Speech Coaching
Helen Perry has a degree in Speech Education and has coached hundreds of satisfied clients.
Tone of Voice accounts for 38% of our face-to-face communication, 86% over the telephone. Note the perceptions of various speech habits. Coaching sessions have produced confident presenters out of anxious, stage-frightened individuals. Just what is your tone really saying?
- Nasal Voice - Produced by too much resonance in nasal passages (may be twangy); persons with voice perceived as dull, lazy and whiny; can express repugnance, ugliness, boredom, complaint, and self-deprecation.
- Denasal Voice - Opposite of nasal voice, often due to colds or other blockages that prevent resonance in nasal cavities, generally does not carry meaning.
- Orotund Voice - Big, full voice produced by too much resonance in mouth cavity; commonly used by preachers and politicians; connotes idealism, authority and pomposity.
- Flat Voice- Low, monotone that occurs when glottis blocks out some tone qualities; unemotional and unenthusiastic perceptions; can communicate laziness, boredom and displeasure.
- Thin Voice - High pitched voice that comes from the glottis blocking out a different set of tone qualities than in the flat voice; person may be considered immature, insecure, and indecisive, connotes doubt, apology, and weakness.
- Throaty Voice - Results from moving the tongue upward and toward the back of the mouth; often difficult to understand because of its muffled quality, frequently perceived as stupid or aristocratic, expresses surprise.
- Fronted Voice - Produced by moving the tongue forward and depressing it; very precise and clipped; often seen as supercilious, cold, disdaining, and aloof; communicates precision and irritability.
- Breathy Voice - Produced by too much air escaping through the larynx because of insufficient muscle tone in the vocal folds and poor posture; more common in women than men; connotes immorality, stupidity, spinelessness, lethargy, seductiveness in lightness, love passion, and admiration.
- Tense Voice- Opposite of breathy voice, too little air is expelled through vocal folds; conveys uncooperativeness, emotional insecurity, bad temper, anger, rudeness, frustration, and cruelty.
- Breathy-Tense Voice - Produced by both poor posture and a tense larynx, often perceived as weak and nervous.
- Harsh Voice - Tense voice that sounds like rubbing coarse sandpaper; perceptions same as for tense voice.
- Hard Voice - Tense voice that sounds like continuous grating; perceptions same as for tense voice.
- Husky Voice - Tense voice that sounds like a series of impulses; perceptions same as for tense voice.
- Strident Voice - Tense voice that sounds like metal hitting metal; uncommon but often found in neurotic or psychotic individuals; perceptions same as for tense voice.