The Human Voice: The Intersection of Business, Performing and Health
		By Lissa Tyler Renaud, Ph.D.
	People tend to become interested in having trained voices for three reasons. First, they need clear, expressive voices in order to thrive in their work lives. They speak in front of other people for their businesses, perhaps giving presentations, lectures or speeches; they may be going for job interviews, or giving interviews for the evening news. The therapist, the phone solicitor—for all of these people, the quality of the sound that comes out of them when they speak will be crucial to their success as professionals. Secondly, people find teachers for voice training when they work in the performing arts, or in fields related to them. The voice is the common denominator of these arts: the classical or popular singer, the rapper, the television, film or stage actor, the stand-up comedian, the auctioneer, the radio anchor—none of these people can function professionally without voices that their listeners want to hear. Thirdly, people want to have effective voices for the sense of well-being it brings. We use our voices to communicate, and an improved voice brings with it improved relationships. At the same time, the sound of the voice can give us a lot of information about the health of a person’s breathing—and natural, pleasurable breathing has everything to recommend it. Full breathing brings us better digestion, for example, which brings us better sleep, which in turns brings us more energy for more physical activity. Feeling physically active also often plays a role in maintaining good relationships. Since 1975, clients have come to my Voice Training Project for each of the three reasons I named above. Whether studying for business, for performing or for health, we often note that people who wield power effectively are people who have good voices. Recently, we’ve all enjoyed comparing the vocal styles of Presidents Clinton and Bush. Clinton has an absolutely magnificent instrument, full of dimension. He moves through his pitch range fearlessly and with tremendous variety. He has crystalline diction, and often has a bedroom-y "glottal fry" or buzz at the ends of phrases—perhaps the sound that subliminally made the country want him to stay president even when his activities were…unpresidential. Bush, on the other hand, forces his voice lower than it is naturally pitched, which gives it a flat or thin sound, limits his pitch range and dooms him to repetitive intonation patterns. His diction sounds mushy, in part due to his hissing at the ends of words and routinely emphasizing the wrong word in a sentence. Almost no one will be aware of these vocal habits; nevertheless, all of these together will play an incalculably large role in the tenor of his presidency. Students of mine who train in these principles for business consistently see themselves move into positions of higher authority. Students who study for the performing arts see themselves starting new companies, getting lucrative work, travelling to interesting places. Students who study for the satisfaction of breathing well find their asthma abating, their neck injuries releasing, their hearing loss improving. When we take in a breath, we take in the whole world around us. When we breathe out—use the breath to speak—we give out the whole world inside us. The quality of our breathing, our voices, is more than just a metaphor for who we are; it is actually who we are. If you’re not sure whether this is so—think of who you might be…without breath.
	© 2001 Lissa Tyler Renaud. All rights reserved.