The Power of the Voice

A few of the most powerful concepts in our world are often invisible.

The mind.

Our breath.

And the voice.

When something is invisible, we have a tendency to undermine it.

But not only when it’s invisible…

But also when we lack knowledge.

How well do you know the voice?

Is it just an ambiguous force in your world?

Or do you view it as a technology?

‘I certainly do not view it as a technology!’

Well, you should.

Because your voice is one of the most intricate forms of technology out there.

‘The Power of Your Voice’ is often used as a slogan.

But it’s one of the few slogans that have a strong practical benefit in your world when you understand the impacts.

This blog is going to help you understand the role of the voice in your social skills.

You’ll also understand how it works so you appreciate the little details.

When we internalize the details of a subject, that’s when we begin to witness the power of something we’ve been undermining.

The voice is the body’s natural musical instrument.

So let’s learn the power of the voice.

The Importance of the Voice In Communication

Our goal as communicators is to exchange ideas while creating a smooth experience for whoever is interacting with us.

With me so far?

‘Yessir.’

An ‘experience’ consists of someone’s INTERNAL world.

Their subjective side.

A human’s subjective side consists of their interpretation of their imagination & emotions.

-The imagination is the pictures someone sees in their mind.

-The emotions are the physical sensations that their body feels.

Often times, humans are hearing you, but they are not listening.

‘What’s the difference?’

Hearing is physical & listening is mental.

Unless you have captured someone’s attention, you are NOT giving them an experience.

They are physically present, but their mind is elsewhere.

So you do not have control over their imagination or emotions.

Often times, people do not listen to you because your message does not resonate with them.

They are distracted.

Or….you have a very harsh voice.

You are unpleasant to listen to.

‘And if I do have a pleasant voice?”

When you have a pleasant voice, their senses warm up to you.

Even if they don’t resonate with your message, they are much more likely to let you into their internal world.

The tonality serves as the gateway to give them an experience.

Remember, words are just 7% of communication.

Body language makes up 55% and tonality makes up a staggering 38%.

Your body language allows their eyes to warm up to you.

The tonality allows their ears to warm up to you.

And from there, you are closer to giving them an experience.

That’s the power of the voice.

The Components of the Voice

The voice is very unique because it is a mixture of a flute & violin.

-It’s a flute because you blow air into it.

-It’s also a violin because you strum strings that create sound.

There are 4 components of a voice.

1. Actuator
2. Vocal cords
3. Resonator
4. Arituclators

Let’s go thru each one.

Actuator

The actuator is the energy, otherwise known as the breath.

Without the actuator, you have nothing.

It doesn’t matter if you have the best movement of jaw & lips if you do not have any air.

There will not be any sound.

The breath is where the motion of the voice gets started.

The breath leads into the vocal cords.

Vocal Cords

The vocal cords are the folds of tissues in the throat that turns the breath into sound.

The vocal cords need a certain level of breath to create the sound.

If you are a mouth breather, for example, you’ll notice that voice isn’t coming out, only breath is.

Why?

Because you are blowing breath thru the vocal cords, yes.

But the breath is low in pressure, so no sound is created.

When there is a certain standard of breath pressure that goes thru the vocal cords, sound is generated.

The sound is passed off to the resonators.

Resonators

The resonators is the mouth area.

To be more specific, it is the throat, mouth cavity & nasal passages.

Resonators gather all the sound that has been passed off to it from the vocal cords into one place.

At this point, this is just raw data.

Nothing meaningful, yet.

From this raw data, we can create something powerful.

Which brings us to the final element.

Articulators

The articulators include the tongue & lips.

This turns the raw data into information.

It turns the raw sound into words.

The goal of the articulators is to chop up the sound so we can communicate.

And from here, we are able to get our message out there to the public.

This is the final portion of how the voice is created.

Working on your Voice

All the movements that have been described thus far create what we know as the voice.

-The breath starts off the motion.

-All the breath goes thru the vocal cords to produce sound.

-The sound is gathered into one spot known as the resonators.

-And finally, we turn that sound into meaningful information with our tongues and lips.

Now that you are aware that there are 4 variables, ask yourself which part you can use some work on?

To understand the power of your voice, you need to be honest & introspective.

When I first started working on my voice, I noticed my jaw was too stiff.

So my problem was with my resonators.

This caused me to keep my mouth too small when I was speaking.

And stiff resonators threw my voice completely off.

This led to poor breathing, which led to weak sound and led to poor articulation.

Spotting that I had a stiff resonator allowed me to stretch the area & loosen up some.

It was a game of reverse engineering.

See if you are happy with your voice.

If not, analyze which variable/s may be off.

And do your best to gradually fix.

A chain effect is born from that.

Other than that, be a student of the game.

Listen to as many voices as you can.

Hear how others sound.

Do your best to listen to unpleasant voices just as much as you listen to pleasant voices.

What is the difference?

How is it making you feel?

Why do you feel that way?

The more questions you ask like this, the more you objectify the voice.

This allows you to have more tonality fluency.

A great way to control your voice is via the ears.

Leveraging your Most Powerful Instrument

No musical instrument is more advanced than the voice.

The voice has the ability to paint perceptions.

Form relationships.

Break relationships

And more.

This tool is a fine form of technology that we luckily posses.

It would be a shame if we never learned how to play it.

There are 4 elements of the voice that gets you to express yourself with confidence.

Understanding the breath, vocal cords, resonators, and articulators is a lifelong game.

Listening to other people’s voices is a lifelong game.

The beauty is that we can all learn to play this instrument.

We can use our voice to shape it after our goals & higher pursuits.

It’s a beautiful game of reverse engineering + being an artist.

The voice is your brand.

Time to start building a relationship with it.

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– ArmaniTalks