(Video: Vocal Exercises for a Dynamic Voice and Magnetic You)
When it comes to getting a more articulate and commanding speaking voice, there are voice training that you can perform.
Your voice – is your most essential tool of the trade. It’s how you communicate and
how you come across in people perceiving you…even more profoundly than your appearance.
Have you noticed how when you see a person who doesn’t have the most tidy appearance but when they open their mouth, they speak with such clear articulation and deep resonance that you can’t help be taken by them (i.e., think Morgan Freeman, George Clooney, and the late Don LaFontaine)?
The opposite can also be said with the most well-dressed individuals with weak voices, the minute they start speaking you can’t help but find them less impressive from that first outer-appearance impression.
Yes, some people have genetics on their side (like facial structure as a factor for projection), but there are plenty of people that have worked on it and sound commanding when speaking.
If that is your goal, then focus on these voice training exercises to improve your voice.
Prelude – Know What You Sound Like
Before you begin, make sure that you know what you sound like up front. That being said, tape your voice reciting certain lines, and then play them back.
Once you know what you sound like, you can at least hear the inflections and tones that you’re putting out.
After you’ve done this, the following steps are going to help you get moving forward.
Vocal Exercise 1: Practice Enunciating First
The first thing that you need to do is start enunciating with more clarity. You cannot change your voice or boom, if you can’t get the words out.
To do this, get a book, magazine, or article online and start reading out loud. Do so with exaggerations on the pronunciations of different words that you are spoken.
You absolutely need to do work with speaking out, and progressing through words and sounds that come through your voice. This may seem odd, but you need to master this.
Vocal Exercise 2: Loosen Vocals and Use Volume Without Yelling
Yelling is easy, but that’s not the key to more command. Instead, loose up your vocals and change the inflection with volume. Turn the volume up on your enunciated vocabulary with a loosened voice box.
If you aren’t sure how to get this rolling, drink hot tea, and just go through pronunciation exercises and then turn up the volume of your speech patterns.
At first, you may find that your voice cracks, or that it is a bit tough, but the goal here is not to be a perfect orator your first try. You have to exercise this, and keep working through inflections of your voice, vocal patterns, and speech.
Exercise, and remember, don’t yell, this is not the same, you will have more control over time.
Vocal Exercise 3: Humming For Better Tone
The next exercise that is going to help you is humming. Hum deeper patterns and pay close attention to how you’re breathing.
Enunciation is good, loosening up your vocals is good, but you need to control your breaths. Your breathing will allow you to get lower registration with your voice.
Start with your chin pointed towards your chest then slowly raise your neck and mouth continuing to allow the ranges to shift with your breathing. This is going to let you not only hear your vocal range, but it will warm your larynx a little.
Vocal Exercise 4: Give Me A “Ummm-Hmmm”
Close your mouth, using the entire face-muscle area on both sides of your nose down to your lip, say “Ummm-Hmmm” with as much control and rising inflection as possible, all this while keeping your mouth closed.
- First, do this one time standing up with arms on your sides, saying “Ummm-Hmmm.”
- Next, raise both arms in the air as high as you can reach and say “Ummm-Hmmm.”
- Then, bend forward as comfortably as you can go this time with arms dangling loose in front of you, say “Ummm-Hmmm.”
- Finally, return back to your standing upright position with both arms on your sides for a final “Ummm-Hmmm.”
You should notice a difference in your voice. This could either be having better control or more clarity once you incorporate the movement of your mouth again after performing a few “Ummm-Hmmm” with your mouth closed.
Think of this voice exercise as if you were in the gym lifting weights. After adding the burden of heavier weights (mouth closed), once you remove that burden (mouth opened again), your body finds it easier.
Practice this ideally in the morning once you get up in the morning to bring your voice forward again after a night of lying down pushing your voice to the back.
Try it!
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All these are absolutely easy exercises that anyone can do. If you pay attention to your voice, loosen things up, and work with various enunciation points, you’ll eventually start to have more command over your vocal ranges.
To go far more in depth with all this, you should take a look at Instant Voice Training.
Pretty much I find these voice applications to be useful.