Sex and the Speaking Voice

Posted on Posted in Sound More Mature

What do James Earl Jones, Mira Sorvino, George Clooney, Elizabeth Hurley, Sean Connery and Kathleen Turner all have in common? Voices that exude sensuality – in today’s vocabulary, voices that are hot. There are a few more names I could have added to the list but there are actually many more which do not fall into that category. Of course the one voice that was probably the sexiest of all was that of the late great Barry White. In his case it didn’t matter whether he was singing or speaking: both his singing voice and his speaking voice exuded the ultimate in sensuality.

All of these wonderfully rich voices share one common characteristic. They are warm – like a blanket around your shoulders. Given the right time and place and with the right tonality, any voice that is warm can be sexy.

The problem for many people is that they don’t have the warmth in their speaking voice because they don’t know how to place the voice properly. They are using only the voice box, throat, mouth and/or nose to power their sound which results in voices that tend to be higher in pitch than they should be. Pitch refers to the highness or lowness of sound, not the loudness or softness.

Looking again at that list, you will notice that all of those voices are deep in pitch as well. In truth a lower-pitched speaking voice is the most sensual of all. The great German actress Marlene Dietrich was renowned not only for her legs but her deep, gravelly voice as well.

As a voice coach, I’ve had my business on the web for 20 years and I am surprised that one of my target markets is single men looking to attract women. In researching my name a few years ago, I happened upon a blog about me and my business on an all-male website. When I clicked on the link, I was delighted to discover some men discussing my techniques for voice improvement and how effective those techniques are for attracting women.

These men understood that a rich warm resonant voice is a huge bonus when it comes to meeting women.

What I don’t understand, however, is why women haven’t figured this out as well. Many women are so obsessed with their physical image and yet they have failed to recognize that a warm sensual voice can be as attractive to a man as a beautiful body.

In an interview with Barbara Walters many years ago, Kathleen Turner remarked that she couldn’t understand why a woman would spend so much money on her wardrobe, her hair and her makeup and then speak in a voice that was akin to nails on a blackboard. She further added that “the power of the voice is exciting as heck!”

I couldn’t agree more. The voice that is warm speaks volumes because it sounds more mature; it draws your attention; and, given the right tone, it can be very, very sexy.

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If you would like to see some dramatic ‘before & after’ video clips, watch Craig and Trish in the center of this page. You can also see more ‘before & after’ clips by clicking here.