The Perfect Voice is a vocal training system developer by singing and speaking coach Roger Love.
Roger Love explains some basics of anatomy first, and the gets into common speaking issues and solutions, vocal exercises to improve your voice, and daily voice warm-ups.
Contents
Bullet Summary
- Use diaphragmatic breathing
- Only speak when you a belly full of air
- Make sure your larynx (in your throat) is not blocking air
The Perfect Voice
About The Author: Roger Love is a voice and singing coach.
He is probably the most famous speaking and singing coach in the world, having worked with the likes of Tony Robbins, Gwen Stephany, Selena Gomez, and many more A-list celebrities.
Let’s start with our summary and review:
Learn & Use Diaphragmatic Breathing
Diaphragmatic breathing, sometimes also referred to as “belly breathing”, consists of deeper breaths in which you channel the air deeper in your lungs, almost if you were breathing into your belly.
Diaphragmatic breathing is better in a number of ways, including better voice.
When you learn diaphragmatic breathing, you can control the stream of air that comes out of your mouth as you speak.
How do you know you’re breathing with your diaphragm?
Simple: to learn diaphragmatic breathing, let your belly swell with air, instead of your chest.
Roger Love says that your stomach should
- only move your stomach from your belly button to 3-4 inches above it
- only breath from your nose
If you can control the airflow, you can also control the sound.
Only Speak With Air Support
You should create a continuous stream of air that comes out of your mouth as you speak.
That air should come as you push your belly back in.
Exercise with diaphragmatic breathing and speak only when your stomach is coming back in. Breathe in from the nose, then breathe out from your mouth slowly.
Roger Love has a few guided exercises with a few stock sentences, including the following:
If my stomach is coming in in as I speak I’am going to sound a lot better.
Common mistakes people do:
- Raising their chest breathing
- Keep speaking after they’ve run out of air, trying to squeeze the last words in. And that sounds terrible
- Tension in the top part of the stomach
- Holding air trying to make it last longer
Types of Voice
Roger Love is simply amazing at mimicking the types of voice and what they do wrong.
Similarly for Straight Line Persuasion which is all about tonality, there’s no point in me “describing” how the voices sound.
But here are two examples I could find:
1. Nasal Voice
2. Airy Voice
The airy voice type is the one of sex goddess Marylin Monroe and Mickey Rourke:
This type of voice uses lots of air but does not use the air for actual speaking power and loudness because it does not engage the vocal cords.
The 6 Elements of Voice
- Volume
Most people speak too low. Fill the space around you and never have anyone ask you to repeat.
A good volume is a mixture of air and cord vibration.
- Melody
Melody is about going up and down and adding variety. Melody keeps people guessing and enthralled.
Most people are too close to monotone.
- Pitch
Too low pitch sounds like you’re too serious. Too high and people won’t take you seriously.
- Tone
Too airy and whispery sounds fragile, like Monroe used to speak.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is that grating, irritating sound you hear holding the “A” in “graaaass”, where it feels like you have no air left.
- Pace
How quickly or slowly you speak.
Keep A Good Posture
Keep a good posture and don’t hunch over or you will constrict the airflow.
Drinks Lots of Water
Drink almost 2 liters of water a day.
It’s the water that you drank the day before that will help you mostly the day after.
Voice Exercises
And finally the most important part: the exercises.
Belly Breathing Exercise
Many are afraid of breathing with their belly and hold tension there because they don’t want to make it look as if they have a big tummy.
Let go of that fear.
Breathe from your belly and let the air go out of your mouth as in a whistle, very little.
Let a bit of air come out without pressure on your stomach.
Birthday Candles Exercise
Imagine you have a birthday pie in front of you, and you want to blow off the candles.
One by one, blow from your mouth and at each blow push your belly back in.
The goal is to not create any tension in your stomach. Let it come in, then relax. Let it come in, then relax.
Air to Fingers Exercise
Put a hand in front of your mouth and speak. The air should come out NOT in bursts, but unobstructedly.
Roger Love says
I need to connect all of my words together
Of course, you can say anything though.
Scale Exercise
- Gog
Repeat “gog” up and down the scale. This exercise helps find both your low, middle and high voice
- Gag
Same but with a wider scale
Speak Low to Adjust The Larynx
First: find your Adam apple.
The larynx, or “sound box” is right behind it.
Swallow and it should go up.
Here is the thing though: when you speak the larynx should NOT go up or it will suffocate your voice.
To find out if your larynx goes up, put a finger on the Adam’s apple and start speaking. It should not move more than a quarter or a third of an inch and not nearly as close as when you swallow.
A larynx going up when you speak is one of the most common problems affecting speakers and you should fix that.
You fix that with a series of low larynx exercise.
Repeat “mom” and speak like Yogi the bear or like Sylver Stallone.
Repeat “mom, mom, mom” with a low pitch.
Volume Exercise
To get the best volume, simply get more air out of your mouth.
Put a hand in front of your mouth and count from one to ten, making sure that more air comes out of our mouth as you go from 1 to 10.
Remember that more air should not be “breathy” as with Monroe’s speaking, but a full voice.
To make sure your vocal cords are activated, repeat “caaaaaant” as you feel the vibration in the back of your throat.
Pitch Exercises
To reset your pitch say “hello” and keep the “o” going. Put your fingers on your stomach right below your rib cage and push in quick motion.
Your “ooo” should start vibrating up and down.
Now try to stay only with the high pitch and let go of the lower part of the scale.
Mouth Physiology
Some of us make a smile when pronouncing certain words and spread their mouths too long (especially “e”).
Smiling is great, but not while speaking because it pushes air in the nasal cavities and we don’t sound good.
To fix the smiling and spreading of mouths, put your index fingers on both corners of your mouth and push in as if you wanted to purse your lips a bit.
Then speak like that and recite the alphabet.
You don’t need to smile to say “e”. Say “u”, hold your mouth like that and then say “e”.
Vocal Power or The Perfect Voice?
Both “Vocal Power” and “The Perfect Voice” cover the same exercises.
But The Perfect Voice is more compact and more tailored to actual voice exercises.
Plus, it also has an online access with questions and answers from students and I learned hugely from the questions and answers because many of them are questions I also had.
I recommend “The Perfect Voice”.
CONS
Videos might have helped
The program is in audio, and that’s cool.
At times I thought that maybe a video version could have helped for a few exercises.
No Throat Tension / Mask
I wish Roger Love had dealt with throat’s muscle tension because I feel that’s one of the areas I should target.
PROS
Brief and to the point
No beating around the bush, no thanks to mom and dad, no time wasted: everything is about voice here.
Warm-up exercises
I particularly loved Roger Love’s warm-up exercises. One single track on your phone and that’s all you need for your daily exercises.
Learn From A Master
Roger Love is really a master at what he does.
When he replicates people’s voices it’s almost funny how good he is. And that’s very helpful to make you understand what vocal sins you are currently committing.
More Voice Resources
Some other resources I find very good when it comes to speaking:
- New York Coaching
I’m exploring this guy too these days. He is also crazy good: https://www.youtube.com/user/NewYorkVocalCoaching
- Felicia Ricci
Felicia Ricci is also very good, she has a ton of crazy and helpful exercises. To overcome my throat tension I favorited this video of hers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLgl3WEv2hivvXBkFjk4VxE8kqztYVIcPj&v=34iApX5IryE
Roger Love Review
Roger Love has some awesome exercises to help you improve your voice.
I have been a Toastmaster to learn public speaking for 3 years, went all the way from scared to death to being president of the club.
And I always felt my voice was my main weakness.
Well, believe it or not, after doing many exercises, people mentioned “voice” as one of my strengths. And that included people who were vocal experts. That was crazy for me and says a lot about what you can achieve if you apply these exercises.
It’s been months now that I do it the exercises every single morning.
And since I have a tendency to speak raising my larynx, when I go out after exercising and I hear myself speaking… Wow, I ask myself how could any girl resist me :).
I think that because most of us speak every day since we were around two years old we fail to realize how important proper voice is.
Don’t do that mistake: it’s a fundamental tool of socialization, power, and influence. And it’s because we use it daily that we must make sure we use it properly.
The Perfect Voice – Coupon Discount
Follow these steps to get your discount coupon:
1. First, click here: Get The Perfect Voice With $50 Discount
2. Select the advanced version (which you will get at the same price as the basic one)
3. Enter the coupon code “POWER”
4. Click “APPLY”
After that, it’s all up to you. Apply, and start doing the exercises :).
