Chapter 5
The Voice
Voice Production

What are the four stages of the voice?
– Respiration
– Vibration
– Resonation
– Articulation
Respiration

*The act of breathing

When you inhale, air rushes into the nose and
throat and into the lungs until the air pressure in
the lungs equals the air pressure outside the body

*When the diaphragm expands, the chest cavity is
enlarged

Breath control is important in maintaining good
vocal control
Vibration
 *A motion caused by air passing over vocal cords
that produce sound

Listen to yourself whisper: this is the sound of
your voice if you don’t use your vocal cords, or
voice box

*Expelled air must pass over the vocal cords to
produce loud sounds
Resonation

*Amplification and
enrichment of the
voice; allows sound to
echo
– think about how your voice
sounds when you sing in the
bathroom – much fuller
because it “bounces around”

*Resonators
– *throat, skull, sinuses, chest
cavity
– *Vocal cords, pharynx,
Trachea, Lungs, Diaphragm
Articulation

*the production of sounds to form words
– To speak more clearly

Two kinds: fixed and movable

*Enunciate – another name for articulation
Articulation Bad Habits
– *Dropping word endings
 drop –ed, -ing
 “Going” -> “Goin”; “Chased” -> “Chase”
– *Running words together
 Due to nerves, speed, or both
 “Going to” -> “Gonna”; “I don’t want to go” -> “Idoewannago”
– *Substituting sounds
 Don’t realize – substitute one sound for another
 “For” -> “Fer”; “to” -> “tuh”; “computers” -> “compuders”;
“bottle” -> “boddle”
– *Adding sounds
 Rarer, but adding letters/sounds to words
– “library” -> “liberry”; “cabinet” -> “cabinent”
Fixed Articulators

Can be altered voluntarily

*Teeth
– use to produce sounds in thirty, three, lollipop,
favorite, valve, zero

*Hard Palate
– bony structure on roof of your mouth that
extends from behind your front teeth to about
halfway back
Moved Articulators

*Soft Palate
– soft structure at the end of the hard palate –
gives with pressure to your tongue
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
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*Tongue
*Lips
*Jaw
Used in combination with your teeth and
hard palate to create understandable,
meaningful sounds
The
Articulators
- Here is a diagram of
the mouth, or oral
cavity
-The
parts of the
mouth:
- Hard Palate
- Soft Palate
- Uvula
- Tongue
- Lips
- Teeth
Vocal Exercises

Respiration: Learning to use your diaphragm
 Take a deep breath: inhale slowly, fill your lungs as
much as you can. Hold breath and slowly release the
air counting to five. Repeat until we can count to 20
or more.
 Take a deep breath, inhale and hold. On the exhale,
blow out in 5 quick spurts, then blow out the rest in
one slow stream (can do this with letters too)
Vocal Exercises

Articulation: Learning to speak clearly
– Tongue twisters
 Tiny Tina tapped on the table top to test its
toughness
 Still the sinking steamer sank
 Daffy Diane dipped Don’s dog directly into the pool
 Rubber baby buggy bumpers
– Theolphlius Thistle
 This tongue twister you must work on everyday and
be able to say it clearly in one breath
Voice Quality
 There is no perfect sounding speaking voice

You can improve the quality of your voice

*List of weak qualities that detract from a speakers voice:
–
–
–
–
–
–
breathy (out of breath)
raspy ( sounds like a sore throat)
shrill (voice on the verge of breaking)
nasal (talking through nose)
denasal (seems to have a cold)
husky (“trapped” in throat)
 Try it out!!
Tools of Vocal Expression

*Three Basic Controls
– Volume, rate, pitch

You communicate the following:
– anger, fear, disappointment
– sorrow, excitement, surprise

Takes energy to maintain volume, intensity,
and emphasis
Volume

*Volume - measure of how loud or soft your voice
is

*Increasing or reducing the volume of certain
syllables, words, or phrases adds meaning
– Think about giving a speech about a concert you attended.
How might your voice change as you talk about pre-show,
during, and after-show?
Intensity

Your delivery can be intense without being
too loud

*Intensity - refers to the way you
communicate your emotional message
– *will increase as you explain why something is
important to you
Emphasis
 *Emphasis – Prominence in key words or phrases
in speeches

Varying volume and intensity allows speaker to
draw attention to words and phrases
– Say this out loud:
 Of the people, by the people, and for the people
– Where do you hear the emphasis?
– If you read this without increasing your volume, the
key words lose their impact
Let’s hear it…
 General Douglas MacArthur’s Speech
– Served 52 years in the U.S. Army ; gave a farewell
speech to Congress


Didn’t shout, relied on variety in volume, intensity, and
emphasis to draw his audience into his speech’s emotion
Farewell Speech
– YouTube sound clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M87s_I-c-Xw
– How would you deliver his conclusion? Where would you be
loud? Soft? How intense would you be? Which words or
phrases would you emphasize?
 Practice his conclusion with a partner – some volunteers??
Rate

*Rate refers to the speed at which you talk
*A slow rate may convey fatigue, caution,
hopelessness, sincerity
 *A rapid rate may convey anger, confusion,
impatience
 If you speak to rapidly, you may
mispronounce words and speak unclearly

Using Rate

When you use your outline, make sure to
listen to yourself and don’t miss
opportunities to vary your speech rate

If you speak from manuscript, or vocal
variety markings, you have an extra
advantage when you present
– *Manuscript – a form of delivery when every
word of the speech is written out and marked
Pause


*Pause refers to the silence between words or
phrases, and taking a breath
Always indicated by punctuation marks
– periods, commas, semicolons, and dashes

This adds drama to your speech
– a pause at the beginning may set the mood
– used to set up a phrase or word
 Think about how comedians perform
Framing
an effective use of a pause
 *refers to pausing slightly before and after a
word or phrase


Read this sentence normally
– “Have you ever read one of Poe’s short stories?
They must be scary even to you.”

Now read it again, but frame the phrase
“even to you.”
– What’s the difference?
Pitch
The most important aspect of vocal quality
 Determined by your speaking voice

*Refers to the highness or lowness of your voice
 *Altering your pitch to convey emotional meaning
is known as inflection

–
–
–
–
keeps audiences attention
adds color to your voice – not to sound monotone
rising inflection: usually ends statement as a question
falling inflection: usually ends as a statement
Let’s try it out!

In small groups, you will practice using
inflection
– on the handout, read each sentence and
emphasize, by using inflection, each underlined
word
– Each choose two sets of sentences to present

Also maintain pitch, volume, articulation,
and physical gestures and facial expressions
Manuscript Markings

Read aloud first to hear how you are speaking
– Mark using vocal variety

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Pause - / … Framing - //
Emphasis – Underline
Rate – [bracket words]F/S
Pitch – (Circle words)H/L
Volume – V (arrow going up)/V (arrow going down)
Look over sample manuscript excerpt