A powerful voice is a resonant voice. If you rely on your voice in your business or career, it is important to discover your resonant voice. This is the only way to have a powerful, reliable and ultimately confident voice.
In a moment I’ll explain more about what a resonant voice is. But first…why do most of us naturally not speak with a resonant voice?
The way we speak is very habitual and deeply engrained. It evolves as we grow up. We give our voice very little thought unless something goes wrong (like when you get sick and lose your voice). Most of us are never taught “how” to use our voice but learn by mimicking words from those around us. We also learn what is acceptable and what is not (whether it’s explicitly said to us or implied) by our family, teachers, peers, culture, media, society etc. and absorb all of those messages into how we use our voice. Often these messages are fear-based and so our voice shuts down. E.g. you might have been told children are seen and not heard or maybe you were only noticed by shouting and yelling. That will impact how your voice develops.
These habits hinder the freedom of the voice and often create tension, fatigue and constriction in the voice and interfere with that natural powerful voice. We’re often unconscious as to why we’ve created these patterns but know our voice isn’t where we want it to be.
What is vocal resonance?
This is a huge and complex topic but simply put it is the intensification, amplification and enrichment of sound waves in our vocal tract (throat, mouth and nasal cavities) to produce what we would know as our voice. The more resonant our voice the more these soundwaves will be enhanced and enriched.
Why does it matter?
It allows for a reliable, strong and engaging voice with minimal effort. Less input for more output – more bang for your buck.
For this reason a resonant voice is a win win win win!
- It’s a powerful rich sound that projects with minimal effort.
- It’s a more reliable healthy voice because there’s less tension, strain and constriction
- It’s more attractive to listen to because it’s rich in harmonics (multi-layered sound). We know from research that the human ear gets “excited” by harmonics and so the voice is more engaging.
- As our voice is functioning so well, a natural by-product is that we feel more confident when talking, as we’re not worrying about what’s going to come out of our mouth!
Watch the video to learn more about how to discover your resonant voice.
