VOCAL PERSONALITY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 132, 1 December 1938, Page 19

VOCAL PERSONALITY

IS YOURS A GOLDEN VOICE?

"I have a dear friend whom I invariably try to avoid if I'm tired, nervy, or upset. Because I can't bear her voice," confesses Kate Carr, writing in the London "Daily Mail." A short half-hour spent in listening ito her hurried, strident tones leaves me ! in a state of collapse, with all my vitality drained from me. That is not an exaggeration, it's the simple truth. And, like everyone else's, her voice is the expression of her own character. She is kind, overwhelmingly masterful, almost unbearably efficient. But if, one day, she loses some of her hard self-assurance, her voice will undoubtedly reflect it and soften. It is an extraordinary thing that while a woman will go to any length to acquire a good figure and a lovely complexion, she usually ignores the fact that her voice can, in a second, reveal to an interested world that this smiling siren is really a shrew, a ninny, or even, perhaps, a neurotic. CHARACTER REVEALED. And how many girls have lost the job they strove for because their voices showed an utter lack of selfconfidence and poise? It is a fact, too, that your outlook on life can show in your voice. Most of us have, at some time or another, heard voices which have been rendered monotonous by grinding toil, or hardened and embittered by continual disapointment and rebuffs of fate. But although it isn't every musical voice which rings true and firm, loud tones may sometimes belong to a bully' rather than a person of strong character, yet no one need ever have an ugly voice. TRAINING TELLS. Remember the wild scurrying in Hollywood when the silent films gave way to talkies? Most of the stars whose lovely faces we admired disappeared in a night. The few who survived, like Norma Shearer and Janet Gaynor, got through because they had I been trained to use their voices. It's the training that does it, and you can tackle that for yourself to a great extent. Start with breathing exercises, because unless you can control your breath you'll never control your voice. But there is more to it than that. You also need to exercise your jaw and throat muscles. Stretching your neck from side to j side, and opening your mouth as wide as it will go, will help you with this. Don't be afraid to open your mouth. You have to—to speak clearly. Put two fingers together and place them sideways in your mouth—that's how wide you'll need to open it if you wish to speak with real distinctness.

Remember your voice is, or should

be, an instrument, to be played on. With it, you can soothe your listeners, you can arouse their interest or their feelings, or you can drive them nearly crazy.

You can avoid that last blight by cultivating pleasant tones. Go away by yourself and read aloud, articulating every word, making the most of every sentence, keeping your voice always low-pitched.