A Star is Born - Thoughts on a Physically Painful Voice
I was reading this article today about how Bradley Cooper created the voice for his character in A Star is Born and I feel upset.
Please, please don't read stuff like this and think this is how voice training is done. Please don't read stuff like this and try to emulate anything described.
Some takeaways:
1. Pain is a message. Pain when vocalizing is a major message!
If your voice hurts or you are losing your voice, that is a sign that there are some training and vocal health strategies you need to enact. When using vocal technique and support, you should be able to speak for hours, perform for days without strain or pain. And yes, you can come back from strain, polyps, etc.
2. Are you training? Who is on your team?
Anyone who uses their voice for a living should have vocal training and a personal practice. Your voice is the result of a bunch of muscles working together in coordination. You wouldn't compete in a triathlon or in the NFL without prior training, regular practice, and having a warm-up and cool-down on days when you need to be "on."
3. Training Matters
A vocal coach that isn't teaching clients how to speak without strain (and hasn't taught a client that your oesophagus is where the food goes, not the voice) scares me. I don't know this one, they aren't interviewed, and I'm certainly not here to criticise their approach. It seems Cooper missed something - or the interviewer did- which then promotes misperceptions to readers.
4. Good technique increases your options
You can create a voice for your character that is lower, higher, and otherwise different from your optimum voice. Your voice must be supported by your body, not ripping your vocal folds - and not "physically painful to create".
If you watch A Star Is Born (or watch the preview), keep in mind how painful Cooper's chosen voice is - and that there are other choices available to you. Suffering and intentionally creating injury is needless - even for us masochists.
Takeaways:
Have a regular vocal practice. Get a voice teacher as part of your team. I want you to reflect now on who constitutes your team to support your profession and what practices you have daily, weekly, monthly, and annually to keep you growing and going.
Your industry is difficult enough. Longevity matters.
Recognized for her passion, knowledge, and support of her clients’ individual journeys toward their best selves, Frances Mulinix brings over 20 years of experience in coaching, voice, movement, and performance to support her clients in breaking down blocks, opening the voice, and reaching achievements they had previously not thought possible. Transform your relationship to your mind, body, and voice, bringing new confidence and creativity to your life.
#VibranceNews: The Art, The Science of Success & Resilience Course
I have some very exciting news:
I am currently looking for 5-7 participants to attend a new 8-session personal development program. We will use neuroscience-based strategies and practice to facilitate intra- and interpersonal development. Such skills improve our professional and personal lives, increasing well-being, presence, and resilience.
As this program is still in development, the course is free in exchange for attendance, constructive feedback, patience with any hiccups, and writing a testimonial. Sessions will be interrupted during June/July, but there will always be home practice in the meantime to maintain momentum.
I am looking for expressions of interest in order to draw up a schedule that works for the group and space availability.
Location: Planet Chiropractic, 2173 Fairburn Rd, Douglasville
Sessions will comprise of presentations intermixed with writing, standing, speaking, and lying activities (mats, chairs, pillows etc. provided). Participants will need to practice strategies at home between sessions.
I think Thursdays may be ideal as Planet Chiropractic is closed that day. Otherwise Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday outside of Planet Chiropractic’s hours. Sessions should run no longer than 2 hours.
Please contact me with your availability and any questions: contact@vibrancecentre.com
About me: I am a speech teacher and trained Occupational Therapist from Vancouver, Canada. I work with adults experiencing transitions in their lives and careers: job interviews, promotions, presentations, relationships, work-life balance, and conflict management.
Whatever your aims, we can aid you in achieving your goals with our individualised approach and flexible sessions. Contact us:
Transform Your Talk: Ten Tips
When working with clients preparing to give a presentation, we rehearse and break down the speech in detail. We also get into how best to prepare prior to the talk, how to manage unexpected things that might occur during the talk, and how to decompress afterward. Here are some general considerations to get you started:
1. Drink Water
It is important to hydrate your voice well before your talk, even more so if you are in a dry environment or tend to get a dry mouth when speaking. If you are using a microphone, it will amplify those qualities in your voice even further. A warm-up that incorporates your articulators will help to prevent tongue suction and popping. If possible, have water with you when speaking. Don't be afraid to pause at an opportune point in your presentation in order to take a drink if you need it.
2. Get Excited, Not Anxious.
When we drive a car, we don't stare at the barriers. Instead, we look where we want to go. Prior to a competition, athletes will go through every aspect of the game or course, imagining everything detail. As Vanessa Van Edwards says, "Anxiety and excitement are similar emotions the only difference is mindset." Focus on where you want to go, on how exciting this opportunity is. Instead of thinking, "I have to do this" change your mindset into "I get to do this!"
3. Channel Your Nerves
While waiting, move your body. Walk, shake out your hands, contract and release your muscles without movement at the joints, push against a wall. Listen to a song that gets you dancing. Use power poses
4. Breathe
Bring your awareness to your breathing and consciously drop it down into your diaphragm. If you feel adrenaline course through your body or anxiety rachet up, simply inhale for a slow count of four, exhale for a slow count of four. Inhale for a slow count of five, exhale for a slow count of five. Inhale for a slow count of six, exhale for a slow count of six. Inhale for a slow count of seven, exhale for a slow count of seven.
5. Move with Purpose
When speaking, nervous speakers will often sway or pace or gesticulate in ways that are distracting. It's a good idea to video yourself in order to notice your "tells." A good strategy is the "rule of three" sometimes used in theatre.If you notice that you are repeating a gesture more than three times, you are not supporting your words. Instead, walk a "map" of your ideas. When making a new point, walk to a new spot. If getting personal or driving a point home, walk toward the audience. If the room needs to breathe, or you are speaking more universally, put greater space between yourself and the audience.
Source: http://voice-international.com/
6. Your greatest Asset is Your Voice
The quality of your voice can support the content of your talk or detract from it. Developing a voice that is expressive, powerful, and authentic is one of the greatest investments you can make in yourself. This includes the musicality of your voice, the pace with which you speak, how and where you pause, the words you emphasize, and more. The more skilled and intentional you are with your voice, the better you can craft your talk, and the more influential you are.
7. Allow People to Adjust to Your Delivery
Open your talk with a well-rehearsed opening and speak at a slightly slower pace with attention to emphasis and inflection. This will give the audience time to "tune their ear" to the sound of your voice and any accent differences between you.
Pictured: Artiz Aduriz
8. The Audience Wants You to Succeed
Remember that each person in the audience took the time to show up to see your talk. They want you to do well. Few speakers are their best if they perceive the audience as antagonists. Come in with an energy of welcome, high regard, and excitement. Put your focus on them instead of your nervousness and you will transform as a speaker.
9. Allow For the Unexpected
No matter how much you rehearse, allow there to be room for something to happen. Technical glitches, or tripping over your own feet doesn't have to be embarrassing or a "loss of face," it can be an opportunity. Have a joke ready or be prepared to ad lib. The audience might take it as an opportunity to relax.
10. Be Prepared To Be Done.
It is a skillful speaker who has a decompression strategy in place. A presentation will take a lot of energy and may stir up anxiety - which will lead to a crash. You may also experience a lot of emotions stirred up inside you. Have something set up beforehand such as a debrief with a trusted friend, sit down and write a reflection, go for a walk, or sit in a hot tub or bath. Take some deep breaths, shake out your hands.
Sources And Further Reading:
A TED speaker coach shares 11 tips for right before you go on stage
Does body language help a TED Talk go viral? 5 nonverbal patterns from blockbuster talks
You Are Contagious - Vanessa Van Edwards
Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are - Amy Cuddy
Is Your Voice Ruining Your Life? - Roger Love
Whatever your aims, we can aid you in achieving your goals with our individualised approach and flexible sessions. Contact us:
When Did You Lose Your Voice?
“Becoming an excellent public speaker will help you in every part of your career. But there is an even more important reason to learn to speak well to an audience. Psychologists tell us that your level of self-esteem, or ‘how much you like yourself,’ largely determines the quality of your inner and outer life. The better and more persuasively you speak, the more you like yourself. The more you like yourself, the more optimistic and confident you are. The more you like yourself, the most positive and personable you are in your relationships with others. The more you like yourself, the healthier, happier, and more positive you become in everything you do.”
When I work with adult clients, I often hear something along the lines of, "I hate the sound of my voice."
Instead of thinking of your voice as something to be beaten, cajoled, or "fixed" I want you to think of when you decided your voice betrayed you. Were you called on to read aloud in class and found your voice let you down? Were you asked to report to a Manager and found your tongue had become heavy and dull, stopping the words in your brain from forming in your mouth? Was there a time when you felt consumed by great emotion, but when you opened your mouth you didn't recognize the voice that emerged?
In actuality, it is not the voice that is the problem. Rather than fixate on the voice, start with the breath and the body. In times of stress or pressure, we respond with flight/fight/freeze. Our breathing changes, our body gets tense. We constrict. And a constricted self does not support the voice.
Somewhere along the way, you have taught yourself coping mechanisms - useful for survival, but not for much else. I work with clients to set down new neurological patterns, habits that enable them to be relaxed and connected so that they can speak without strain, without feeling as if their brains have shut down.
“A constricted self does not support the voice.”
When I start working with my clients, we look at what is happening in the body and voice, what unique patterns have formed. In order to build vocal skills, we often start with the breath and the body. However, this is not yoga or relaxation class. Our focus is always on the voice, creating a strong instrument that is supported, expressive, and clear. Once the breath is located in and supported by the body, we learn to use the voice as an expressive instrument. I often talk about "painting with the voice" as there are so many rich ways to illustrate the content of your speech with the quality of your voice. When your voice confidently supports your message, listeners find you more trustworthy, can follow your train of thought, and will better retain what you tell them.
I have worked with teachers whose voices were squeaky and breathy. I have worked with managers whose bodies revealed nervous energy, undercutting their authority. I have worked with heads of Police and Fire departments whose rigid bodies resulted in flat voices. I have worked with entrepreneurs who had trouble communicating their stream of ideas effectively to possible investors. I have worked with individuals who dream of becoming influencers and coaches in their field of expertise, yet who found being seen and heard exhausting and uncomfortable.
“you have the choice to give up or grow.”
Each client learned about their own foibles and each client saw shifts as we set down new neurological pathways for their voice and body, resulting in growing confidence in their voice. My favourite moments are those "wow!" experiences when clients surprise themselves with an unexpected breakthrough that they previously imagined impossible.
If you find you have a burning desire to communicate yet are experiencing trouble in finding your true voice, you have the choice to give up or grow. I offer practical techniques, a rich range of experiences, an unwavering base of support, and a great deal of enthusiasm for your progress.
Whatever your aims, we can aid you in achieving your goals with our individualised approach and flexible sessions. Contact us: