tempted to articulate better? Hmm...
Heads down, heart-felt ranting follows!
Anyone on YouTube who doesn't pay for ads to be removed, will probably have been exposed to an aggressive barrage of videos promoting better articulation. For less than ten minutes a day for a month.
These ads are seductive, yet pit shame, inequality, embarrassment and failure against pride, leadership hierarchy, self-confidence and 'success'. And they make me and some of my more discerning friends... SPIT!
For a quarter of a century, voice coaching (actually there's no such thing and it's better described IMO as voice 'coaxing') was part of my story. It was highly rewarding although demanding, one-to-one work. Every voice is different.
Perhaps you could call this work - as my teacher the late Dr Frances MacCurtain did - as 'removing vocal hazards e.g. 'umms' and 'errs' or repetitive catch phrases. And bringing out what your beautiful - be it shy, slightly faltering or even god forbid, apparently 'inarticulate' - natural voice. I don't think this is what the new form of prescriptive voice training is offering.
In excess, of course - or relied or drawn on unconsciously - vocal 'hazards' can certainly diminish the joy of listening to a speaker.
But the 'new' training being promoted is hell bent on taming this stunning instrument called the voice to kill what are, I believe, some of the most useful sounds and words we've been gifted. And in the process make anyone who uses them feel stupid, ashamed or expect to fail in the workplace.
Their premise is all about winning (in a corporate landscape that is already crumbling before our eyes), being the top human and even dumming down an accent which might betray your beloved culture or homeland...
The sounds they propose to eliminate inhabit the chants of our ancestors, the joys of children playing, the moments we make space to breathe and some that mimic our animal and elemental kin. These sounds are free of definition, and we need them.
In the last couple of days I've learnt via David Abram's 'Becoming Animal' they even have a collective noun: 'vocables'...
...'expressive sounds without determinate meaning.'
'Ah!'
'Oh!'
'Hmmmm'
'Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'
In an ironic and counter-intuitive shift, I'm wanting to honour, reinject into language and celebrate our 'vocables'.
When heard by the person speaking (often they're not and that's when they typically become a 'hazard'), these sounds become friends. They come and go naturally. They help distinguish 'you', effortlessly.
Well... (sense the pause that comes after that?) Perhaps?.... (feel the flexibility when that prefaces a sentence).
This isn't no pitch. Return to the 'voice coaching' world is unappealing, but perhaps you've got a tip or two here.
Ha! Well I never...Voice coaxing?! May be if you really really really wanted it and knew it wasn't a quick fix or going to get you any of the rewards mentioned above I might be tempted. It would have to be live, not via a screen and I'd charge a mighty penny for my time!
For now, this rant comes as a warning. Hmmm... more than a warning. A heads up that when you're seduced by those ads, possibly even thinking they'll train or tame you into sounding more professional, think again. You might just end up losing that warm 'ahhhhhhhhhhhhh', or a smile from a woman when you approach her with a question that's been used a million times before...
Isn't retaining what ai(s) have not yet successfully mastered - the art of sounding truly human with all the 'vocables' dancing in its far-too-polished voice - worth it?
#voice #rant #articulation #speaking