Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [41]
Pitch
Pitch relates to the highness and lowness of the sounds you make. The pitch of your voice is governed by the frequency of the vibrations in your larynx. High pitch requires frequent vibrations (think of the voice of Pee Wee Herman); and low pitch requires infrequent vibrations (think of Lauren Bacall’s lovely voice).
Compare the sound made by the top string on the violin to that made by the bottom string on a cello. The voice has the same upper and lower registers, and these overlap in the middle of your range.
You should have at least an octave in your voice range to keep from sounding monotonous. This means about four notes above your middle and four notes below. Some eloquent speakers use two and even three octaves in their range of pitch (such as an accomplished Shakespearean actor). High pitches are basically unpleasant to the ear. They are difficult to reproduce or record without distortion. The low pitches are pleasant to the ear, and the lower you pitch your own voice, the less distortion there will be on amplifying devices. (Note, however, that you should never force your voice into unnaturally low ranges.)
You make your spoken material interesting, flexible, and expressive by utilizing changes in pitch. You can consciously lower the pitch of your voice a full octave. You can feel this happening when you move the resonance from the nasal cavity into the chest cavity. With practice, you can do this automatically.
As mentioned in the previous section on placement, pitch is related to the natural singing voices. Think of the woofers and tweeters in your loudspeakers. The tweeters are designed to reproduce the high-pitched sounds such as the soprano voice. The woofers are designed to reproduce the sounds of low frequency such as the baritone voice.
A good exercise for keeping the proper pitch is to say the word “awkward” between the letters of the alphabet. Say “awkward a,” “awkward b,” “awkward c,” etc. Memorize the openness of the back of the throat. When you are able to say the word and the letter with the same pitch, then your pitch is correct. Saying “awkward” forces you to open the back of your throat because the broad a is a “back vowel” and can only be pronounced in the back of your throat.
When you are tense, the voice tends to go up in range and pitch. When you are angry, the voice becomes shrill and harsh. When you are tired, the voice becomes husky. When you are sad, the range and pitch go downward.
Volume
The amount of volume you use determines whether your voice is loud or soft. Volume is measured in decibels. It is closely related to the amount of air in the lungs. By carefully controlling the force and energy, you regulate the loudness and softness of your voice.
With an amplifying device, there is no need to talk loudly since that can drive the needle indicator into the “danger zone.” It is the job of the audio operator to regulate the audio levels based on your natural speaking voice; he or she will “ride the gain” to control the final sound.
Remember when speaking to a hard-of-hearing person that loudness alone is not adequate; there must be resonance as well for a slightly hearing-impaired person to hear you.
Projection
Do you need to project your voice to people in the last row in the balcony, or are you speaking conversationally to a small group of businesspeople? Are you in a gym speaking at graduation exercises, or outdoors at a Fourth of July celebration? Is it a cocktail party with everyone talking at once, or are you speaking in a church where you can hear a pin drop?
Gauge your projection by who will need to hear you and the room tone of the place in which you will speak. A full, rich, resonant voice can be heard in the farthest reaches of just about any room. You do not have to strain to project it. Use