Don't Lower Your Voice

And now I want to talk about the number one thing people do to make their voices better.

How does it work.

That in fact makes their voices worse.

The number one thing I’ve found people doing women but also been is they try to lower their voice to zone deeper moral thoughts or it is because they’re concerned that so their voice is too high and they won’t be taken seriously.

Oh can you hear how annoying that is.

How fake it sounds how phony you do not have to have a low voice in order to be considered serious or formal.

In fact that’s a way to make yourself sound ridiculous lowering your voice does several awkward things.

First of all it makes you more monotone.

If you’re down like this all the time it is in support of a single tone area.

So it’s easier to put people to sleep.

The other thing is unless you are a trained Broadway actor actors and you’ve been going to acting school for two dozen years you’re gonna be acting anyway.

It’s really hard work to act.

You’ve spotted bad actors that you don’t like on TV and movies.

Well guess what.

That bad actor had a lot more practice than you did.

So if you start acting like you have this rich this rich deep resonant voice it’s going to sound phony it’s going to sound pompous.

It’s going to sound ridiculous.

Here’s the thing about the voice tones.

You don’t need to do deep deep voice what you need is a real range.

If your voice occasionally goes high.

Great.

That’s a two.

Now I like this the whole time.

That’s not a problem of having a high voice.

That’s a problem of being monotone because you’re that high all the time unless you’re Minnie Mouse or you consume a lot of helium.

That’s actually a rare thing for people to have.

So I want you to promise me one thing you can work on all sorts of vocal exercises if you want but don’t try to lower your voice.

It’s simply not effect.

It’s not to look at some of the most famous successful TV commentators.

If you’re at all into politics you’ve certainly seen Pat Buchanan on the airways almost every day for 30 years on every cable news network PBS McLaughlin Group CROSSFIRE you name it and when he gets excited there’s always goes like this I tell you.

His voice goes very high and yet he’s made millions of dollars a year for 30 years on TV using his will.

Also he was a talk radio person listen to whoever you respect the most on radio if you are a liberal Thom Hartmann.

If you are a conservative Rush Limbaugh they don’t talk like they’re still hearing you talk.

They have a whole range they when they get excited it goes up.

That’s what allows your voice to be magical to be powerful is full right.

Don’t fight it don’t hold it in.

Oh I don’t want to have a high tone.

People won’t think I’m serious.

Oh please.

Come on get over it.

Now I do believe a lot of women have been sold a phony bill of goods on this issue because many women have been told well it’s a man’s world and that may be true.

And you won’t be taken seriously unless you speak with a deep voice like a man.

That is not true.

My friends you know does Oprah Winfrey talk like this all the time.

No.

And she’s been extraordinarily successful.

You want to use your voice.

And again I get back to these things I’ve mentioned earlier.

It’s hard to be an actor.

It’s really really hard to be an actor.

And if you try to act it’s really easy for people to spot it and say that person’s acting that person’s phony.

Well now you have a problem much worse than your voice.

You have people doubting your authenticity and think you’re being a big phony.

Now people will forgive a voice that’s a little scratchy or it isn’t necessarily as beautiful as what you hear on F.M.

radio.

But people are very unlikely to forgive someone being phony being fake putting on an act so I want you to not listen to the people who say you need the spirit or the deeper voice is not true.

Now people of my generation a little older are used to listening to an old CBS news anchor called Walter Cronkite who did speak of the lower registers like Walter Cronkite and that’s the way it is most vocal experts would actually say his voice was not used in the proper way it was kept in a way that sounded artificially low and low registers.

Another anchor just a little bit younger than Walter Cronkite Peter Jennings would have a higher voice and indeed listened to whether it’s Brian Williams today or some of the other news anchors.

It’s not this stereotypical deep DEEP VOICE It’s certainly not what got Diane Sawyer or Katie Couric.

There are slots as anchors during their reigns on nighttime TV so be very very careful about trying to lower your voice.

In fact I urge you to be careful about doing anything to dramatically change your voice.

The key you’re getting from me by now is to use your own voice but to use your voice as it sounds when you’re relaxed having a spirited conversation with someone where you’ve got the highs the lows the fast lows and everything in between.