The Healing Voice

Guilty for NOT practicing.

And for missing Day 3 of the program where Pocholo talked about the importance of practicing. He said, “It’s not enough that you know or that you’ve read or that you’ve understood. You need to practice. More importantly, you need to TALK. You have to read aloud, so you can use the elements of your voice and apply the formula you learned in the last session.”

Now I know why he gave all those assignments! It’s for us to practice using our voice. As of this writing, I still have to work on doing the voice, which is technically called dubbing of three radio commercials, three TV commercials, five audiovisual presentations (AVP), and create my AVP.

So, how do we practice? He recommended first, to record and get used to how we sound in a recording. Second is to recite tongue twisters fast, several times each day. The exercise will help us speak better and improve our pronunciation

I remember learning Peter Piper and Woodchuck in school. He gave more tongue twisters to practice. I’m having difficulty with the ‘s’ twisters such as this one: Six sleek swans swam swiftly southwards.

Lastly, to practice reading different kinds of scripts. The best way is to mimic the commercials that we see or hear everyday. He advised to using facial expressions, gestures and sound effects in the delivery. He gave the acronym MOVE which stands for Movement Orchestrates Vocal Expression.

So for those aspiring voice artists, start practicing!

What’s more important to you? The speech or the voice? There is a big difference between speech and voice. Pocholo explained, “Speech is the specific words used to convey a message while Voice is the way you say the words.”

He cited as an example, puppeteers where the different voices of the characters animate the show. It made me look back to my childhood favorite TV show, Sesame Street. If it weren’t for the different voices created by the Jim Henson, I wouldn’t probably stay tuned through all the years.

Last Saturday’s class was quite interesting. I’ve been teaching yoga and theta healing for some time now and wonder how my voice sounds. 

This class is timely since it focused on voice variety, which creates the emotional context and meaning of what we want to say. There are three elements: Pitch, Volume and Tempo.

Pitch is the level of the voice, the high and low tone. It can heighten emotion and transform a sentence into a question or statement. Volume pertains to the loudness or softness. The best way to project the voice is to use the diaphragm. With this second element, I’m spot on since I’ve been using my third chakra to project my voice.

Lastly is the tempo. It’s the speed of delivery, which can be either fast or slow. The average speaking rate is 180. The tempo has a significant influence on how we are perceived and understood by people. He emphasized to slow down to create emphasis and practice the pause. 

He also shared his formula on creating voice characters using pitch, pitch character, tempo, rhythm, placement of the voice, and the movement of the mouth. 

With his formula, I had fun creating three different voices to introduce myself. I still have to do the homework! I hope you can pray with me that I finish all the requirements for the course. Thank you, and sending healing to all!