How to Develop a Better Speaking Voice

BREATH is the power that makes Speech possible.

TELL YOURSELF YOU ARE BREATHING NOT JUST TO RETAIN LIFE BUT TO LIVE IT, AND LIVE IT MORE ABUND- ANTLY. THAT YOU ARE BREATHING TO BENEFIT YOUR BODY AND BRAIN AS WELL AS YOUR SPEECH, AND THAT EVERY LUNGFUL OF AIR IS HELPING TO ENRICH NOT ONLY YOUR VOICE BUT YOUR WHOLE PERSONALITY.

—as if you were breathing on your hands to warm them, or making steam on a window-pane—producing a whispered “HAH . . .” Don't hold back the breath, or there will be no strength in it, and feeble breath means feeble tone.

The Sub-conscious Mind is the Habit Mind.

1. Yawn in, with mouth and throat wide open. 2. Close the eyes and register the sensation of concave tongue and arched palate. 3. Relax, then—still with eyes closed—try to reproduce the sensation with muscle action only. 4. Open eyes and check up. . . . Try repeating the muscle action three times quickly, first with mouth half-closed, then with lip

the amount of breath we let in and out, and the manner in which we allow it to enter and exit, exactly determine the amount of voice that results and the quality of its sound, for Breath is Voice.

The fallacy that one should “Take a Deep Breath” is at the root of much wrong breathing, and of many nervous complaints besides. The phrase ought never to have got into our language. |Deep breathing is natural breathing, and requires no physical effort on our part, only an effort of will.

What good habits do we need to acquire? Habits for our breath, habits for our speech, habits for our words, even. Not the habit of using the same words—we shall make a habit of avoiding these—but the habit of choosing more apt and expressive ones, worthy of our new expressive voice.

Music plays a similar part in our thought. So does speech. A person's voice can attract or repell—largely because its tones carry a definite association.

We need a Voice that is vital and colourful—calling for the buoyancy of full breath support.