Don’t hold your breath. Breathe. How can such a natural and essential function be easy to forget? In order to have a pleasant speaking voice that listeners will want to hear, the main principle is to speak “on the breath” and not hold your breath while speaking. The manner and mechanism of breathing while speaking and breathing while silent have some differences. The main difference is control. When speaking you need to control the amount and speed that you take air in (inhalation) and control the amount and speed that you release the air out (exhalation).

 

 

Stand upright with good body alignment. Release any tension. Without raising the shoulders, engage the diaphragm (that big muscle band that separates the chest from the abdomen). Breathe in through your nose.

 

Start to exhale. Here is where a lot of speakers fail: Do not release the breath all at once, rather, control the exhale a little at a time while speaking each sound and syllable. Try to get the feeling that your sounds and syllables are “riding” on top of the breath. Don’t force the breath out. Don’t push the breath. Try to get a smooth stream of continuous released air. If you are not used to doing this, it takes some practice. Your goal is to synchronize your breath and your sounds. Your want to learn to control the exhalation so that you can avoid releasing the breath all at once and avoid speaking while holding your breath.

Practice working on a ratio of one second inhalation and five seconds exhalation. (1:5 ratio). For example, take a breath in and slowly exhale while counting out loud to five. Increase your exhale to ten. Increase to twenty. Try saying the alphabet on one exhale.

If you take a proper breath from the diaphragm and practice a controlled, slow exhalation, you can improve the sound of your voice by avoiding the bad habit of holding your breath while speaking. The practice of yoga is a helpful way to learn to synchronize your breathing.