Vocal Power and Basic Centering

Natural Vocal Power and Basic Centering

There is a limit to how far you can go with developing a deeper voice, without faking it and sounding false/put-on. Your vocal chords are of a certain length and your body of certain dimensions that place your voice in a certain bandwidth - tenor (high), baritone (middle) or bass (deep). You are unfortunately stuck with this for life. So, it is quite pointless trying to become Barry White if you have a bright, light tone.

What you can affect however, is how well your voice resonates. Resonance conveys depth, even though it isn't deep as in low pitch. When your voice is resonating properly, it is free and powerful, and it actually sympathetically vibrates the body of the person you are speaking to (sound is vibration).

Also the passion you speak with can be hugely impacting on the people you speak to.

Take for instance someone with a high voice....there is no way they can become a bass, but they can optimize what they have and speak with power, freedom and passion. Edward Norton is an example of someone who has done this in the film world.

There is a series of exercises to do with centering and freeing the throat, jaw and body of tension which will help to optimize the resonance of your voice which I teach, but for starters try the following:

Basic centering:

1. Stand straight and bend the knees ever so slightly so that they are not locked.

2. Move the head around a bit, forward and back, side to side, and then let it balance gently on top of the neck, neither pulled back or with a dropped chin. Looking straight ahead in a relaxed fashion.

3. Circle the shoulders a few times and then just let them drop. Check for any tension across the chest. Don't try to pull the shoulders back. And check for any hunching. Just relax.

4.Swivel the hips a bit in both directions and do a bit of gentle pelvic thrusting. Relax the hips and let them find their natural position.

5. Now just let your body fall forward over the hips with bent knees.

6. VERY slowly return to a standing position, uncurling the spine one vertebra at a time, until you are back in the relaxed standing position. Calm, centred and upright, but not stretched.

7. Make sure you keep breathing in a relaxed way through the whole procedure.

Now place your hands on your belly below the bellybutton. Breathe deeply but not forcefully all the way down to this point, so that you feel it expanding. On the outbreath say "one...two...three" with a steady outflow of breath. Keeping the jaw, face, shoulders relaxed. Feel that the breath is coming from deep down in the torso and is flowing freely. Repeat a few times.

The voice should certainly be freer than before and more resonant. Practice daily and you will be working out some of the tensions which may be blocking your full resonance.