Voice Production + Projection

Voice production is…

In order to understand voice production, I first needed to understand the mechanics of breathing.

• As you breathe in, your diaphragm and the intercostal muscles contract

• The diaphragm is a dome shaped muscle dividing the chest from the abdomen. When it contracts, it flattens which increases the volume in the chest.

• The intercostal muscles are between the ribs. When they contract, the ribs swing upwards and outwards, which also increases the space in the chest.

• The increased volume in the chest means that the pressure decreases which causes air to flow into the lungs through the mouth or nose.

• When you breathe out, the opposite happens: diaphragm and intercostals relax, volume in the chest decreases, pressure increases and air is forced out of the lungs.

• This air can be diverted through the larynx which contains vocal folds. These vibrate rapidly when the air passes over them and creates voice.

• Voice is converted to speech by using the speech organs (tongue, teeth, lips, hard and soft palate which shape the sound into words).

Voice projection is…

Is the strength of speaking whereby your voice is used loudly and clearly so you can be heard and understood by your audience.

Why is voice projection important

• a large hall can swallow sounds

• There may be background noise

• An elderly audience may struggle to hear you

In class we practiced this by…

• Diaphragmatic breathing + saying as many numbers as possible in one breath

• Breathing in and pulling your diaphragm in each word (‘one, two, three, four…’)

How do techniques help with breath control and projection

1. gives a good breath technique: normal talking uses air from the top of lungs, well projected uses air from the whole lung- using diaphragm to its full extent.

2. a good stance, relaxed- tension impairs vocal folds, facing the audience projects it better

3. clear articulation

Clear articulation

Practicing tongue twisters and exercises involving the tongue, teeth, lips and hard and soft palate help with this. If you mumble, even if you have a strong voice, the audience will be unable to understand you.