ASIA PACIFIC COLLEGE OF ADVANCED STUDIES

A.H. Banzon St., Ibayo, City of Balanga, Bataan

COLLEGE DEPARTMENT

SPEECH AND THEATER ARTS

Week 2- LECTURE

VOCAL QUALITIES

VOICE IMPROVEMENT

How do you sound to others? Have you often asked yourself, "Is my voice working for, or against me?"
Do you have these qualities of a good voice - audible, pleasant (not too loud or too soft, not guttural,
raspy, metallic nasal, harsh, shrill), fluent, flexible, and articulate? Identifying your weaknesses is your first
step in improving your voice.
Improving the voice is accompanied for the most part by being conscious of it and taping your voice is
one of the best means to do so. What was your reaction the first time you heard yourself on tape? Were
you surprised or did you say, "That doesn't sound like me at all!” But your friends will say otherwise. The
reason for the difference of opinion is that the vibrations which make up your voice are transmitted to your
inner ear through the bony structure of your skull as well as through the air. But when you hear or listen to
your voice on tape, you do hear your voice approximately as other people hear it. It is the purpose of voice
improvement training to put you and your voice on better speaking terms!
A little intelligent work on your part will do the trick. Spend a few minutes a day trying to improve your
voice. This is especially true of young people whose vocal habits are not yet set for life.
Remember, voice training requires ear training. You will have to become really interested in speech
sounds for the first time, perhaps. You will begin comparing your speech with those of others, and will learn
to judge voices as good, mediocre and poor and appreciate what makes them so. One of the very first
lessons you will have to learn is HOW TO LISTEN to voices, your own and others, and what to do in order
to bring your own up to the level of its highest possibilities.

Your Voice Machine

Before you start your program of voice improvement intelligently, you should understand the
mechanisms by which your vocal sounds are produced. Just as with an automobile, it is not wise to begin
tinkering with your voice machine until you know how it is constructed, what its various parts are, and how
they are related to one another.
Mechanisms responsible for the production of speech sounds:

1. Motor -- respiratory muscles -- general region of the diaphragm responsible for regulation, expulsion
and control of air.
2. Vibrator vocal bands or cords to produce sound waves through vibrations of air.
3. Resonators nose, mouth throat. Modulate sound waves thus giving resonance (production of sound by
proper breathing).
4. Articulators -- Give definite shapes and character of sounds as air passes through the mouth or nose,
lips, teeth, tongue, upper gums, lower jaw, hard palate, and uvula.

Breath control is extremely important in voice production. Those of you who have studied singing or
music know how much time is spent developing right breathing habits. A firm, steady stream of breath is
required to keep the voice from wavering and to give it strength. The proper sort of breathing is achieved
better by the use of the stronger muscles of the lower chest and the abdomen than by the use of the
weaker muscles of the upper chest and throat. Always bear in mind, that proper breathing is established
only after ample effort along this line is exerted.

PITCH AND INFLECTION

It is said that there are a thousand ways to say "No." Of course, we won't argue nor prove this point. But
we will go along at least part way, and agree that there are ways of reading a sentence, severals ways of
giving an answer, and a number of ways of saying the same word.
The manner of saying, or reading a selection, or giving a speech, or conversing, or reciting, discussing --
besides being dependent on volume, pace, enunciation, pronunciation, and so on, depends in great part
on pitch and inflection.

Pitch

Pitch is the highness or lowness of a person's voice. For example, some people have naturally
low-pitched voices, such as baritones; others have high-pitched voices, such as sopranos. But none use
only one note when they are speaking. They change their pitch according to the meaning of what they are
saying. This changing of pitch is called inflection.
The natural pitch of your voice will tend to become lower as you grow older, but let us not worry about
that. The danger is that you may become a "Johnny-one-note”, within your basic pitch. There is plenty of
room to move up and down in anybody's voice.

The Ups and Downs

Have you ever heard someone say, “Don't speak to me in that tone"? What he really means is, “Don't
speak to me with that inflection.” For example, take the word "wait". You can use this word in many
different ways merely by changing the highness or lowness of the tone. "Wait, please.” To a child stepping
off the curb in a busy street,"you'd better wait, Nick.”
Or again, you turn to a fellow student and say, “Just you wait till I get you outside". Someone tells you to
wait for him, but you know and he knows you can't, so you tell him sarcastically, "Wait, he says." Or finally
when a soldier bids his sweetheart goodbye, he would say emotionally, "Wait, for me, darling."

TONE COLOR

We shall use the term tone color in a very elementary sense -- "the presence of feeling in tone." Tone
color is the result of the speaker's mental and emotional response to what he is saying. If his thinking is
keen and discriminating, if his emotional response is genuine, if his speech mechanism is responsive, his
tone will have color.
Tressider says, "The expression of emotional changes is brought about in everyday speech by
unmistakable changes in voice quality, except in everyday speech of lazy, stupid or monotonous speakers.
The fundamental emotions of love, anger, fear, and sorrow, at least are within the expressible range of
nearly everyone, though perhaps the appropriate vocal qualities cannot be summoned on demand."
However, a systematic course of practice can help develop tone color so that the appropriate vocal
qualities can be summoned to express all shades of feeling.
Without color, all expression is mechanical and uninteresting. Even a beautiful voice may be
monotonous after a few utterances. "Color is an almost literal analogy. Good voice quality may call to mind
the reds and oranges and yellows of the spectrum, the warm colors; or it may take on the blues and greens
of the colors. On the one hand it expresses vitality, joy, elevated thought, warmth; on the other, it expresses
desolation, fear, anger, coldness."

All persons who speak, read, or converse, should have at his command as many tone colors as
possible, expressive of all states of emotion. The following exercises will help the student develop many
colors of the voice by constant practice, until they become natural.

ARTICULATION

Clarity of Speech

If your speech sounds are indistinct, slurred, half-swallowed, clipped short, muffled, or mumbled, then
you need to practice enunciation. For as the saying goes, words are the tools of speech. Without them,
there is no such thing as speech. But, what good is the use of the most apt word if the sound is not clear?
Good enunciation depends on four factors: jaw, lips,tongue and teeth. You should not have a locked jaw or
lazy lips if you are to be a fluent speaker. Activate your articulators.