The Power of the Authentic Voice

I was recently interviewed by Allison Gorman, the editor of Natural Awakenings magazine, for a piece she was writing based on Jessica Kerwin Jenkins' article in Vogue magazine: How a Voice Makeover Upped My Zoom Game—And Changed My Life.

Here is our interview:

Jessica describes her previous manner of vocalizing as both an affectation and the product of vocal constriction. In your experience, are women more susceptible than men to either or both? If so, why do you think that is?

In my experience “affecting” a voice is exceedingly common.  When we emerge into adulthood and are trying to “find ourselves,” we often try on different voices to fit a certain image we want to have for ourselves.  We create a voice to fit a presumed persona.  It is rarely satisfying and it always sounds affected and not truthful.  Men affect a deep resonant voice (or what they think that should be) that sounds extremely flat and put on, and in today’s world, women often affect a voice that sounds businesslike and matter of fact.  I teach a businesswoman who has affected a voice devoid of color and an attitude to match.  She is a slight woman and feels she won’t be respected if her voice has nuance, color and spontaneity. We tell ourselves so many myths, don’t we?  

The point of Jessica’s article is that she took vocal lessons from you—and these lessons were very much about physiology—yet the result was far more than a changed voice; it was a newly empowered sense of self. Is this a transformation you see often in your female students? Could you explain briefly this interrelationship between the physiological and the psychological?

After college, I studied voice with a renowned singer and artist, Olga Averino.  In describing the vocal process she would say, “It is really very simple; that is not to say it is easy.”  The human body is pure genius.  When we connect to the inner muscles responsible for breath and voice, everything flows—our breath, our voice, and our self expression.  The “not easy” part is that these muscles live in a sort of no-man’s land between consciousness and unconsciousness, and we must bring them to consciousness. That is the essence of my work.  It is a phenomenal experience to connect to these inner muscles.  We feel a great sense of self.  We are grounded in our being and the truth of who we are.  That becomes what we hear in the sound of someone’s voice and it is always compelling.

When women cultivate a “new” voice generated from deeper, fuller breathing, how subtle is that change? Do they still sound like a version of the same person?

It is really not so much "cultivating" a new voice but rather uncovering what already exists in us. Often people will come to my class and tell me how much they hate the sound of their own voice and how they recoil when they hear themselves on a recording.  I am always bothered by that.  To me it seems as if they are rejecting a part of themselves.  I tell a class immediately that our work is not about changing the sound of the voice, but rather about learning how to produce a voice on breath which becomes their authentic voice.  It is who they are. It is a full-body expression which results in something we call voice. All too often people—both women and men—focus on their sound. That is dangerous because psychophysically it makes them try to manipulate something from their throats.  They try to “make” sound and this disconnects them from their bodies and the muscles responsible for voice and breath. I have been teaching a college professor for many years who originally came to me for Alexander lessons and breathing.  She is a brilliant teacher and mentor to her students and has won many awards for her teaching.  She shared with me early on that the only complaint her students had when they evaluated her was the nasality of her voice.  We have now been together for nearly twenty years, and she never received that comment again.  We did nothing to “change” her voice, and we didn’t even focus on voice.  We focused on body and breath.  Once again,  the simplicity is that when we align with the muscles of voice and breath (psoas muscles and their connection to the diaphragm) our voice produces overtones. It becomes focused and it projects.  We aren’t trying to “fix” or “make” a new voice. Change in sound comes from connecting to the muscles responsible for voice and breath.

My takeaway from Jessica’s article is that she decided to take lessons because she realized that the voice she had cultivated was not benefiting her (I assume she meant professionally, but maybe socially too). Is this a reason you hear often from your female students? 

The majority of students in my class at The Open Center are women, and the major reasons they come to class are vocal tension, nervousness in expressing themselves and a voice that doesn’t project. Many times I have heard students tell me their “throat chakra is blocked.” It is understandable that they would focus on their voice for the reasons I have mentioned, so my job as a teacher is to constantly remind them that voice is breath and body and that how they “use” themselves physically determines the freedom in their voice.  I love it when students (who have previously been horrified by hearing their voices on a recording) say to me, “I don’t mind hearing myself anymore.” To me that means that their voice is coming from an integrated place.  How amazing (and simple!) it is.  When a voice emanates from the alignment of the inner muscles of the body, it is from our true self. That is our uniqueness and it will always be profoundly beautiful.