***Help! I Don't Want to Sound Like My Mother!

As a child or a teenager, how many times did you say to yourself, “I will never say or do that which my mother is saying or doing?” Many of us can certainly testify to that statement; however, my question to you is not the words your mom may have used but the actual sound of her speaking voice.

Our genetic heritage means that we will sound like our same-sex parent if the relationship in our early developmental years was a loving and nurturing one. Our environment and our community also help shape the voice.

The good news, however, is that you needn’t sound like your mother. You have a resonant voice inside of you just waiting to come out. It is sometimes referred to as your true voice. Deeper in pitch and warmer in quality, it is a sound that is powered primarily by your chest cavity.

All told we have 5 resonators in our body responsible for phonation or the production of voiced sound. They include the cavities of your voice box, your throat, your mouth, your nose, and, finally, your chest. Unfortunately, most people do not use the 5th and largest of their resonators in phonation – their chest cavity.

From sheer size and volume alone, your chest cavity far exceeds that of your other 4 resonating cavities. When the voice is powered primarily by your other 4 resonating cavities, however, then the result is a voice higher in pitch than it should be, thinner in quality than it would be, and definitely not as pleasing as it could be.

In order to use your chest as your primary sounding board, you will have to break some old habits and instill some new ones. While the change is simple and easy, you will need to become more aware of how you sound throughout your day. Once you make your true voice a habit, however, it will continue to improve as you age – just one of the many benefits you will discover when you make the change.

All voices age but you can stop and even reverse the aging process because of this change in your voice placement. Look at the picture in this light: if you have been powering your voice mainly by use of your throat and voice box, you have placed a tremendous amount of wear and tear on those delicate organs. When you allow your chest to do more of the work, you will be eliminating a lot of the pressure on those two resonators.

Discover your true voice and I guarantee you won’t sound like your mother any more!