Voice projection is the strength of speaking or singing whereby the voice is used loudly and clearly.

It is
a technique employed to command respect and attention, as when a teacher talks to a class, or simply to
be heard clearly, as used by an actor in a theatre.

Breath technique is essential for proper voice projection. Whereas in normal talking one may use air from
the top of the lungs, a properly projected voice uses air properly flowing from the expansion of the
diaphragm. In good vocal technique, well-balanced respiration is especially important to maintaining
vocal projection. The goal is to isolate and relax the muscles controlling the vocal folds, so that they are
unimpaired by tension. The external intercostal muscles are used only to enlarge the chest cavity, whilst
the counterplay between the diaphragm and abdominal muscles is trained to control airflow.

A way to improve breathing from the diaphragm is to lie on your back on a flat surface. Your goal will be
to fill your lungs from the bottom causing your stomach (and diaphragm) to rise and fall. To increase
resistance put a small amount of weight (such as a book) on your diaphragm and repeat this exercise. Try
standing up and seeing if you can continue to breathe from your diaphragm.

Stance is also important. Actors are taught to stand erect with the feet shoulder width apart and the
upstage foot (foot farther from the audience, when not facing the audience) slightly forward. This
improves balance and breathing.

In singing, voice projection is often equated with resonance, the concentrated pressure through which one
produces a focused sound. True resonance will produce the greatest amount of projection available to a
voice by utilizing all the key resonators found in the vocal cavity. As the sound being produced and these
resonators find the same overtones, the sound will begin to spin as it reaches the ideal singer's formant at
about 2800 Hz. The size, shape, and hardness of the resonators all factor into the production of these
overtones and ultimately determine the projective capacities of the voice.

What Is Vocal Variety in Speech?

Have you ever been to a lecture where the speaker droned on and on until you thought you would fall
asleep? Or heard a person talk so fast you weren't able to keep up? How a person sounds can affect the
way a listener hears the content. An audience may not retain anything at all, or misunderstand the
message if intonation, rate, or pitch are off.

Vocal variety refers to the way we use our voice. It is a combination of elements: pitch, tone, volume
and rate.

Vocal variety in speech is a way to communicate by changing the sound of your voice using different
speeds and tones while speaking. Good vocal variety helps keep the audience engaged and clues them in
on your meaning, feelings, or emphasis. Vocal variety can be practiced and improved upon - you can
master it!

Key to Successful Presentations

Chris has a presentation at work next week, and he's a bit nervous because upper management will be
there. He has received remarks in the past that he speaks too quickly and in a monotone voice. He decides
to hire Stacy, an experienced public speaking consultant, to help him sound powerful, clear, and keep the
audience engaged.

After watching Chris's presentation, Stacy found that he needed help in many vocal areas including:

Directing the audience with pauses. For example, Chris should have paused at an important part
to give stress to what he was saying and gain a reaction from the audience. Without pausing, the
audience won't be signaled when he moves on to another topic.
Using different tones of voice. One tone of voice for a long time made Stacy a little bored.
Not using filler words. Ums and Uhs made Chris seem a little unprepared or unprofessional.
Speaking louder and projecting his voice. Chris's voice was a bit low at times, which might make
him hard to hear and seem unsure of himself. Speaking louder would make him seem more
powerful.
Slowing his speech down. Fast speaking could make people confused, distracted, or not able to
listen.
 Vocal Qualities are variations in the way you speak. These could be just about any modifier to
your "regular" voice and speech pattern, but here were going to focus on changes to your voice
"tone," done primarily at the breath and sound (respiration/phonation) level, rather than at the
resonation and articulation level, which we played with in the Placement Playtime step of the
Speech Warm-up Series.
Breath control has a lot of impact on the quality of your voice. As air passes through your larynx,
between your vocal folds, the level of air pressure dictates what sounds are possible. If we have
too little air, just the right amount or too much air pressure, the vocal quality changes
dramatically. Also, how we adjust that air pressure through our speaking can affect the onset of
making sound (phonation), and the end of the sound or phrase.

Fry
The first vocal quality well explore comes from a limited amount of air pressure. Vocal or
Glottal Fry is a sound quality that relies on the the way the vocal folds vibrate, different from
their standard mode of vibrating. Most people know this sound when they hear it, though many
people who use fry on a regular basis are unaware that they are doing so. Used sparingly, Glottal
Fry is not bad for the voice, though excessive use can be fatiguing, and learning how to get out of
the habit of using it constantly can be a challenge.
To make a fry sound you need to limit the air passing over your folds. Very gently sigh as you
drop down in pitch. As you get to the bottom of your range, try to relax. Continue the sound as
long as you can, barely exhaling at all. The sound will switch it a different quality, that sounds
perhaps like a very quiet chainsaw idling, or perhaps the sound of popcorn being made (at the
start when only a few kernals are popping.) Experiment with this sound by sustaining a sort of
"ah" [] vowel. How loud can you go? Can you go up in pitch? How slow can you make the fry
the rate at which that popping occurs? As the fry slows down, it becomes even more irregular
sounding. How fast can you make it go without it changing into regular vibration? As you speed
up the fry, the pitch of it is likely to rise: thats ok. With the limited use of breath energy to make
this sound, you may need to take a breath, sigh and let go of the tension that creeps in to your
body. (Try a Roll-Down, why doncha?)
Now try speaking on fry; you might try reading this paragraph out loud. Generally, I find that
people who speak in fry tend to speak on a monotone, or very close to one. Try to speak on your
fry now, and have as much melody as possible. This is quite tricky. As you go higher in pitch,
more tension is required in the larynx to counteract the increased air pressure used to raise the
pitch. Now, "how low can you go?" This vocal limbo dance may remind you of trying to do a
Barry White impersonation; as most of us dont have the ability to mimic Mr. Whites basso
profundo, we switch to fry to notes lower.
Its quite common today to hear people use glottal fry as part of their everyday speech pattern.
Not all the time, but as part of most sentences. The speaker will start out on regular voice and
then switch as they get near the end of the phrase or sentence. Try reading along here and when I
switch to italics, let your voice switch to glottal fry. Youll probably find that it works best if you
dont have much air. So dont breathe in too much to start, so you run out of air early and have to
finish with very little support. For longer thoughts, you might run out of air at the end of each
phrase, (breathe) so you would have several bits going to fry, each starting on voice and running
out of steam.

Falsetto
Falsetto, like glottal fry, is another "different" mode of vocal fold vibration. Its another vocal
quality mode, and it sounds rather strange when applied to the regular speaking voice. For
women, the closest to this is head voice, which seems to be part of some womens natural
speaking voices, though not generally in North America. Often used as part of a mans upper
range, especially in certain styles of singing, falsetto in speaking tends to be reserved for
character voice, and in animation. Mickey Mouse is a famous example of just such a
characterization. In real life, people occasionally pop up into falsetto when they are very
emotionally distressed. On falsetto, the vocal folds are only vibrating along the front edge of the
folds, and theres typically a gap or "chink" at the back of the folds, which tends to make the tone
somewhat breathy.
To get to that place, start by sirening down on pitch from head tone/falsetto to find the place
where your voice breaks and switches into chest voice (regular tone). Then try again, going even
slower trying to find the lowest pitch you can make, without flipping into chest. You might try
counting and you move down to that lowest pitch, "1, 2, 3, 4, 5" so youre speaking in falsetto,
into that range. Once there, try speaking a sentence or two (you can read this paragraph again, if
youd like). Its certainly an odd sound.
 Pressed & Breathy Phonation
Pressing on your voice, which happens when you push a lot of air through very tightly held vocal
folds, is very hard on the voice. It probably is the opposite of fry, in that fry takes very little air
pressure, while press takes a lot. We wont be practising this, but its good to know what it is.
Many people press vocally in order to be loud, but its very harmful in the long run. You often
hear it when power lifters grunt as they do the effort lifting a very heavy weight. Think of holding
your breath and then pushing sound outthats the action.
Perhaps slightly less harmful is breathiness. Caused by only partially bring the vocal folds
together, breathiness is very drying, and can make an injured voice worse. When you whisper,
youre doing breathy sound, and even if you dont partially phonate, your folds are still closed
tight. But in small doses, when your in good vocal health, a little quiet whispering is ok,
especially if you only do it for a short time.

Estill Voice and Quality

One style of voice training stands out in terms of vocal quality: Estill. No other contemporary
voice technique specializes in exploring the ways of making a large range of vocal qualities as
Estill. Unfortunately, Estill training is something that Ive only been introduced to in a very
fleeting way, and so I wouldnt presume to try to explain it. Im hoping to take a workshop in
Estill in the coming year, but until then I can only point you toward resources where you might be
find out about a workshop for you to explore. When Ive had more training, you can be sure that
Ill be keen to explain what Ive learned here!

Vocal Variety

Vocalics, or paralangue, refers to the non-verbal elements of speech used to modify meaning and convey
emotion. You achieve vocal variety by using any or all of the features of vocalics: the rate, pitch, volume,
and pauses you use to change the way you deliver your message. Here are methods to help you create
variety in your delivery:

Speak faster or slower at different times;

Speak at a slightly higher or lower pitch;
Use more force to speak louder or softer;
Pause at different points in your speech.

Consider that emphasis allows you to compare and contrast. You might say one phrase at a faster rate in
comparison to another phrase that you speak at a slower rate. You might speak louder at the end of your
speech to create a contrast with the softer delivery in the preceding part of your speech. All of these vocal
changes in paralanguage help you emphasize what is more important compared to another part that is less
important.

The goal here is to avoid monotony, or an unvarying tone, that could bore your audience and fails to
communicate your message clearly.

Voice Qualities
What are voice qualities?
Voices are as distinctive as our faces - no two are exactly alike. Some of the traits that make our voices
unique can be formed into well-defined categories; fundamental frequency (high and low) and intensity
(loud or soft), are examples. Other attributes fall into a general set of characteristics called vocal qualities.
Register is generally considered in the category of voice qualities, although unlike the others, it tends to
be quantal, rather than continuous perceptually. Those characteristics such as tightness, resonance or
nasality aren't easily defined - perhaps because they tend to be present along a continuum.

If we were to create an equation for an individual's unique voice, it might looks something like this:

Voice Quality = vocal tract configuration + laryngeal anatomy + learned component

The shape of an individual's vocal tract is partly genetic, partly learned. Necks are long or short;
pharynxes may be narrow or wide. While these attributes are genetically determined (except for
configurations due to trauma or disease), individuals may also manipulate vocal tract shape. Highly
trained singers have many tricks to change the contours of their vocal tracts to improve the sound coming
out of their mouths. Lip rounding lengthens the vocal tract, for example.

Likewise, laryngeal anatomy is partially determined at birth: the length of one's vocal folds is determined
by genes. However, the general hydration of one's vocal fold tissues or muscular agility of laryngeal
muscles can be at least partly controlled by vocal health and training.

The learned component of the equation could also be called vocal habits. These would be items such as
rhythm and rate of speech and vowel pronunciation. Rhythm, obviously, includes mannerisms such as
periodic pauses to search for the right word, while rate refers to the speed of an individual's syllables and
speech. (The average rate of speech for English speakers in the United States is about 150 words per
minute, by the way.) A speaker's habits also influence how much air pressure is used to produce sound
and how s/he uses laryngeal muscles to open and close the vocal folds.

So, should we be surprised that family members often sound alike? After all - for most of us - the home
and the gene pool of our siblings, parents and children are shared.

How do we describe perceived vocal qualities?

The short answer: not very well. The average person easily recognizes familiar or famous voices, yet
would have difficulty describing them in words. Language has not been as well developed for vocal
characteristics as it has for appearance. People can be tall, bald or wrinkled, but how do we describe how
they sound?

Despite their training, vocologists and voice researchers also disagree about exact descriptions of vocal
qualities. Below is a table of terms suggested by Dr. Ingo Titze at the 8th Vocal Fold Physiology
Conference in April 1994. The list is likely incomplete and does not necessarily reflect a consensus of the
conference or the field of vocology as a whole. Ideally, a group of researchers and vocologists would
organize a consensus conference in the future.

Voice
Perception Physiologic component
Quality

inability to set vocal folds into vibration, caused by

aphonic no sound or a whisper lack of appropriate power (air pressure) or a
muscular/tissue problem of the folds

two sources of sound (e.g., true folds and false folds,

biphonic two independent pitches
or two folds and whistle due to vortex in air)

bleat (see
flutter)

noise is caused by turbulence in or near glottis,

caused by loose valving of laryngeal muscles (lateral
breathy sound of air is apparent
cricoarytenoid, interarytenoid and posterior
cricoarytenoid).

lips are rounded and protruded or larynx is lowered

covered muffled or 'darkened' sound to lower all formants so a stronger fundamental is
obtained

sounds like two hard surfaces
creaky
rubbing against one another
a complex pattern of vibrations in the vocal folds
creates a intricate formation of subharmonics and
modulations

pitch supplemented with another

diplophonic pitch one octave lower, a period doubling, or Fo/2 subharmonic
roughness usually apparent

often called bleat because it amplitude changes or frequency modulations in the

flutter
sounds like a lamb's cry 8-12Hz range

clicking noise heard during forceful adduction or abduction of the vocal folds
glottalized
voicing during speech

hoarse combination of irregularity in vocal fold vibration

harsh, grating sound
(raspy) and glottal noise generation

honky excessive nasality excessive acoustic energy couples to the nasal tract

jitter pitch sounds rough fundamental frequency varies from cycle to cycle

nasal (see
honky)

vocal processes of the arytenoid cartilages are

harsh, often loud (strident) squeezed together, constricting the glottis, and
pressed
quality causing low airflow and medial compression of the
vocal folds

sound gaps caused by intermittent energy packets

sounds similar to food cooking in
pulsed (fry) below 70 Hz and formant energy dies out prior to re-
a hot frying pan
excitation

epilaryngeal resonance is enhanced, producing a

resonant brightened or 'ringing' sound that
strong spectral peak at 2500-3500 Hz; in effect,
(ringing) carries well
formants F3, F4 and F5 are clustered

uneven, bumpy sound appearing

modes of vibration of the vocal folds are not
rough to be unsteady short-term, but
synchronized
persisting over the long-term

short-term (cycle-to-cycle) variation in a signal's

shimmer crackly, buzzy
amplitude

effortfulness apparent in voice,

strained hyperfunction of neck muscles, excessive energy focused in laryngeal region
entire larynx may compress
 sound gaps caused by intermittent energy packets
popping sound; vocal fry during
strohbass below 70 Hz and formant energy dies out prior to re-
singing
excitation

modulation of 1-15 Hz in either amplitude or pitch

tremerous affected by trembling or tremors
due to a neurological or biomechanical cause

often attributed to excessive nasality, but probably

twangy sharp, bright sound
also has an epilaryngeal basis

phonation using the false folds anterior rather than

very rough (Louis Armstrong- the vocal folds; unless intentional due to damage to
ventricular
type voice) the true folds, considered an abnormal muscle pattern
dysphonia

wavering or irregular variation in amplitude and/or frequency modulations in the 1-3

wobble
sound Hz range

quality is akin to sounds made larynx is lowered and pharynx is widened, as people
yawny
during a yawn do when yawning - hence the name

Vocal Awareness
As a fun exercise, listen carefully to the variety of voices you encounter in the next week or two. Try to
characterize the voices according to the terminology in the above table. Are some qualities more pleasing
to your ear than others? Do you notice similarities between biologically-related family members?
Between spouses? Are there common qualities found in certain professions (for example, television or
radio announcers)?

You may notice a recent preference for low-pitched and rough female voices. Perhaps the popularity of
actresses such as Demi Moore and Kathleen Turner has brought this trend to the forefront. Of concern to
vocologists is the temptation for females to try to mimic these celebrities by habitually speaking in
pitches below a natural level. As has been discussed, a person's natural pitch is the healthiest for that
particular individual.