“We…believe, and so we also speak…” 2 Corinthians 41:13
INTRODUCTION
To proclaim God’s Word effectively is to rely on a speaking voice that is flowing, resonant, articulate and expressive. The proclaimer should give life to the words of sacred Scripture, making them heard, understood and felt. To this end, all speaking voices can be developed by simple exercises repeated with awareness and and undertaken with carefree exploration.
For a full banquet of information on the training of the speaking voice, visit www.vasta.org, the online home of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, Inc.
An excellent overall guide to improving the speaking voice is Arthur Lessac’s The Use and Training of the Speaking Voice (italics). Visit www.lessacinstitute.org for imformation on voice training workshops and other resources.
Two inspiring and empowering books are Patsy Rodenburg’s The Right to Speak (in italics) and The Need for Words (in italics). Patsy’s website is www.patsyrodenburg.net.
THE SPEAKING VOICE
The speaking voice can be divided into the following categories:
Breathing
Physical Alignment
Resonance/Projection
Articulation
Text Work
Exercises below are designed to guide you through an exploration of each area. Since it is challenging to find the right words to describe vocal exercises, read the descriptions a few times, and work through the exercises one by one. You can’t go too far wrong, since most individuals attempting voice work discover that their voices improve, even if they are unsure of the methods.
BREATHING
Discover your own version of deep and full breath by exploring the following sequence, an exercise known as the “lung vacuum.” Lay on your back on the floor or sit in a chair; “whoosh” out all your air; empty further with a vigorous “sh” sound; don’t inhale, but rather close your mouth as you close off your nose with your fingers; wait a few seconds; remove your fingers from your nose. Your body will breathe in air involuntarily and deeply, and then you will feel an impulse to exhale. Repeat this sequence, beginning with the “sh” sound. Several repetitions of this exercise will leave you in a relaxed state in which your breath is full and easy.
BREATHING Exercises
1. Sustain your exhalation. (Lay on the floor, putting one hand on the back of your ribs and the other on your abdomen; do the lung vacuum sequence above, but when you exhale do so on a 12 count, lightly sistaining one of the following unvoiced consonant sounds: “s,f,sh, and th;” increase the count to 15 and repeat; increase the count gradually to 20 and above, and repeat.)
2. Sustain your vowel sounds. (Do #1 above with the vowel sounds “ay, ee, I, oh u.”)
3. Stand with your back against a wall, repeating #1 and #2 above, feeling the breath go into the lower back.)
4. Sustain your voiced consonants. (Repeat #1 and #2 above with voiced consonants: m,n,v,z,ng,zh,th,l.)
5. Do all of above walking around faster and faster, then jogging.
PHYSICAL ALIGNMENT
To discover your version of relaxed physical alignment, lay on the floor with your knees raised. Tiptoe your fingers down toward your feet to lower your shoulders; gently lengthen the back of your neck and allow your chin and lower jaw to drift toward the floor; part your lips and teeth and enjoy the feeling of space inside your mouth; roll your pelvis around on the floor in clockwise and counter-clockwise directions. Periodically stretch and yawn to release tension or rigidity in any body part; turn your head from side to side to prevent neck tension. Enjoy ease of breathing in and out throughtout this entire sequence and repeat the “lung vacuum” above, at any point.
PHYSICALITY/ALIIGNMENT Exercises
1. Stand up and shake. (Gently shake isolated body parts, i.e. hands, feet, elbows, shoulders, hips, and then the entire body.)
2. Head rolls or pendulums (Look down and gently swing your head from side to side.) Shoulder rolls: gently make large circles with your shoulders, forward and back.
3. Stretch any part of your body in any way that feels good; yawn and vocalize your yawns.
4. Drop forward with knees slightly bent to release head and neck muscles, bouncing your head gently, and rise up gradually to an upright position.
5. Look down toward the floor while you stretch toward the ceiling with first one arm, then the other.
RESONANCE
Hum an “m” sound and feel the free, vibrating sensation that fills your face and head, especially if your lips are softly touching and you maintain a cushion of space between your upper and lower teeth. Close off your ears and feel the intense vibration. This is resonance! You will be surprised by the robust, fullness of the sound. Let the “m” sound be your new buddy for a week. Sustain it on different pitches all the way to the end of your breath, siren the pitch up and down, sing the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and wake up your lips and mouth. The more “m” sounds you make, and the longer they are sustained, the greater the physical feeling and relishing of the vibration. Explore the same way with voiced consonants n,v,z,ng,l,zh,” etc.) “Jam” on these consonants while you drive, take a walk or do the dishes. Short explorations done more often reinforce the sensation of vibration more than long, exhaustive sessions. Make sure your chin is not thrusting forward as you sustain sound; lengthen the back of your neck and allow your chin to drift back and down.
PROJECTION
is a sub-set of “Resonance.” If your voice is stuck in your throat, you are probably not resonating and not projecting. As you practice “Resonance” exercises, with curiosity and in a spirit of exploration, imagine that you are making sound to communicate, to reach out, to gather in the lost and lonely, to add one’s God-given voice to the sounds of God’s beautiful creation.
RESONANCE/PROJECTION Exercises
1. Activate your mouth and lips by practicing this sequence of words: “Woo, Woe, War, Wow.” Your lips should softly but specifically shape the words, rather than your jaw and teeth “chewing” the words. Repeat each word, several times, speak them as if you were telling a story, chant them, proclaim them. Allow the large vowel sounds to fill your mouth.
2. Do a “speaking scale” on an “m” sound. Sustain an “m” on a medium pitch and slide it up a half-tone or a whole tone, holding the sound comfortably to the end of your breath. Breathe and sustain an “m” sound on that same pitch, but then slide up in pitch again. Repeat, and go up as high as you comfortably can. And then come back down, to as low a pitch as is comfortable. Don’t rush! This exercise is relaxing and can take 10 min. or more. You are training your speaking voice the entire time, and experiencing the natural interaction of breath and sound.
3. Hold an “m” sound on a single pitch, in a very nasal, annoying, mosquito-like drone. Staying on the same pitch, segue the sound into rich, full, human vocal resonance. This helps eliminate a scratchy, throaty voice.
4. Sustain an “m” sound and place it in each bony area of your face and head: upper teeth, bone ridge behind your teeth, nose bone, sinus cavities, forehead, top of head, back of head, sides of head, spinal vertebrae, clavicle, shoulders, ribs, pelvis, arm bones, leg bones, feet bones, and finally all over. Your whole body should be tingling and vibrating, which may take some getting used to!
5. Chant an “m” on a single pitch as a preface to vowel sounds: “mmmmmm-ay, mmmmmm-ee, mmmmmm-eye, mmmmmm-oh, mmmmmm-ooh.” Proclaim or speak an “m: sound as a preface to speaking vowel sounds: “mmm-ay! mmm-ee! mmm-eye! mmm-oh! mmm-oo! The longer you sustain the vowel sounds, the freer your voice will be.
ARTICULATION
Wake up the face, lips, tongue, and soft palate with exercises which increase blood flow and oxygen in the tissues. Identify, energize and strengthen these specific areas. Experiment with opening the mouth with your lips rather than by dropping your lower jaw. Jumpstart your voice by “motoring” or “fluttering” your lips while releasing sound, sirening the pitch up and down. This should be fun and liberating, messy and childlike; we all did it as infants and toddlers.
ARTICULATION Exercises
1. Release long “ribbons” of sound by chanting, on a single pitch, each of the voiced sustainable consonants: n,m,v,z,ng,zh, th,l. Sing melodies on each of these sounds: hymns, nursery rhymes, lullabys, torch songs, folk songs, show tunes, your own compositions, etc.
2. Experiment with the upbeat “click” consonont sounds: d,t,b p,g,k,dg,dz and ts. (Note: don’t say the name of the sound — make the light, clicked sound the symbol calls for.) A light click will never sound heavy or affected. It will simply be present to complete a syllable or word.
3. Feel the action of each clicked and sustainable consonant at the end of a a vowel sound sequence: ex.: “ay-d, ee-d, I-d, oh-d, oo-d” and “ay-m, ee-m, I-m, oh-m, oo-m.” Taste the consonant action at the ends of words, i.e. the clicked action at the end of “good, fit, grab, lip, bog, smoke, edge, reach, thuds, flits” and the flowing action at the end of ” fun, room, give, ooze, clang,massage, loathe, bell.”
4. Put different consonant cluster endings on on a vowel sound sequence, as in “ay-pts, ee-ypts, eye-pts, oh-pts, oo-pts; ay-dz, ee-ds, eye-dz, oh-dz, oo-dz; ay-vz, ee-vx, eye-vz, oh-vz, oo-vz, etc.” Make up your own.
5. Some recommend tongue twisters. I prefer the terms “verbal dessert” or “word candy.” Repeat them till you can do them lightly and quickly. A few appear below. Many more are available online.
Buh-duh guh-duh, buh-duh guh-duh, etc.
Guh-duh buh-duh, guh-duh buh-duh, etc.
Luh-luh guh-guh, luh-luh guh-guh, etc.
Guh-guh lul-luh, gug-guh luh-luh, etc.
(Repeat each line above 3 times,
completing the 4th repetition with
gah-gah-gah, bah-bah-bah, gah-gah-gah,
and la-la-la, respectively. You’ll
catch the rhythm.)
Whether the weather be cold,
Whether the weather be hot,
Whether the weather be fine,
Whether the weather be not,
We’ll weather the weather,
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not.
A big black bug bit a big black bear
and the big black bear bled blood.
Amidst the mists and coldest frosts,
With barest wrists and stoutest boasts,
He thrust his fists against the posts,
And still insists he sees the ghosts.
Replace the initial “p” in Peter Piper
Picked a Peck…” with other consonants:
“Zeter Ziper Zicked a Zeck…” etc.
Speak in gibberish while moving around
a space, in large, small, and medium
versions. The medium version approximates
the vocal and physical energy required
to proclaim God’s Word.
RESONANCE
Sustain an “m” sound and feel the free, vibrating sensation that fills your face and head, especially if your lips are softly touching and you maintain a cushion of space between your upper and lower teeth. Close off your ears and feel the intense vibration. This is resonance! You will be surprised by the robust, fullness of the sound. Let the “m” sound be your new buddy for a week. Sustain it on different pitches all the way to the end of your breath, siren the pitch up and down, using the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and wake up your lips and mouth. The more “m” sounds you make, and the longer they are sustained, the greater the physical feeling and relishing of the vibration. Explore the same way with voiced consonants “n,v,z,ng,l,zh,” etc.) “Jam” on these consonants while you drive, take a walk or do the dishes. Short explorations done more often reinforce the sensation of vibration more than long, exhaustive sessions. Make sure your chin is not thrusting forward as you sustain sound; lengthen the back of your neck and allow your chin to ease down.
PROJECTION
is a sub-set of “Resonance.” If your voice is stuck in your throat, you are probably not resonating and not projecting. As you practice the exercises above, with curiosity and in a spirit of exploration, imagine that you are making sound to communicate, to reach out, to gather in the lost and lonely, to add one’s God-given voice to the sounds of God’s beautiful creation.
RESONANCE/PROJECTION Exercises
TEXT WORK
Find a short passage you like, 10-15 lines, something with a bit of challenge and rhythm and a strong message (a prayer, a poem, part of a speech, the Pledge of Allegiance) and print a large-scale, double-spaced copy to work with. (“Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll would be fun.) At this stage it’s helpful NOT to work on any Scripture passage you may soon proclaim. You can return to it later. Text work simply means playing with the text, taking liberties with it, breaking it into bits and reconstituting it, with no thought of “getting it right.” It’s very important, however, after trying one of the suggestions below on a phrase or section of text, that you immediately speak that exact text normally, with the intent to communicate. That way your exploration pays off and you can perceive that your voice has become freer and more responsive to the text. Eventually you will learn your warm-up” piece by heart, freeing yourself from the page, so you can experience the power of speech with flow and momentum. Commitment and energy are infectious. If you try these explorations with commitment and energy you will galvanize yourself. The more you proclaim, the more you will WANT to proclaim. After 15 – 30 minutes of text work, plunge into a Bible passage you are preparing to proclaim in public. I predict that you will feel a major difference in your vocal quality and that you will feel ready to proclaim. Use the text work techniques on new passages as you prepare them for “prime time.”
TEXT WORK Exercises
1. Read the passage in a exaggerated way to break the ice and get your energy flowing.
2. Whisper it without any voice at all.
3. “Mouth” the words, feeling the action of the lips, tongue and teeth.
4. Chant through the passage on a single pitch, which will release the flow of your voice.
5. Add first names of anyone you know throughtout the passage: “In the beginning was the word, Ann…”
6. As you read, repeat the last word in a phrase, prefaced by a vigorous “yes!” “In the beginning was the word, yes, the word…!” This prevents glossing over key words, or letting your voice drop in energy as you complete a phrase or sentence.
7. Crumple up a piece of paper into a ball. Walk around as you read the passage and kick the paper ball on key words.
8. Press your hand firmly against a wall and find resistance as you read the passage. The words come to life!
When you have finished these explorations read the passage again with a need to communicate. Focus on an imaginary listener on the opposite wall. Use eye contact. You should be familiar enough with the piece after all the repetition to feel free of the book or page. You are ready to tell a powerful story that touches a congregation, opening their eyes, ears and hearts to the power of Scripture. The more you work on Scripture this way, the more your own eyes, ears and heart will open to God’s Word.
If you have tried the text explorations above, you have experienced “New Lectio Divina.” You have had a small sample of a banquet that awaits. I am ready and willing to facilitate text immersion sessions that extend well beyond what is described here, so please do call on me!