The Voice Foundation

HOW YOUR VOICE CAN HELP YOU DEVELOP EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

How your voice can help you develop effective communication

Deborah Feijó

As a speech-language pathologist and voice specialist, I have been working for 23 years on the development of broadcast journalists' voices and communication. 

In this journey, I learned that the self-perception of those professionals of their own speaking voices is very deficient. This population knows very little about their voice, both in the health sense and in the sense of the impact that the voice can have on effective communication in terms of comprehension, intention, and emotion that the audience perceives. 

Furthermore, not only then, but the professionals involved in the production, direction, and editing always had “tips” to suggest “how to speak better” without understanding the physiology and science behind the voice production, which can make the professional voice users confused and lost. 

This workshop intends to practically present the paths I propose to develop the consciousness and perception of the speaking voice not only for broadcast journalists but for spokespeople, executives, lawyers, and social media influencers.  

The sequence of the exercises proposed is:

1. Self-perception of the voice with vocalizations and words.

2. Use of fricative sounds and self-controlling variations of frequency and intensity—this part of the practice intends to develop self-awareness of the impact of those variations on the voice, speech, and emotions of the audience. 

3. Use of meaningless sequences of words with different emotions and the construction of a “table of emotions”. 

4. Use of identical phrases with different meanings. 

There will be handouts distributed with the exercises, and the table will be filled with the exercises.