GINA MORGANO:
(:02)
Hello, and welcome to The Practice Parlour! I'm your host, Gina Morgano. Welcome to season three! We are back after a long summer break and I am so excited to bring to you this refreshed version of The Practice Parlour Podcast. This season is devoted to helping women to use their voices with confidence, courage and joy. I went through a lot of personal changes this summer. I moved, you can see a new background here, and I started teaching at a new all girls school. That is where I am learning to really understand the challenges that women face in using their voices. I told my students to imagine a vocal genie came to grant them three wishes pertaining to their voice and the word that kept coming up was strong, stronger, strengthen. This idea of having a strong voice kept coming up as a desired vocal quality, vocal attribute. This kind of surprised me because I didn't realize that these young women didn't perceive their voices as already being strong because I truly believe that your voice, everyone's voice is inherently strong.
(3:40) Over the summer, I was in London and in fact I was there when Queen Elizabeth died. It was a completely surreal experience to be there during that historic time. If you know me, then you know that I love the royal family. I love learning about them and reading about them and studying up on them and observing their fashion. This isn't a comment on the monarchies existence, on its merits or demerits, but rather my personal fascination with the royal family and royal life. So of course when Prince Harry's book release date was announced last week, I asked Santa for a pre-order. It comes out January 10th in case you're curious. When I think of having a strong voice, someone who immediately comes to mind is his wife, Megan Markle, Duchess of Sussex. It's interesting because I think that Megan and Harry's gender roles are switched from what you might think of as traditional gender roles when it comes to using your voice with confidence.
(4:52) Megan grew up using her voice. She was an actress. As a child she wrote to a company and had a commercial's language changed so that it would be more respectful of women. Prince Harry, though I never thought of him as having a weak voice by any means, he is learning how to use his voice with greater confidence and greater courage. Growing up in the royal family, he had to be careful what he said. He has spoken openly about his own mental health struggles, as has Megan. He is gaining confidence in expressing himself and sharing his own stories. So I think it's really, really interesting when we think about using your voice with confidence and courage and what it means to have a strong voice to look to the royal family.
(5:51) There are three components that I think of when I think of a strong vocal foundation. I like to call this the vocal triad. We have your physical voice, your inner voice, and your creative voice. And together, they create the totality of your voice, and a strong foundation that will withstand any storm.
(6:19) When we talk about the voice, most people think of the physical voice, your singing and speaking voice and your vocal anatomy that allows you to do that. Let me start by saying that your voice is strong. But when people say that they want a strong or stronger voice, they are usually talking about their physical voice. So again, I do think that there are some gender dynamics at play. This podcast is for everyone but I mentioned that this season is focused on helping women to use their voice with greater confidence. And while women are, of course, strong, strength is typically thought of as a masculine attribute in our society. So I think there is a subconscious feeling of being less than or not enough when you don't view yourself and your voice as strong. When it comes to the voice, strength is often associated with the physical voice, the literal strength of the sound that you make. This is why shy and mild mannered people often want to belt and identify with bold characters with loud voices. This is also why people are hesitant to use or be perceived with the weaker part of their voice.
(7:40) For example, someone who knows they have a great high notes may avoid their low notes. And even more often, someone who has a really well developed chest voice and lower register will be hesitant to sing higher songs in their head voice, because that part of their range has been underused, and not yet quite as developed. So people tend to perceive the current softer sound as being less desirable than the strong belts they can already make. But of course, the only way to develop your whole instrument and to gain strength, from bottom to top and in the middle, and to gain the volume that you desire, to gain the strength that you desire in the more challenging part of the voice is to train it and to use it.
(8:30) So when it comes to strengthening your physical voice, there are two components. Number one is voice care. injury prevention and maintenance as well as recovery and rehabilitation. Do you know how to care for your voice? And do you employ habits and practices that take care of it on a daily basis, both as preventative measures, as maintenance measures, and then also for recovery and rehabilitation should you get sick or should something go wrong? The other component is voice training. This is gaining a good solid technique. This is studying your craft. This is practicing reps and gaining experience through guidance and a well developed practice process. Now your physical voice could be a technical masterpiece, and you could take immaculate care of it. But it still won't be strong without paying attention to another part of the vocal triad. That is your inner voice.
(9:39) I remember being in college and grad school and so much of my struggle was about developing my physical voice, but really, it came down to my inner voice. I had placed so much worth on my physical voice and the sounds that I produced that I completely ignored my inner voice, which I now know is so much more important. Going back to teaching full time this year, I am witnessing the stories that these young women share about their inner vocal struggles, their identity, their self talk, their thoughts and their inner monologue. Going back to Prince Harry and Megan, they have been very open about their mental health struggles. Maybe I'm projecting here, but I do believe that healing and focusing on getting mentally healthy, has enabled them and specifically enabled Prince Harry to now use his voice with greater strength and confidence. So when it comes to developing your inner voice, it's so important that we tend to our mental health. It's so important that we learn how to cultivate a healthy inner monologue, thoughts that are life giving and affirming instead of destructive and bullying. And that we learn how to tap into our intuition. This can all be done through mindfulness and self awareness, gratitude practices, and also through getting professional help.
(11:22) The third part of the vocal triad is your creative voice. I think it's really easy for people to think about their physical voice, the sound that they make, and then their inner voice, their thoughts, their mental health. But the creative voice is the juicy part. The creative voice is what makes you, you. Your creative voice consists of your ideas, your messages, your point of view, your perspective, your values. It's all about how you share what you believe in with the world. You cultivate your creative voice through personal development practices. I remember when I was starting out in New York, I really had no idea who I was. Sure, I knew what I liked to sing and different things that I liked, but I hadn't put it together in a through line. I hadn't developed my vocal aesthetic. And again, I don't mean that the sounds that I was making, but the messages that I was sharing, the ideas that were coming to me, the creativity that I wanted to put out into the world. Not to prove myself but to share myself.
(12:39) So I encourage you to think of your voice holistically, not only as the sound you make through singing and speaking, but this three part vocal triad of your physical voice, your inner voice and your creative voice. As you work to develop and strengthen your instrument, I hope that you are working to develop and strengthen all three parts of your voice. Because building a stronger voice is not only about sounding strong. It's about building your voice holistically so that it stands on a strong foundation that can weather the storm. Give yourself the best conditions possible, and learn how to thrive in less than ideal circumstances, to share your stories and the stories that matter to you. Your voice is, again, more than the sounds that you make. Your voice is your inner spirit coming to life.
(13:40) Please subscribe to this podcast. Next week we have an interview that I actually recorded last season and decided to save until this season because I knew we would be talking about vocal confidence. It is with Tara Brueske and it is all about confidence in the voice lesson. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean the world to me if you would please share it and leave a review on iTunes. I need your help in spreading the word and getting this podcast to more people so that we can create a chorus of strong voices in the world. Thank you so much for listening, and have a beautiful day.
