It is useful to have at your disposal a range of voice effects for different situations. You can start to practise these as add-ons once your Better Voice is well established – not before, otherwise with your attention on the effects you risk slipping back into your old way of voice production.
Many tone variations are different mixes of two voice types: a breathier/softer tone and an edgier/harder tone.
The two exercises below introduce the basic techniques involved. (These exercises can be used in parallel with those in Section 5.4.) Just be careful in all of them to maintain a head-focused tone.
NB: A pure breathy tone is for close-up use only. Never try to project it!
Not surprisingly, the tone is produced by allowing more breath out of your mouth as you speak.
There is only a subtle difference in sound between a Better Voice breathy tone and one that is throat-based, but a world of difference in how it is produced and the effect it has on your vocal folds. As always, with Better Voice the extra air is felt flowing safely downwards from your head, as opposed to forcing it up through your throat.
A harder/edgier tone is achieved by allowing more sound through and actively projecting and radiating your voice.
As an introduction to the technique you will be saying the word ‘No’.
The tone quality you want is often called the ‘ring-ping’: edgy but still rounded and not too nasal. Once you know what it feels like you can start to practise it using the friendly phrases and then everyday speech.
Expect it to take time for both these voice effect techniques to ‘click’, especially the edgier tone.
Once you can do the two basic effects, you can try mixing things up. Different blends of the breathy and edgy tone, combined with changes in the pitch of your voice, will give you a range of ‘voices’.
As long as you maintain your Better Voice as the basis of these effects, you can use any you want without harming your voice.
Q: What was your experience of trying the vocal effects exercises?
It is useful to have at your disposal a range of voice effects for different situations. You can start to practise these as add-ons once your Better Voice is well established – not before, otherwise with your attention on the effects you risk slipping back into your old way of voice production.
Many tone variations are different mixes of two voice types: a breathier/softer tone and an edgier/harder tone.
The two exercises below introduce the basic techniques involved. (These exercises can be used in parallel with those in Section 5.4.) Just be careful in all of them to maintain a head-focused tone.
NB: A pure breathy tone is for close-up use only. Never try to project it!
Not surprisingly, the tone is produced by allowing more breath out of your mouth as you speak.
There is only a subtle difference in sound between a Better Voice breathy tone and one that is throat-based, but a world of difference in how it is produced and the effect it has on your vocal folds. As always, with Better Voice the extra air is felt flowing safely downwards from your head, as opposed to forcing it up through your throat.
A harder/edgier tone is achieved by allowing more sound through and actively projecting and radiating your voice.
As an introduction to the technique you will be saying the word ‘No’.
The tone quality you want is often called the ‘ring-ping’: edgy but still rounded and not too nasal. Once you know what it feels like you can start to practise it using the friendly phrases and then everyday speech.
Expect it to take time for both these voice effect techniques to ‘click’, especially the edgier tone.
Once you can do the two basic effects, you can try mixing things up. Different blends of the breathy and edgy tone, combined with changes in the pitch of your voice, will give you a range of ‘voices’.
As long as you maintain your Better Voice as the basis of these effects, you can use any you want without harming your voice.
Q: What was your experience of trying the vocal effects exercises?
