Strategy for Voice Improvement: Don't Lower Your Voice

00:01 And now I want to talk about the number one thing people do to make their voices better.

00:08 That doesn't work.

00:10 That, in fact, makes their voices worse.

00:13 The number one thing I've found people doing, women, but also been, is. They try to lower their voice to sound deeper and more authoritative because they're concerned that their voices are too high, and they won't be taken seriously.

00:31 Oh, can you hear how annoying that is? How fake it sounds? How phony? You do not have to have.

00:39 A low voice in order to be considered serious or formal.

00:44 In fact, that's a way to make yourself sound ridiculous.

00:50 Lowering your voice does several awkward things.

00:54 First of all, it makes you more monotone.

00:55 If you're done like this all the time, it is in a more of a single tone.

01:00 Area, so it's easier to put people to sleep.

01:05 The other thing is, unless you are a trained Broadway actor actors, and you've been going to acting school for 2000 years, you're going to be acting. And you know what? It's really hard work to act.

01:19 You've spotted bad actors that you don't like on TV and movies.

01:22 Well, guess what? That bad actor had a lot more practice than you did.

01:26 So if you start.

01:27 Acting like you have this reach, this rich, deep, resonant voice.

01:32 It's going to sound phony.

01:34 It's going to sound pompous, it's going to sound ridiculous.

01:38 Here's the thing about the voice tones.

01:41 You don't need a deep, deep, deep voice.

01:44 What you need is a real range.

01:48 If your voice occasionally goes high, great.

01:51 That's a tool. Now, if you're like this the whole time, then that's not a problem of having a high voice.

01:57 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.

02:06 That's actually a rare thing for people to have.

02:10 So, I want you to promise me one thing.

02:13 You can work on all sorts of vocal exercises if you want, but don't try to lower your voice.

02:21 It's simply not a fact.

02:23 It's not needed.

02:24 Look at some of the most famous, successful TV commentators.

02:29 If you're at all into politics, you've certainly seen Pat Buchanan on the airwaves almost every day for 30 years on every cable news network, PBS, McLaughlin Group, CROSSFIRE, you name it.

02:41 And when he gets excited, his voice goes like this I can't believe you.

02:46 His voice goes very high.

02:48 And yet he's made millions of dollars a year for 30 years on TV using his voice.

02:53 Also, he was a talk radio person.

02:58 Listen to whoever you respect the most on radio.

03:03 If you are a liberal, Thom Hartmann, if you are a conservative, Rush Limbaugh.

03:08 They don't talk like this the whole time.

03:10 They have a whole range that when they get excited, it goes up.

03:15 That's what allows your voice to be magical.

03:19 To be powerful is full range.

03:22 Don't fight it. Don't hold.

03:24 It in. Oh, I don't want to have a high tone.

03:27 People won't think I'm serious.

03:29 Oh, please.

03:30 Come on. Get over it.

03:33 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.

03:42 It's a man's. World, and that may be true, and you won't be taken seriously.

03:47 Unless you speak with a deep.

03:49 Voice like a man. That is not true, my friends.

03:55 Does Oprah Winfrey talk like this all the time? No. And she's been extraordinarily successful.

04:03 You want to use your voice.

04:06 And again, I get back to these themes I've mentioned earlier.

04:09 It's hard to be an actor.

04:12 It's really, really hard to be an actor.

04:15 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.

04:22 Well, now you have a problem.

04:24 Much worse than your voice.

04:26 You have people doubting your authenticity and think you're being a big phony.

04:31 Now, people will forgive a voice that's a little scratchy or isn't necessarily as beautiful as what you hear on FM radio.

04:40 But people are very unlikely to forgive someone being phony, being fake, putting on an act.

04:50 So I want you to not listen to the people who.

04:53 Say you need to speak with a deeper voice.

04:58 It is not true.

04:59 Now, people of my generation, a little older, are used to listening to an old CBS News anchor called Walt Walter Cronkite.

05:07 And he did speak of the lower registers.

05:09 And I have Walter Cronkite, and that's the way it is.

05:14 Most vocal experts would actually say his voice was not used in the proper way.

05:21 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.

05:35 And indeed, you listen to, whether it's Brian Williams today or some of the other news anchors.

05:43 It's not this stereotypical.

05:46 Deep, deep, deep voice.

05:48 It's certainly not what got Diane Sawyer or Katie Couric their slots as anchors during their reigns on nighttime TV.

05:57 So be very, very careful about trying to lower your voice.

06:05 In fact, I urge you to be careful about doing anything to dramatically change your voice.

06:11 The key is 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, the slows and everything in between.