What's up Explearners thanks so much for stopping by for those of you who are new
welcome this is a place for you to improve your communication skills and
public speaking so welcome today we're talking about voice projection a couple
of you Explearners have asked me "how do I make my voice louder?" "how do I project my
voice?" well I'm here to help so I hope that the three strategies I'm going to
give you in this video today will help you make your voice louder so that you
can project and command a room like the boss you are so if that sounds good to
you then don't go anywhere so I remember when I was a little girl and I would
sing in front of my grandmother who was a professional opera singer she would
tell me to sing from my head and I never really understood what that meant until
recently so what she was telling me was a technique that many professional
singers and actors use that is head voice so it sounds a bit strange
basically it's about using your diaphragm to project the sound from hear
your powerhouse and it comes out from your head I mean
your mouth yes but you're imagining it being emanated from here today we're
going to talk about three ways to project your voice and I'll give you a
hint it has to do with your core the first thing I want to tell you is the
breathing exercise that you would find commonly in yoga or in meditation if
you've ever been to a yoga class which I'm sure many of you have they always
start off with telling you to fill your belly with air holding it at the top and
then releasing it so you're breathing from your diaphragm and they even have
you hold your diaphragm right so put your hand here or your
diaphragm is and slowly breathe in filling your diaphragm space with air
holding at the top and then releasing so many of us actually don't use the
capacity of our diaphragm to fill it with air so we just don't really use
that much breast power right and then we're not speaking in a way that's gonna
project our voice we're really just straining our vocal cords if you try to
be louder we don't want to strain our voice we want to project our voice I
remember when I first started out teaching over ten years ago and I would
come home at the end of the day and my throat would be throbbing I felt like I
did so much damage to my vocal cords and I wasn't yelling or shouting or anything
like that but I was talking all day so the strain of just talking too much all
day but then also not using my diaphragm correctly meaning not using the the
power from my core to speak so I don't want that to happen to you I want you to
be able to have these skills so that you'll know how to protect your voice
and project your voice okay so it goes back to this idea of breathing I want
you to practice that but here's the thing I don't want you to focus on it
like don't obsess over it because when you do then we don't do it right because
we're too busy trying to figure out if we're doing it right or not instead I
want you to be mindful of breathing from your diaphragm as opposed to focusing on
that only so what you can do to make sure that it's naturally happening you
can lay down get into a sort of trance like calm meditative state so if you're
doing yoga then this is the perfect opportunity to practice it or if you're
meditating and just allow the thought to be somewhere in your mind but not the
only thing you're concentrating on right because I want it to be natural and the
more you do this the easier it will become in the beginning it's gonna seem
strange to you it's it's gonna you know be kind of strange to fill your
diaphragm with air and if you overthink it what will happen is you
feeling pressure in your chest and we don't want that to happen so let it just
come naturally so that's why I say lay down as you do this just get into a
comfortable position and then practice filling your diaphragm with air so fill
your belly as they would say in a yoga class make this part of your routine so
that you can actually stick to it because it's not something that's gonna
happen overnight it's not like okay after doing this breathing exercise for
one day two days I'm gonna be able to project my voice better unfortunately it
doesn't work that way right this is something that that's a habit that we
have to develop but once you really are able to breathe from your diaphragm
you'll be able to use that and your voice will come out so much stronger so
much more powerfully number two I want you to stand up okay I'm sitting down
but I'm used to using my diaphragm now at this point but if you're just getting
started I want you to stand up and imagine the voice carrying from
somewhere in your core here in your diaphragm and coming out from here your
head okay yes our mouth but really focus on this area okay imagine you're
speaking to 360 degrees even behind you if that makes any sense but visualize it
and then I want you to say something monosyllabic like ma ha okay go with MA
that might be easier to start off with
and imagine it just choose any color imagine that color just stretching and
elongated and coming out of here okay so you're gonna have to use your
imagination for this one but trust me it works and it takes time to get but you
will get it I promise and my last tip number three laugh out
loud get one of those really awesome belly laughters just coming out of your
belly and you can even see your belly rise and fall when you laugh this way
right just have somebody tell you a really funny joke something that you
find absolutely hilarious and laugh this will allow you to feel that sensation
and you're not feeling it in your chest you're not putting pressure here you're
not feeling it in your vocal cords right of course you're gonna feel vibrations
here because your vocal cords are there but you're really feeling the power and
the pressure come from your diaphragm try out those three strategies let me
know in the comments below which ones work for you and how is it going and if
you feel a difference between speaking from here or speaking from here which
comes out from here right okay Explearners thanks so much for joining me today let
me know what other types of videos and questions you have for me so that I can
make a video about it just for you you know where to find me right here on
Explearning communication coaching I will catch you in my next video. Happy
Explearning !