Hi, I’m Christine! I am a voice, accent and communication skills coach and founder of Voice what Matters. My aim is to help people feel present and empowered in their communication- I work with clients on vocal presence, power, range and expressivity, body language in communication, compassionate listening and tools for managing performance anxiety. My clients range from actors to business professionals, activists, teachers and anyone who is curious about becoming a more effective and empowered communicator.
On this channel, you can find tips to strengthen your voice and become a more empowered, authentic communicator. I also co-host a podcast called 'Voice what Matters: the Podcast', which you can find on any pod catcher. To find out more about me, visit www.voicewhatmatters.com.
It is so refreshing to listen to this woman speak clearly. If you want to know how much VF has changed our culture, go back and watch videos of young people talking at shopping malls in the 80's. Not one single female talked like this. This change has happened so gradually that, like the frog in the slowly boiling pot, we weren't aware of it until it just got to be too much. Today, professional news casters will speak with VF. I guess I'm just an old "you kids get off my lawn" guy, but I just can't abide by it. It immediately erodes the authority of the person speaking.
0:00 Introduction 0:20 Vocal fry phenomenon explained 1:01 Causes and mechanisms 2:11 Disclaimer (It's not a problem if you don't mind it) 3:34 Tip 1: Ground your breath (speak through your center, using abdominal muscles) 4:08 Tip 2: Speak with intention/specificity (who am I talking to? I'm talking to you and I'm going to send my voice to you) 5:18 (Tip 2:) Mental exercise for intention 6:27 (Tip 2:) Word of caution (it's not about speaking louder) 7:16 Outro
I'm glad you found this helpful. I will definitely be making more videos, and feel free to check out this one in the mean time, which is all about what to do if your voice is too loud: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OJ-jyxFhnbU.html
@@voicewhatmatters yes thank you so much. I have downloaded it alright I'll listen to it. ... Looking forward for the resonators content and how to talk using the resonator😍☺️🎉
Thanks dear My voice is masculine and always coarse. I just noticed that after sitting for pte exam. I do well in all modules except in speaking because of pitch issue. I used voice tool and its always pointing towards male voice. Please how do i make it feminine?
I didn't think I'd be able to find a video to help me with my exact problem!! I feel like I push my voice down to a place that as you said is not anatomically comfortable. I can't wait to watch your other video! Thank you SO MUCH!
Bro, don't try this. You're being too eager. Assuming you're a guy, if you're 17 and still high pitch then think about it. But your vocal chords are not done developing yet, and you don't wanna fuck with the way you speak, you'll regret it later. I didn't lose my kid voice until between freshmen and sophomore year of highschool. Grew a bunch too. People barely recognized me when I came back over the summer, and they treated me differently. Sucks but it's true at that age. You just gotta wait it out. Best of luck to you, brother.
Maybe because I've spent really long periods of time by myself not speaking, and I'm not used to using my voice as much as I used to use it...and I like the intention, and I want to work more on the grounding myself first and speaking with only good intent.
I've had some major trauma and injuries to my face in life, and I notice that it seems that with age and other injuries to my body, it's gotten more and more difficult for me to project my voice. It feels like when I speak too much at a higher level my face ends up having major pain, does this just mean I need to exercise my facial muscles more? or rest them more? or maybe I just won't ever be able to project? I was born with a broken face too...my father said I had two black eyes. So maybe my voice was broken at birth :(
I'm so sorry to hear that you have had to deal with some major injuries that have affected your voice. This is getting into some medical knowledge that is beyond my expertise. My suggestion would be to ask your doctor to get referred for a vocal scope, so that someone can take a look at your vocal folds, and from there perhaps refer you to a speech language therapist, who would be better placed to work with you on this.
There are people who do indeed suffer from vocal fry, and for these people I admire the help in this video. That said; there are swaths of people (usually drawn to TikTok and influencing) who purposefully add it to their voices. It's pretty obvious it's a societal pressure they are both believing, and bowing down to in the belief that it makes them sound more exclusive to their viewers. The reality though is that most people aren't buying it, and the only people they are fooling are themselves. These people don't need voice training. What they need is a lengthy hiatus from social media, fashion magazines, television, or any other medium that keeps telling them that they are simply not good enough. They need to go and travel. They need to take up natural hobbies, and spend a lot of time learning how to love themselves again. The human voice can be truly beautiful. Even people who can't sing particularly well will still speak in notes. Those notes are beautiful. The vocal fry stems from a sense of inner worthlessness, so it's the ultimate irony that one would add vocal fry to their style of talking in order to achieve an air of exclusivity and authority. Vocal Fry within itself is the ultimate expression of presenting a phoney front in order to cover up an underlying lack of self belief. Men and women of the younger generations needs to wake up to this fact and reset.
Reason #3 : I'm in the company of someone I resent or who I don't feel is worth using my 'public voice' for, get asked a question. Reason #4 : I'm at home by myself and have been speaking all day in an exciting environment, I am tired. Try to dictate something or record a spoken word message for someone. Sounds like I'm dragging a bag of gravel with my larynx, doesn't matter what fundamental I move to. BANE OF MY LIFE.
I'm an older German woman who likes to watch all kinds of documentations in English language. A while ago I noticed vocal fry more and more, and I didn't even know there was a name for it and that it was being discussed, as we don't have it here at all. Especially one air crash investigator lady in a video talked like this all the time. It actually bothered me so much that I went on fast forward until somebody else started to speak. What bothered me? First of all, I could hardly understand her with English not being my native language. It felt like the additional energy that she didn't invest into speaking clearly was now on my side - I needed a lot of additional energy to just understand what she was saying. In addition it didn't sound nice, it felt artificial and I always feared she would suffocate before the end of the next sentence. I am very glad and grateful for this video and also for all the comments explaining all the possible reasons why it happens, and that not everyone does it on purpose (because that was my assumption). It is now easier for me to not get judgemental when I hear it, and I still have the option to fast forward if it's too exhausting trying to understand that person. And I'm also sorry for my assumption.
Thanks, ma'am. Creating images on the back of the mind may be a good idea. Let me practice it. Many times, I stammer on a few words starting with "R" or on any random word. People don't understand what I speak for a few minutes due to fast speed and pronunciation issues. Kindly advise me on this. Thanks a ton in advance.
The tips in this video will definitely help if you feel that people struggle to understand you because of fast pace. I have other videos on my channel about pace are helpful as well-- a whole series in fact-- so feel free to check those out-- it's the "Help! I talk too fast!" series of 3 videos. If you are stammering on certain sounds, the tips around grounding yourself before you speak in first video in the series "Help! I talk too fast!" series might be a particularly good starting place.
I’m gonna try this and let yall know how it goes cause everybody in the comments is just telling their sob story and very few are giving actual updates on how they’re doing so hopefully this can be the start of a thread? I’ll start first. I’m at work and in a very social setting. Will update after
First my voice was very good but after 6th standard my voice became very low don't know why 😭 , if a try to speak loudly then my voice get automatic change don't know how can i bring my old voice 😢
This is an issue that could benefit from some private coaching. If you're curious to hear more about my private coaching programs, feel free to reach out to christine@voicewhatmatters.com.
I’m a bit late, but when I get nervous my accent seems to change. When I was at school we had to present our presentation in front of the class and after I was done these two girls asked me where I was from. I said I was from here, the US, and they thought I sounded British. Being nervous has an effect on my voice somehow. Those two girls weren’t the first people to ask me that either. It could be that I am learning a new language, but I doubt that’s the reason. Do you have any tips on why this is occurring and how I could improve on not doing it? I’m not trying to do it on purpose, or to upset someone. It just changes when I get nervous or have to speak professionally
I'm sorry to hear that you're struggling with your accent shifting when you are nervous. I can imagine that that would be frustrating. I can't tell you exactly what the link is between the nerves and the accent shift, but here is a video I made for tips around how to maintain your own accent when you don't want it to change that you might find useful. It becomes most useful around min 1:40. : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-c5q9Ce6cbAk.html&ab_channel=VoicewhatMatters
No one has ever complained about my voice being too loud, except my mom and sister, who are just as loud, and are probably the reason I've had to speak loudly my whole life.
Is it completely fine if I take the information given here and apply it to expand my vocal range for both speaking and singing (although this isn't about the latter)?
Yes talking quieter is a hard goal to keep up consistently. Hopefully some of the tips in this video can help shift the objective into something easier.
when i get excited about a topic....i will start talking and my borfried ..will be like "babe. .you're loud" and i just say sorry and start whispering . it gradually gets louder as i speak ...so i dont notice it
I enjoy listening to music. Something extremely important in music is -change. It doesn’t matter how technically skilled a musician is. If the music “sound” doesn’t change- people tune out. Same with speaking. I’d be interested in your thoughts about “the pause” So many speakers go on and on without so much as a breath. The audience needs time to listen or digest the sentence or an important word.
Thank you so much for this wonderful insight from music. It's so true, and it's definitely the same with voices. And I love the question about pauses and I'm going to take it for a video idea. Watch this space!
My mom has an infinite ammount of patience when it comes to helping me break bad habbits. One of which is talking too loud. When i start talking too loud, she makes a little "lower" hand gesture. That way i dont lose my train ofvthought.
The thing is that when I am presenting something my voice doesn't shake as much as my knees and my hands But when I am reading a simple text my voice starts shaking and I start gasping for air . This thing happened to me 2 years ago then it stopped last year but it's back now . I made lots of researchs and when I don't want it to happen I take deep breaths 4 seconds inhale 4s keep it 4s exhale and 4s stop breathing then repeat it till I feel better . It really helped me but I still have it and I don't want it anymore
Yes, if you are speaking too loudly it means you are sending up too much air through the vocal folds, which effectively means you are slapping them every time you speak-- eventually that is going to hurt! Hopefully the tips in this video can help.
I am 29 and for all my life I talked so fast that people didnt understand what i say. Suffered from bully in school, everywhere. Tried treatments, breath correction, etc. But it didnt work for me. Now after you video i just imagine what I am going to speak like subtitle in my mind. Now i can talk very slower and better. But how do I make it permanent? Thank you! Jesus Christ bless you.
I'm so sorry to hear you've struggled with this and I am glad to hear that the tips in this video are helping. What makes it permanent is practice! Practicing is the only way to shift habits. Practice when it feels good to do so and then let it go when it starts to feel too strenuous. Over time, a new pace will get built into the body's muscle memory. Good luck!
Hi there! Check out this video I made about jaw tension. Any of these tips would apply to lip and throat tension as well. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2GZ8_2npNTU.html&ab_channel=VoicewhatMatters
