Originally published August 6 2005
Sound like a Hollywood star
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Recently many people have decided to change things about themselves, including their voice. If you don’t like your voice, speech therapists can help you change the sound and tone.
"My voice is kind of unique," says Sam, a respiratory therapist in New York, whose high-pitched little-girl's voice sounds like a cartoon character's.
"I was perfectly healthy but I couldn't speak above a whisper," Schreiber says.
About a third of the members of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association, an organization of professionals who originally focused on actors, now work with the public at large, says Lisa Wilson, the association's president and a professor of theater at the University of Tulsa.
"Fifteen years ago I rarely had people come to me because they simply didn't like the sound of their voice," says Thomas Murry, a speech pathologist at the Voice and Swallowing Center of Columbia University.
With so much of our lives these days conducted on the phone, vocal quality is gaining attention as a factor in making friends and influencing people.
"More and more of my work is done in conference calls," says Grace Vandecruze, 37, an investment banker in New York who has worked with Lucille S. Rubin, a veteran voice coach.
"You get people who talk way at the back of their throats, like this," she demonstrates in her office, producing a strained, raspy voice that speech therapists call glottal fry.
"Or people whose voices are way up here in their sinuses," she says, speaking with a harsh nasal twang.
Susan Miller, a coach in Washington, demonstrates one, putting her lips together and blowing, making a sound in her throat while her lips flutter.
She also makes a sound like a siren and then repeats a tongue-twister -- "red leather, blue leather, yellow leather, red leather, blue leather, yellow leather" -- at top speed.
She recommends both exercises for anyone preparing to give a talk.
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