diaphragm, you are then able to use the largest of your resonators as your primary sounding board. It is truly an amazing process.

You were born using your diaphragm to breathe; but, sometime during your early childhood development, you stopped this practice and resorted to upper chest breathing. Physically, it is impossible to find your ‘real’ voice, as I refer to it, if you breathe in this manner. When I found my voice some many years ago, I started breathing with support in order to power my real voice, although I was unaware that I was doing this at the time. (As a voice major in college, I had learned diaphragmatic breathing for singing.)

I cannot tell you how many fantastic voices I have heard from those who learn this technique. It is very possible that a truly dynamic one is hiding inside of you just waiting to come out. Become a chest talker and watch the reaction of your listeners. It is an awesome experience.