Translator: David DeRuwe
In this world of so much noise and so many voices, how to stand out?
Nowadays anyone who believes they have something to say
can create their own channel.
How to keep listeners’ attention if a new distraction appears every second?
Having a clear voice and accurate articulation is critical to being heard.
The easier it is to understand what you say
and the more pleasant the tone of your voice,
the better chance you have of keeping others’ ears open.
We need to be aware of what is worth saying, the speech itself.
Today’s reflection precedes the content, so it serves for everyone.
Whatever it is you’re talking about, you always need voice and articulation -
clear and clean,
very agreeable,
with a constant rhythm.
Speaking well brings value to any content, and speaking well is the natural thing.
Nevertheless, it’s necessary to understand and take ownership of natural processes
in order to perfect them.
The voice is produced by air
that leaves the lungs and makes the vocal cords vibrate.
The voice is a sound, a child that cries
“Aaa” (low scream)
has a voice.
To produce the voice, we need lungs and vocal cords,
both structures that belong to the respiratory system.
When I have a cold, my voice gets nasal, like this,
and if I’m out of breath, my voice gets weak.
When the sound arrives in the mouth, it will be articulated, or shaped,
by phonoarticulatory organs, which will transform it into speech.
The phonoarticulatory organs are the lips, tongue, cheeks, teeth, jaw,
and the hard and soft palate, better known as the roof of the mouth,
and depending on the way that these organs are moved,
we can produce different phonemes, syllables, and words.
These organs are also the ones responsible for the first phase
of food digestion - the oral phase.
The organs that modify my voice to transform it into speech
are the same organs that modify food so that I can ingest it.
So you see, the quality of the voice depends on the proper functioning
of the respiratory system,
and speech articulation depends on how I grind and swallow food.
The conclusion is that we don’t have a specific organ for speech,
but we appropriate the respiratory system
and part of the digestive tract to produce our voice and our speech.
So, to improve my voice and my speech, I need to create awareness
of how to use these two systems in the best way.
When we’re born, with the exception of teeth,
we have a body equal to that of an adult.
We have lips, tongue, cheeks, and a jaw, but the baby can’t speak.
To acquire the capabilities of an adult, the baby needs to go through a process
of maturation that will support the acquisition of these capabilities.
I’ll describe here the ideal process to understand and improve these dynamics.
This doesn’t mean different individuals, for different reasons, go different ways.
And I make this reservation, because what happens
is the body knows that its food comes from breathing and digestion -
the air and the food itself.
Without breathing and digestion, there is no life.
Often, the body needs to breathe or feed itself,
and not having the ideal conditions, it needs to make adaptations.
Our body finds a way for us to breathe, feed ourselves,
and even survive,
but not the best way, not in the ideal way.
But that’s how we know it,
because the process has developed so naturally and over so long,
that it’s hard to realize that it could be otherwise.
It takes willingness and knowledge to recognize that your way of breathing,
chewing, or swallowing, the only way you knew until now,
may not be the most effective.
That’s why we’re here - to discuss the ideal, recognize some adaptations,
and come up with ideas to get closer to our maximum potential.
Let’s consider what happens so a baby who starts out only knowing how to cry,
by the time it’s about three years of age,
can already, under ideal conditions, speak all it needs and even more.
At this stage, the baby basically breathes and eats.
The first type of breathing we perform is when we are at rest -
this should be done through the nose, with the tongue sucked against the palate,
in a slow rhythm, with the abdomen’s participation.
This way of breathing ensures warm, clean air,
stimulating the growth of the maxilla and mandible,
and increasing the capacity of inspired air.
This gives us a slower breathing rhythm, bringing us calm and tranquility,
and in these turbulent times, who doesn’t need calm and tranquility?
Even you who started to watch this lecture and think you already speak very well
can benefit from this understanding to become more relaxed.
Restful breathing is the breathing that feeds our cells and tissues
and that nourishes us so our bodies can function properly,
giving us a sense of well being.
Practicing this kind of breathing, we start to connect with ourselves
and start having insights.
We acquire the perception and awareness that we exist and are here
(Breathing)
now, thanks to our ability to breathe.
It’s the ability to breathe that keeps us in this world.
This consciousness of being in the world is linked to the notions of presence,
attention, concentration, and of focus.
When it’s hard to concentrate and focus, the first step is to breathe well,
not just to improve your speech, but to improve yourself as a whole.
Awareness of presence, concentration, and focus
precede communication itself.
Another type of breathing is more active breathing;
in our case, breathing for voice production and for communication.
But what do I communicate with my voice?
Emotion - the voice communicates emotion by combining sharp sounds:
iu-iuuuu -
It’s serious.
(Belch)
Less intense -
Huuuuuuum (Whimper)
and more intense -
Ahhhhhh (Scream)
Prolonged -
(Yawn)
Shortened -
(Laughter)
Depending on what I want to communicate,
I can use my voice with more sharpness or more seriousness,
with more or less volume and intensity, and with control of duration.
Notice how not mastering these variables
can harm the communication of your message.
To understand the intimate relationship between respiration, voice, and emotion,
let’s be clear why it’s so important
that we work to improve the way we express ourselves.
When we repress our voice or our emotions, we repress the flow of breath,
and to inhibit respiratory flow is to inhibit life.
Therefore I insist again, the natural thing is to speak well.
To live is to express ourselves.
Another thing that a baby does is eat.
Initially it sucks the mother’s breast, but later, more and more,
it grinds tougher and tougher foods, demanding more physical work.
From the breast to much tougher foods, there is a pathway which demands
increasingly more from our orofacial musculature.
Each time, these movements are more synchronized and precise,
permitting us to say more complex things and to grow our vocabulary every day.
During the first years, we grow very quickly,
and this growth is enabled by the action of the muscles.
Now pay attention here.
The reasoning can seem a little more complicated, but it’s not!
If I chew more with one side of the mouth,
the muscles on that side will develop more.
This side will become more competent,
and the tendency is for me to chew more and more on that side.
Then we have a muscular disequilibrium.
This side stronger; this side weaker.
Over time, the jaw, that should move to both sides for chewing,
will always move to the same side, and one side of the bone will grow longer.
Now, we also have an imbalance of the structure.
And notice how this modification has consequences for my speech.
Even though you continue to understand what I’m saying,
you have to pay a little bit more attention.
It’s a vicious cycle that with some exercises can turn into a virtuous cycle.
The primary dentition, or baby teeth,
is completed around two and a half to three years of age,
and it’s not coincidental at this stage that the child is already able,
or should be able, to speak all the sounds of the language.
It’s that after the first set of teeth is there,
we come to swallow in a different way from when we were babies.
Now we have a mature way of swallowing.
This means that during swallowing, we touch all the articulation points
of the phonemes, the sounds of our language, with our tongue.
So, proper swallowing is equal to proper articulation of the phonemes.
You see how we went back there so that we could understand
how nature enables us to speak well?
Now, let’s see if everything is OK with your breathing and swallowing.
Do you catch yourself breathing through your mouth?
Do you bite your nails, grind or clench your teeth?
Do you have pain or clicking in your jaw?
Do you have speech or diction problems?
Do you snore or have sleep apnea?
Is something in your voice you don’t like?
Do you have orthodontic problems?
If you answered “Yes” to some of these questions,
there’s something there that needs to be improved.
And for whatever change, you’ll need the three “Rs”:
rhythm, repetition, and regularity.
To improve voice and speaking is not an out-of-this-world thing
or a rare skill granted to just a lucky few.
It’s daily work on roles you already play,
and sometimes an adaptation is needed.
You already breathe, suck, chew, and swallow.
Doing this the right way goes a long way in improving your voice and speaking,
and also taking your message further.
Of course, any voice and speech exercise that doesn’t consider deviations
in these basic functions will not work properly.
I’m sure that if you work hard, you will make great strides.
But if you need a hand, look for a speech therapist.
And remember, the natural thing is to speak well.
Thank you.