If you have a voice, then you already have the ability to use it expressively and powerfully. If you’re struggling to use your voice confidently, or if you’re getting a lot of I-beg-your-pardons at your networking events, then the biggest reason for that can be explained in just one word: HABITS.
In this article, I’m going to dive into what I call, “Unhelpful Vocal Habits.” You’ll learn what they are, why they’re stopping you from finding and projection your true voice confidently. I’ll also share how to get rid of these habits so that you can fully and confidently express yourself the way you want to.
The Origins
Have you ever had a negative experience that involved using your voice in a public situation?
One of my vocal students is a mom from Australia who always loved to sing. When she was younger, she was at a family function where there was a karaoke machine. While she was having fun singing, an older relative walked up to her, switched her microphone off in front of everyone and told her to be quiet.
Another student based in Canada shared that she used to sing in a choir when she was a child. During one rehearsal, the choir director stopped everyone, singled my student out and asked her to perform a line from the song they were working on. After singing the line, the choir director said, “So it’s YOUR voice that’s sticking out. When we get to that part in the song, just stop singing so we can’t hear you.”
What do you think these experiences may have taught my students to believe about their own voices?
How do you think these beliefs may have impacted their future experiences involving projecting her voice in front of others?
It’s Not Just About Singing
I once met a woman at a networking event who shared that she was constantly struggling with vocal fatigue. Further into the conversation she shared that a mentor once told her she needed to make her voice sound low “like a man” if she ever wanted to be taken seriously. I’m sure I don’t need to go into the various levels of how misguided and, frankly, damaging this “advice” can be, however well it was intended.
Lingering Shadows
Experiences like these can really cast a shadow on a person’s vocal confidence and seriously impact how they perceive their own voices.
Your voice is an instrument that’s built exclusively for you. In other words, if you have a voice, you already have an instrument that’s perfectly and uniquely made for you and you alone.
No one else in this world has a voice like yours and no one ever will.
And yet, when it comes to singing or speaking in public, there seems to be this misconception that you’re either born with a good voice or you’re not.
I’ve been coaching voices since 2008, and I can say from personal experience that 99.9% of the “vocal problems” most people say they have are a direct result of ingrained, unconscious habits. It’s 100% NOT because they were born with a “bad voice”.
How Unhelpful Habits Are Formed
If you think about my two vocal students who had those very public, very negative experiences related to their voices, you can probably guess at some of the consequences that may have resulted from those incidences.
My student from Australia shared that although she continued to sing at church, she stopped singing solo because every time she tried to, it felt like her voice would get stuck in her throat. She said it was as if her body was physically blocking her voice from coming out. This led her to develop a HABIT of engaging her throat muscles whenever she sang.
My student from Canada shared that she spent years being afraid to project her voice out loud because she believed no one would like her if she did. This led her to develop a HABIT of diffusing her voice by releasing all the air out when she sang.
As for the woman I met at the networking event, she developed a habit of unnaturally pushing her voice to sound lower because she believed that was how she would be taken seriously. As a result, she was constantly experiencing vocal fatigue.
Unhelpful Vocal Habits Explained
“Unhelpful Vocal Habits” as I define them are physical behaviours that cause you to lose control over your voice. They are developed subconsciously and are often the result of previous experiences or deep-rooted beliefs that we have about our voices.
Causes Versus Effects
It’s important to note the distinctions I’m making here between causes and effects as they relate to vocal habits.
Vocal habits are behaviours that CAUSE certain EFFECTS.
In the context of singing, these effects could be singing off-pitch, vocal strain, loss of breath, airiness, nasality, voice cracks, lack of stamina, poor rhythm, etc.
In the context of speaking, these effects could be vocal strain and loss of breath as well, but also lack of projection, vocal fatigue, loss of voice, undesirable tone, shakiness, etc.
A few examples of unhelpful habits that can cause these effects could be:
Tensing up the face and neck muscles
Inhaling or exhaling too much air
Shallow breathing
Activating the wrong muscles for projection
Constricting the vocal tract (the space inside your mouth)
Tightening the jaw muscle
Bunching up the tongue
The moment I stopped trying to fix all the “effects” that I didn’t like about my voice, and instead focused on changing the habits that were CAUSING them was the moment my voice truly started to transform.
Why Knowing This Is “Key” (pun intended!)
So, why is this important to know? If you are are experiencing undesirable vocal effects, whether that be in singing or speaking, then you might assume you have to work hard changing each individual effect.
For example, if you determine that you’re constantly running out of air when you sing or speak, then you might assume you have a breathing problem. Then by that line of thinking, you might decide to take up yoga, swimming or running to strengthen your lungs. While doing those activities will benefit your general health and well being, they will most certainly not teach you how to control your breathing for singing or speaking.
The far better solution would be to go after the root causes of the undesirable vocal effects you’re experiencing.
In short, when you identify and correct your unhelpful habits, you will free your voice from undesirable vocal effects.
This is why it’s important to work with a good vocal coach who doesn’t simply call out the problem areas in your voice, but goes several steps further by helping you identify the HABITS that are actually causing those problems to begin with.
On top of that, your coach should be able to design tailored exercises that target those specific habits and be able to explain them in a way that doesn’t cause your eyes to glaze over in confusion.
What This Means For You
If are struggling in any way with your voice (whether in singing or speaking), it does not mean you have a bad voice. It simply means you have unhelpful habits that are causing you to struggle with your vocal expression. In fact, we ALL have unhelpful habits, myself included.
This is why I tell students that addressing unhelpful habits should always be the first step in freeing the voice. You could practice a song or a speech for 10,000 hours, but if you aren’t doing anything to intentionally shift your unhelpful habits, then you’re always going to feel limited.
Start identifying and shifting unhelpful habits by getting your voice into what I call VOCAL ALIGNMENT.
Getting your voice into alignment is like hitting the reset button on your voice and getting it to work the way nature intended.
The unique way in which we get our students to do this is through our Vocal Alignment System and Exercise Routines, which are key components of what we teach all of our students who include singers, actors, speakers, presenters and professionals who rely on their voices for the work that they do.
Remember, your voice is an instrument that’s built exclusively for you. In other words, if you have a voice, then you already have an instrument that’s perfectly made for you and you alone.
No one else in this world has a voice like yours and no one ever will; this is something to be celebrated and appreciated. You’ll be amazed by what your voice can really do once you start identifying and shifting your own unhelpful vocal habits.
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