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Female Voice Technique | |
I thought I would put
my linguistics degree to work here (finally get some use out of it) and present some of
the techniques that I use.
Don't be afraid of a little falsetto.
Many of the books out there on femme voice give the impression that a girl should never
use falsetto.
Not true!
Women who have naturally deep voices have been using this trick for years. Use a little
falsetto for effect. This doesn't mean that "Minnie Mouse" voice way, way up
there. Just find the place where your voice cracks, and use that place. It gives the
speech a charming, vulnerable, lilting character that is graciously feminine. Peggy Lee
(if you can remember her!) used it in her
singing voice. So did Billie Holliday and Dinah Shore. So does Alanis Morrisette. Here's
how to do it.
First, find the place where your voice breaks. It will be somewhere a little higher than
your male speaking voice. Sing to find it. Start at a nice comfortable pitch, sing
"la" on that note and then go up a half step at a time, singing "la"
on each note. At a certain point as you go up, you will feel and hear your voice take on a
different character. A little more breathy. This is
called the "break" or "crack" in your voice. Perhaps you will feel a
pinch in your throat. Then as you keep going up, your voice will become clearer and more
comfortable again. You have entered your falsetto. It may start lower or higher than you
expected. It's at a different point for everyone. Practice this several times, until you
are pretty sure where this is in your voice.
Speaking consistently falsetto takes lots and lots of practice.
For one thing, the falsetto voice is notoriously weak, tinny, nasal, and unpredictable.
And it takes a lot of work to develop voice strength, believe me. But you can use the
falsetto break very easily.
Try speaking just below the point where your voice broke into falsetto. Speak naturally.
If you have a nice masculine voice, it will be a little high for you. That's okay.
When you speak there for a few minutes, you will probably think you don't sound very
feminine. You don't. That's because men guard against the break in their voice. You'll
probably think you sound nervous and edgy. That's because you're speaking even more
monotone than normal in order to avoid crossing the break.
To sound feminine, then, let yourself go ahead and cross that break. To teach you how to
do this, go back and reread this article out loud. Notice that in each sentence, I have
italicized a key word or two. As you read the article, whenever you come to an italicized
word, read it with about a quarter step higher pitch than the rest of the sentence. This
is how women add emphasis to their speech.
They don't speak those words slightly louder like men do. They speak them with a slightly
higher pitch. This will put you right into or slightly above the break in your voice.
That's okay. You'll be using the slightly softer, more vulnerable character your voice has
at that point, right when you want it most--for emphasis in speaking! Practice reading
this article out loud several times,
until it sounds comfortable rather than forced. You might think about giving it a slightly
exaggerated, dramatic reading, as if you were reading a story to a group of children at
the library. When you feel comfortable reading this article out loud, you should sound to
yourself quite a bit like a woman while you're reading it. You might be wondering if you
can learn to speak this way. You can. You're ready for the next
step.
Now take something you have to read--anything. A short technical
article for work, a few paragraphs from a novel, a newspaper article, anything with
sentences. Go through it and mark it up with a highlighter. Highlight the most important
word or two in every sentence--the words you'd naturally give emphasis to. Now read the
article out loud, the same way you did this article, using a slightly higher
pitch on the highlighted words. Practice it until you can read it smoothly. Then do it to
different articles, say one a day.
After a while, you'll notice that you can read articles out loud without marking them up
ahead of time. You have taught yourself how to read effectively in public (a useful skill,
by the way). Use this same method of emphasis on your femme speaking voice and you will be
amazed at the result!
Practice, practice, practice is of course the best advice of all! Please email me!
Rikki
Bye for Now!
Why be a girl, if you're only gonna wear pants?