I had an interesting Skype session recently with Sam. We were working on his projection (projection is the increase of volume without shouting). After a couple of failed attempts, he did it correctly and it was as if ‘a light bulb had gone off.’
Sam told me that he imagined a larger room inside of his body and automatically his volume increased without changing his pitch or hurting his throat. (Pitch is the highness or lowness of sound – volume is the loudness or softness of sound.) When you increase your volume by shouting or yelling, your volume increases or goes up but so does your pitch. The result is a sound that can hurt your throat as well as your listener’s ears.
Previously, when Sam had thought of speaking in a larger room outside of himself, he relied more on his throat instead of his chest cavity which meant that his pitch rose.
- Projection is only possible if you are speaking within your optimum range or as I refer to it, speaking with your ‘real’ voice.
- Speaking with your ‘real’ voice is only possible if you’re breathing with the support of your diaphragm and powering your sound by means of your chest cavity.
- Shouting is what the majority of people do when they increase their volume because the majority of people have no clue about their ‘real’ voice.
- Shouting or even talking for prolonged periods of time often results in a sore throat, hoarseness or even loss of voice and you’re not sick.
- Shouting or speaking for great lengths of time, i.e., for example teaching, coaching, working in a loud environment, talking in a noisy bar or club, campaigning, or even rooting for your favorite sports team can do serious damage to your vocal cords.
Using your chest cavity as your primary sounding board is the only way to solve the above problems. So let me ask – when you are trying to get someone’s attention, do you shout or do you project your voice?
You can solve this problem with Voicing It which means you get me as your personal coach whenever you wish. I am part of the package. Or you can join us in Los Angeles, August 25 & 26, and get me as your coach – up close and personal!