Soft Fold All

Neither is correct. The voice that is too loud hurts the listeners' ears -- the voice that is too soft is not being heard. In both cases, the message is being lost because listeners are unable to focus and it all boils down to volume.

I just received an email from a Public Speaking Forum in which the writer was questioning what to do with her client's loud voice. The responses from those who are professional speakers, as well as some who teach presentation skills, were interesting and varied -- none of which I would recommend. It is important to realize that your volume level is a learned habit. Either your parents spoke softly or loudly and you imitated them or perhaps you did the opposite, hoping not to sound like a loud, boisterous mother or maybe a dad who was difficult to hear. Regardless of the reason, your inner ear is quite comfortable with your current volume.

The answer is two-fold:

1. You must retrain your inner ear to accept either more volume or less.

2. You must allow your chest to power your sound.

Once your chest becomes your primary sounding board, your volume will automatically decrease if you currently speak too loudly because sound vibrating in the mid-torso or chest cavity is warmer, richer, resonant. Yes, a loud voice being propelled by your throat, voice box, mouth, and/or nasal cavities tends to be strident, harsh, and has an edge. The resonant voice from the chest has no edge, no stridency, no harshness. It is warm like that of James Earl Jones, Barry White (Oh, Yes!), Sean Connery, Julia Ormond, Diane Sawyer, and Ashley Judd.

If you are soft-spoken, on the other hand, your volume will automatically increase, again, once your chest is powering your voice. I am ever amazed when I see (and hear) one technique that can take two opposites and bring about the same results.

Loud Voice + Proper Voice Placement = Normal Volume

Soft Voice + Proper Voice Placement = Normal Volume

It is also important to recognize that your lack of volume or preponderance of it labels you. If you speak too loudly, you may be considered arrogant, authoritative, headstrong, pompous or even obnoxious. Whereas, those who speak too softly are often looked upon as being weak, wimpy, immature, ineffective, or diffident. None of these adjectives may describe you fairly; but, that is the message you are sending.

Place you voice in your chest and just listen to the difference. You will sound better; you will probably look better; and, you most definitely will feel better about yourself.

About the Author

The Voice Lady Nancy Daniels offers private, corporate and group workshops in voice and presentation skills as well as Voicing It!, the only video training program on voice improvement. Visit Voice Dynamic and watch Nancy as she describes Your Volume Control.

a short poem, i wanna call it "sleep"?

at night
flowers bow their heads
in butterfly homes
moonlight fades
from yellow eyes as they are tucked
beneath the soft folds of soaked sunlight.

day is stuffed into a shell
hidden from the eye of the beholder.

they all sleep anxiously
waiting for the sun to wake them.

thank you, I enjoyed that very much...

I read this one and the "Raw" one -- glass/zig-zag birds and mold from the beaks --> liked it a lot as well
your poetry paints a picture reminiscent of Jim Warren's artwork.. beauty, classic meets surreal

you have recreated a classic image, thought or feeling and made it yours - a new twist - re-awakens the senses

-if I were to presume to title this - I think I would be tempted to call it something along the lines of ---sounds/world within a seashell---- possibly because - you stuffed day into a shell; wrapping it all together nicely -- brought an image of a child holding one peering in after pulling it from the ear.... and dropping it - the last two lines

thank you again
wonderful images
beautiful words

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