Starting to actually generate sounds

The way your vocal folds work is one of those things that’s very simple in theory but remarkably complicated in reality.

We won’t be going into that here, in this simple course. Instead, we’ll be concentrating on one or two simple exercises to help you get your head in the right place and relax your shoulders/throat etc.

Before we do that though, here’s a simple exercise to show you how your voice works. The vibrations you feel in your fingers is your voice. How cool is that?!

Okay. Onwards and upwards to the most simple way of getting your head in the right place! Don’t worry, this isn’t some sci-fi attack where I claim you’re being manipulated by aliens controlling your thoughts. It’s simply an exercise to show you how you should be standing, in order to speak properly.

In short, it’s about making sure you don’t have your head tipped back when you speak, as that puts too much tension into your neck muscles – which makes it hard for the muscles in/of/around your vocal folds to do their job.

This video talks you through it.

It’s worth mentioning the obvious here, too… being nervous will tighten your neck muscles up (so make a point of dropping your shoulders… and now do it again!) and so will being cold!

Make a point of arriving in plenty of time for your neck and shoulder muscles to relax and warm up before you have to speak.

Consider using something like a buff or a scarf to keep those parts of your body warm, too!

That’s it for posture – simple in theory, eh?! We’ll now move on to looking at exercises which turn the sound you make here into clearly understood words… Control!