Earlier this year I held my first webinar and I thought my voice sounded slight and wimpy so I thought "I must do something". A bit of research led me to Roger Love, vocal coach to the stars including Tony Robbins and I bought his CD training set called Vocal Power from Nightingale Conant.
Vocal Power - affiliate link
I started listening to it this afternoon.
Interesting.
The way you sound is a major factor in the impression you create on people, right from the start no matter whether you are talking to one or one thousand.
I'm a big chap - about 6' 4" and eighteen stone (250 pounds) and while I don't want a booming Brian Blessed voice, I have felt that my voice lacks gravitas.
I've only heard CD1 of Vocal Power so far but I can see that vocal power and authority has a lot to do with breathing.
Take A Big Breath
Go on, just take a big breath as if you were going to have a holding your breath contest with a friend.
Did you chest puff out and your shoulders rise?
Mine did but it seems that is wrong.
We can get into bad habits on our breathing and that sabotages our ability to speak powerfully.
It wasn't really something that I'd thought about. Let's face it, you just breathe without having to think about it, thank goodness.
What you need to be doing is:
- Breathing in through your nose and not your mouth (which should be shut)
- Your stomach (not chest) should push out as you breath in as your diaphragm expands. You can test it by putting your hand on your tummy which should go out as you breathe in and in as you breathe out.
I had to record a soundbite - which you can do with Sound Recorder on Windows XP and assess yourself.
Plenty of breathing exercises to do each day.
Only CD 1 so far but it has certainly made me think about what I'm doing. It's a bit spooky to start thinking about how you are breathing.
I just wish there had been some advice on whether I should spend a few days repeating the exercises before moving on to CD 2. I'm not sure what I'm going to do at the moment.
Vocal Power by Roger Love
Has anyone else used Vocal Power?
I am interested to hear how you found it.
Disclosure - I am an affiliate for Nightingale Conant, the publishers of Vocal Power by Roger Love. If you click through from my link and then buy, I will be paid a commission.
















I really like Roger Love's book Set Your Voice Free. I am a speech coach and just blogged about this book in my speaking advice blog - sarahgershman.blogspot.com. It would be great to hear your feedback.
Thanks,
Sarah
Posted by: Sarah Gershman | 28 July 2009 at 03:06 AM