The All-Important Breath and Finding Your Golden Voice
“I have an utterly average voice. It’s just sheer repetition that makes it sound like it belongs on the radio. If you compare my voice with a really great radio announcer, I’m just a whiny Jew.” ~ Ira Glass, host of This American Life
Quick Summary
- Work to develop your breath control and stamina.
- Find your vocal resonance and use that voice most often.
- However you sound is perfect—continue to refine your unique sound and run with it.
To illustrate the points:
Want to see what amazing breath control can do for you? This song is actually not part of the original musical The Pirates of Penzance, but added to the film version—probably to take advantage of the great talents they had available (in the thumbnail: notably, Kevin Kline on the right and Angela Lansbury in the center).
We’ll look again at the National Theatre and a few more exercises for how they would recommend developing vocal resonance.
(You can watch all of the National’s exercises here.)
Want another example of a “bad” voice that worked quite a bit? Here’s Fran Drescher on The Nanny:
Time to practice!
- Do the breath exercises and find your resonance. Speak from an empowered place!
- On camera: Read a poem, a speech, something published (so that you’re not caught up in the words)—something short (1-2 min) and that you enjoy. Post to the group!