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3 Quick Vocal Warm Ups for Presenting with Ease
Have you ever presented a talk with a shy voice where you hardly moved your lips while speaking? Have you gone to speak at your event and your voice was gritty or shaky? After you pressed record for your video blog, did you notice you had to clear your voice or maybe cough to get a clear sound?
Don’t start your important message with a cold voice! Warm her up.
Here are 3 quick vocal warm ups for presenting with ease!
- Tongue Twisters
- Diaphragm pops
- The M’s
Tongue twisters are a fun and effective way to warm up your whole lip and mouth area for fuller expression with speaking! Your pronunciation will be brought to a new level too with these tongue twisters so the consonants you are speaking get articulated and heard. Try saying these 4 tongue twisters 5-10 times before your event.
1- Black bugs blood is blue
2- Unique New York
3- Wayne went to Wales to watch walruses.
4- A proper cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot.
Diaphragm pops are warming up with words that contract the diaphragm muscle which is your main breathing muscle that sits right along the bottom of the rib cage. Getting the diaphragm enlivened and ready for action with fuller breaths to support longer bouts of talking, will give you a smooth approach and your listeners will find your speaking more easeful to listen to.
The consonants to play with are P, D, & Sh
say words like “Pop” “Dirty Dog” and “Shush” – say these normally, then say them with a “staccato” approach, quick and short.
The M’s are to get your vocal chords moving with the breath as well as create awareness of the 4 resonant chambers so you have a nice even quality to your voice and your audience will want to listen to your words.
Say: Ma, Me, Mi, Mo, Moo
First say these M’s so that your chest vibrates, then say it like the words were marbles in your mouth and you were trying not to let them fall out, thirdly, say them like you were the wicked witch of the west with a nasal tone, finally, turn into Glenda the good witch and say the words in an upper fairy head voice way.
Give these 3 quick vocal warm ups a try for presenting with ease and see if your voice has more presence, articulation and expression for your important message!
All the best!
Transform Your Self With Your Voice
The voice is used to speak language, to sing, to express emotions, to chant, to scream and, yes, it can also be used to transform your self.
Jill Purce, one of the leading pioneers in researching the effects of sound and voice on matter said, ” Sound is an incredibly powerful force…there were ways of using the voice which were the easiest ways of transforming and becoming clear, entering a state of clarity and emptiness and being present.” She also has mentioned that the Tibetan Monks view the a human being as body, mind voice, voice being that which coordinates the body and mind.
Many past cultures have used vocal chanting and singing to transform and to actualize their realities. Sadly, we have lost that practice in today’s modern culture. Many professionals in our modern cultures today may find using the voice to sing or chant somewhat of a “woo woo” practice. However, with the studies of sound therapy, cymatics, and vibroacoustical therapy, we may begin to see the value of using our voices to transform the resistance, the blocks and the stuckness in our careers, dream launching and relationships.
Your voice has a healing vibration:
Your voice is a wave of vibration. When you use your voice, you not only hear and receive that vibration with your ears but you also receive that vibration on the inside as well. Very powerful since the rest of your cells are vibrating as well. The sounds you marinate yourself in effect the vibration of the cells.
What vibrational impact might your voice have on your body if your mind was continually participating in judgmental thoughts? If you thought those thoughts for years and years what symptoms might your body give you to tell you something is not jiving with it?
You have the ability to use voice and sound to transform not only your body but the limiting belief systems that are creating your reality as well. You have the ability to use your voice to sound out vowels over and over again to reset some of the frequencies that are creating things you don’t desire.
Would you like to change your discomfort or fear of being seen and heard? Would you like to trust yourself, have confidence and speak dynamically? Would you like to be an uplifter? Would you like to contribute to the world in an amazing way?
I believe you can.
Thru using your voice to tone and chant you can begin to get back in tune with your authentic vibration. The vibration that is in tune with nature and source energy. From there not only with your voice transform but also your life. Your voice truly is your power.
For more information using your voice to transform your self, your career and your life
I invite you to join me for a FREE intro call.
All the best!
Now go out there and sing OM for the next 20 min!
Rebecca
Access Your Voice -Let Go Of Your Personality!!
Have you ever noticed that who you think you are and the points of view you have about yourself, about what is right and wrong and about what is good and bad predict what you are willing to be and act out in your life? There is a more potent way to express yourself in your reality and with your work.
Your personality is getting in the way of your voice!
Let go of your personality!
What if these points of view that are running your life and determining your expression were strategies you developed a long time ago to survive your family and your school life. What if these strategies are out dated and there is a more potent and more expressive way to live?
What if I told you the voice you are using right now today is actually the voice of a 5 year old or an 8 year old or a 13 year old? Have you gained awareness and wisdom thru the years that are being squashed and unheard because of strong points of view that you established way back when?
What if it is way more potent and efficient to tune in to what is required with the situation in the present moment. Would you be willing to be and do what ever it takes to be a contribution to your client? Or do you think your 5 year old self has client relations in your grown up business covered?
How do you choose something different:
Your vocal expression and communication with others can be a tell tale sign of where you are functioning from in your life. Vocal awareness can give you information as to whether you are functioning from the present moment or a past strategy. Functioning from the present moment requires that you be extremely present with the energetics in the room with out referring back to a past situation to figure out how to react and communicate. Two questions you can use to get clear about what is required in the present moment are:
What is required here?
What can I be or do to be the biggest contribution here?
These questions will keep you in the present moment. These questions will give some ah ha possibilities to try. These questions do not give you concrete answers but they do inform you as to what to be or do next, given that you are willing to let go of your personality to express what is required.
For example, If you are someone who has a point of view about cussing and being loud or aggressive, you may be missing out on part of the rainbow of vocal expression that could be effective in a certain moment.
Now this is not permission to go and let out all your aggression on a client or your child or a friend . You see if you become aware that a more stern or aggressive approach is what may be required, you do it with no attachment to anger or negative feelings, you do it as a strategy. To do this and use your voice in this effective way, what would it take to come from awareness rather then your personality, points of view and feelings. It’s putting your personality self aside and being willing to be the energy that will contribute to the person to create the most change.
Vise Versa, if your personality is stern, go – getter and no frills would you be willing to put that aside and voice your self with the tenderness that may be required?
Are you willing to use your voice in a way that would be the biggest contribution and create the most change? Yes, you may receive judgment, yes you may feel confused at first and yes you may see yourself and the reality around you change, including the freedom you have with your voice.
Use Grievances To Open The Voice
Use Grievances To Open The Voice
This is where you can use grievances to open the voice, your voice.
Free, open and expressive
When you think of the grievance does it make you feel light and fluffy inside or does it feel like a heavy pit in your stomach? Heavy? Then there is something there that might be unresolved and unforgiven. It’s not a right or wrong here its just a choice. Do you want to continue to have this grievance affect your body and your life?
The heavy pit in your stomach may be an indicator that there is some energetic and physical contracting going on. This situation may create some tension in your speaking and your singing voice. The vocal instrument is systemic meaning your thoughts, feelings, belief systems, energy systems and your body all help to create an outcome when you speak or sing. Do you want the out come to be free, open and expressive or constricted, limited and small? Again it is all just a choice. From my experience though free, open and expressive feels and works a lot better.
So what can you do to let go of these grievances that are halting the possibilities with your voice?
It seems simplistic and you have heard it before, but what would it take to forgive the person who did the grievance?
Forgiveness is the intentional and voluntary process by which a victim undergoes a change in feelings and attitude regarding an offense, lets go of negative emotions such as vengefulness, with an increased ability to wish the offender well. (thank you wikipedia)
So a few important things here that stand out, change in attitude and wish offenders well. When you can shift your attitude about the situation you begin to shift the contraction in your body and energy. You will physically feel lighter, your jaw may not feel as clenched and it may be easier to breath. When you wish another well, again, you unlock contraction in your body and energy field. This has a direct impact to open the voice.
Everything is energy. A grievance has a denser energy and distracts you from the greater possibilities of you. That energy sits in your energy field and eventually your body. A more positive attitude and wishing well to someone has a way less denser energy. It has a lighter energy or frequency that feels better in bodies and energy fields and allows you to tap into greater possibilities to open the voice.
What is your knowing? Singing or speaking with a body that is dense and contracted or light and open?
Want to let go of your grievances to have more possibilities with your voice? Here is a question you can play with.
What am I making vital about the upset I am choosing?
When you ask this question don’t look for an answer just become aware of the energy that comes up and then make a conscious and intentional choice to let it go. Let the upset go.
To let the upset go journal can help too. Journal about things you appreciate about the person who the grievance are about even if its as little as the color of their eyes. Then journal about the well wishes you have for them. These simple journaling techniques can lighten the attitude you have around the grievance and not only free you but free your voice. How do I know? I have played with this hundred of times! Getting on stage for me was hard and I tried lots of things to open the voice and feel better on stage. This works like a charm.
An added benefit is that it can give you a sense of oneness that your audience can feel. Connecting you with your audience whether it is with colleagues or a room full of people. How does it get any better then that!?
Some more on forgiveness from one of my favorite teachers:
https://youtu.be/MrHEpxh-84k