***If Your Accent Interferes with Your Diction, You Need Voice Training

Many years ago when I first started my business, my husband commented on the ‘before & after’ video clips of my clients, remarking that he could understand everyone in the ‘after’ takes but none of the speakers in the ‘before’ takes. All the speakers were Canadians in which English was their first language. What my husband, Alexis, was noticing was the clarity of their speech in the ‘after’ videos.

While I do not teach diction in my voice training course, I have found that by changing your voice placement and using your chest cavity to power and amplify your voice, the result is cleaner and clearer articulation or diction.

What happens when the chest become the primary resonator for the voice is a total control over the speaking voice which does not happen when using the other 4 resonators. Voiced sound is produced and amplified by 5 resonators which include the voice box, throat, mouth, nose and chest. Unfortunately, most people are not using their chest cavity when speaking instead relying on the other 4 resonators.

Once you add your chest to the production of voiced sound, however, you will discover a richer, warmer, deeper sound which will vibrate in your chest when you speak. Voices like those of Jeremy Irons, Ashley Judd, Antonio Banderas, Julia Ormond, Sam Elliott, and Kathleen Turner, for example, are powered by means of the chest cavity. Those of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, however, are not.

In addition, you will also be able to increase your volume without shouting once your chest cavity is doing the work. This is called projection and it is only possible when the above condition is met.

To have control over your diction, your volume, your speed, your nervousness, your breathing, and the quality of your sound is a tremendous benefit in the world of communication. Whether you are standing at a lectern, holding a webinar or a teleseminar, talking to a potential client over the phone, or networking with others in a business meeting, the ability to be understood the first time you say it promises greater likelihood of success than having to repeat yourself over and over.

• If your listeners do not understand your message, you will be interrupted or talked over because others tire of asking you to repeat yourself.

By no means is voice training meant to eliminate an accent or a dialect. The purpose is to speak more distinctly whether English is your first language or not. Keep your accent; just clean it up!