Do you need help singing better or speaking better?
Which one do you choose? What’s the difference?
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VOCAL COACH
Very often they are used as synonyms. If you need to sing better, you seek out a voice coachor a vocal coach. Think of the famous television singing competition, The Voice, where the judges can only assess the competitors based on their signing voice. It’s an ingenious way to make someone focus on the voice alone, and not just their looks. However, singing coaches are often called vocal coaches.
VOICE COACH
On the other hand, if you want to improve your voice for speaking in public, such as giving talks, presentations, training sessions, workshops, etc, you would normally look for a voice coach.
Some of the voice or vocal exercises are the same for both speaking and singing, and it’s a good idea for a singer to look after their voice when they are speaking in everyday life. Good speaking habits help protect the delicate singing apparatus.
And many people find that after voice coaching for public speaking they begin singing better as an added bonus. Just so you know!
Another bonus is that you can make your voice deeper, higher, or even sexier. You choose!
I specialise in voice coaching for speakers of English as a second language., I can help you improve your accent and find your perfect voice in English.
You have thought about improving your voice in a second language, but you probably wonder how it works, the system and what aspects of the voice and language voice coaches at.
Voice Assessment & Analysis
In the first meeting, a second language voice coach will listen to you, assess the way you use your voice and language and do a speech analysis which will be used to create a plan to improve your voice.
The first questions are:
Which aspects do youwant to improve? How do you feel about your voice and the way you speak? Most people have an idea about what features they are not happy with.
What’s your purpose / objective? In which situations do you need to improve your voice?
An action plan will look at any of the following areas by priority.
Delivery. This is the overall way you speak and project your voice.
Intonation and Pitch. This is the way the voice rises and falls.
Tone 1. From a vocal quality point of view, the features are, hard, husky, soft, silky, low, high, etc.
Tone 2. can also be defined as the impression you give on different dimensions including: formal-informal and serious-funny.
Stress patterns. These provide the rhythm or melody of the sentences, an example might be a “sing-songy” effect.
The way you link words together is known as “liaison“. This makes you sound more natural.
Pacing (Speed). You may find you speak more slowly in a foreign language than you want to. Normal speech is around 140 WPM. When to PAUSE is also a key feature.
Volume. This is under your control in whichever language you speak. Using volume is useful tool for maintaining audience attention.
Articulation. Mouth and tongue positions : these affect your ability to make the sounds of the language.
Pronunciation of the sounds of English (phonemes) and the correct stress patterns on words are the main features of your accent.
Language. Recurring language errors will be addressed, especially if they create misunderstanding or ambiguity.
Gestures and body language. These will be dealt with on a priority basis.
PRIORITISING
We work on the features by order of priority. Trying to change too many things at the same time is a big mistake.
Often, changing just one or two features can be a game-changer for the speaker and the effect it has on the listener.
ExampleVoice Coaching Session.
The course is based on the objectives taken from the individual Voice Analysis using the features mentioned above.
Step 1 . Warm up.
Sessions begin with breathing and vocal warm-up exercises. Body, neck and face are included here.
Step 2. Review of the previous session.
We go over the main points of the previous session.
Step 3. Action
The classes begin according to the plan and objectives.
Step 4. Feedback
We talk about how the session went.
Step 5. Homework
We set tasks to do at specific times for the next session.
Methods & Techniques
Sound scripting
We take the speech that the person is working on and do “Sound scripting”, breaking the text into meaning phrases, also know as “chunks” focussing especially on pausing between them. From here, we will work on overall tone, intonation, pitch and stress patterns taking into account what the person wants to communicate, e.g. influencing or inspiring.
Recording and playing back the voice is another important technique.
Simon Brampton 