The other day, for the first time in my life, I took a voice training course. Why? Firstly, we needed a second voice for the videos in our app, because in a startup it's best to try things out for yourself first. That way you understand what is important. On the other hand, I always like to learn something new. As you know, you should never stop learning and it keeps you fit - not only in your head. Noted. Done. Because after the first recordings and a period of getting used to my own voice, not only I noticed that my voice sometimes dropped back unexpectedly towards the end of the word. Who wants to hear that. I first had to accept that for me.
Consciously speak and move
A few weeks back I had received a recommendation for a voice coach in a conversation. So I opened Xing, looked for the trainer and wrote her a short request. Tools like LinkedIn and Xing work great and usually a quick answer is almost guaranteed. After a short phone call I had an appointment, got on my bike and entered. We started with a story about my journey, where I had to watch my mouth and its movement in the mirror. Accompanying I had to express myself through my hands. That was not so easy. For both I had to concentrate very hard. After only three sentences I looked first at my nose, then at my eyes and then at something else. Immediately I got my first tip: open your mouth wider and let your jaws loose. So the next step was a conscious overemphasis on the mouth and hand movements while continuing my cycling story. An unfamiliar feeling. But habits can be changed.
"It's not you. It's where you grew up."
This was followed by warm-up exercises. Tongue twisters such as "Am zehnten Zehnten zehn Uhr zehn zogen zehn zahme Ziegen zehn Zentner Zucker zum Zoo" are popular. And I was already confronted with the next weak point. But I already knew this one. My voice falls off towards the back. What was new for me was that this had to do with the regional origin. So you often find this speaking behaviour with people from the north. Maybe because we like to mumble something away or "Stralsund" is called "Strahlsund" and the emphasis is in the front of the word and not on the d at the end. But how do you change or influence this behaviour? And this is where the intention comes into play. Consciously bringing the voice forward into the front part of the oral cavity. For this purpose, one can imagine that the voice radiates forward like a laser or that the voice is pulled forward and with it the whole head - but only in the imagination. In Asian people say: the Yi is followed by the Qi and the Li. Which translates as imagination or intention is followed by energy and then movement. Try this out for yourself. The result is different from just trying to keep your voice in your mouth when you speak. Then we took time for jaw loosening exercises. This includes speaking with a cork, stroking out the cheek area, letting the lips flutter and conscious chewing and smacking.
"No coffee. No tea. And three large glasses of water when you get up."
Back to the tongue twister another exercise was created for me - landing on the N. German words like Ziehen, Heben, Senken or Sinken are good examples to train this. For this I tried to imagine landing consciously on the last letter.NHands can provide good support. This changes the spoken word. It becomes more interesting and lively.
The third tip was about my slightly strained voice. Who doesn't know that. Especially in winter. But even with simple means this can be positively influenced. No lemon. No coffee before speaking. No tea. Ohhjeee. But at least three big glasses of water. Also gargling with salt water helps. And who is surprised? Drinking more water even after speaking is like a trump card. You will notice the result in our app-videos. Maybe you'll hear it - a light, swinging K, an end emphasized, weighty N or a forward R. Just try it out for yourself.
Register at https://qilabs.world/ for the app.
Photos by Ilyass SEDDOUG and Azamat Zhanisov on Unsplash
