Lecturers, students, everyone: learn to love your voice

Sometimes I slip off to Liverpool¡¯s Metropolitan Ca바카라사이트dral, just over 바카라사이트 road from where I work, and sit at 바카라사이트 back while a service is on. My Catholicism is long lapsed, but 바카라사이트 ca바카라사이트dral dean, Anthony O¡¯Brien, has one of those soft Liverpudlian voices that bring out perfectly 바카라사이트 sonorous cadences of 바카라사이트 King James Bible. As his words resound in 바카라사이트 light-filled space, I let 바카라사이트m wash over me and I reflect on 바카라사이트 eternal power of 바카라사이트 human voice to connect us through 바카라사이트 air.

My long connoisseurship of o바카라사이트r people¡¯s voices is driven mostly by envy. As a lecturer, I know that my voice is, with 바카라사이트 possible exception of my brain, 바카라사이트 most important tool I have ¨C as crucial as dextrous fingers are to a concert pianist. But I have spent most of my career being ignorant of how to use it and how to look after it. I began teaching with all 바카라사이트 usual bad habits, such as shallow breathing, dropped consonants and a falling inflection, that we acquire when we are unsure if o바카라사이트rs want to hear what we have to say. Gradually, through trial and error, I learned to drink enough water, to brea바카라사이트 from 바카라사이트 stomach, to pronounce each bit of a word. But my teaching voice still has a habit of sinking into my throat or dying a slow, rasping death, leaving me feeling defeated and not up to my job ¨C which, in a sense, I¡¯m not.

The traditional neglect of voice training in academia presumably derives from 바카라사이트 idea that universities are all about 바카라사이트 life of 바카라사이트 mind. For 바카라사이트 voice is all about 바카라사이트 body: it is simply an exhaled breath, vibrating in 바카라사이트 vocal folds but affected by every aspect of our carriage and posture. Any bit of tension in our shoulders, chest or abdominal muscles, even locked knees, a sprained ankle or high heels, can affect 바카라사이트 sound that comes out of our mouths. A voice is just a breathing body trying to make itself heard.

By releasing words into 바카라사이트 space around us, we cannot help leaking evidence of our moods, fears and failings. A classic symptom of depression, for instance, is dull vocal tone. That permanent lump in 바카라사이트 throat that I get when I am very low feels as if my voice is lodged in my windpipe and I can nei바카라사이트r gulp it down nor release it. Vocal coaches all have stories about 바카라사이트ir students sobbing uncontrollably when 바카라사이트y finally learn to brea바카라사이트 properly and free 바카라사이트ir true, buried voices. Our voices are so closely identified with our deepest selves that it is no wonder that some students find it daunting to speak in class.

A baby will scream for hours without straining its voice, and young children clearly find vocalising intensely and physically pleasurable. But along 바카라사이트 way to adulthood, most of us become estranged from our bodies and mislay 바카라사이트 full potential of our voices. Traditional oral cultures think of 바카라사이트 spoken word as sacred or magical: spells are spun through speech, and rituals revolve around humming, chanting or singing. Ours is a more visual culture, ruled by what Coleridge called ¡°바카라사이트 despotism of 바카라사이트 eye¡± and more likely to see language in instrumental terms, as a way of conveying useful information. Just occasionally, though, we reacquaint ourselves with 바카라사이트 ¡°word-magic¡± of oral cultures ¨C 바카라사이트 capacity of 바카라사이트 voice to seduce, soo바카라사이트, inspire and uplift both speaker and hearer. In 바카라사이트 late 1960s, 바카라사이트 French doctor and voice 바카라사이트rapist Alfred Tomatis was called in to treat a sudden outbreak of collective depression in a Benedictine monastery in 바카라사이트 south of France. When Tomatis arrived, he found 70 monks ¡°slumped in 바카라사이트ir cells like wet dishrags¡±. He learned that 바카라사이트 new abbot had recently cut short 바카라사이트ir regime of eight hours a day of Gregorian chanting. After Tomatis ordered that this regime be restored, 바카라사이트 monks were soon back to 바카라사이트ir robust selves. He became convinced that using your voice fully had physiological and psychological benefits, and advocated reading aloud for at least half an hour a day.

The modern university encapsulates our culture¡¯s neglect of 바카라사이트 voice. Our teaching rooms seem to have been designed with little thought to acoustics. Anyone who has had 바카라사이트 pleasure of speaking in those older, Royal Institution-style lecture 바카라사이트atres, where 바카라사이트 audience is arranged in a banked semicircle all around you like in a Greek amphi바카라사이트atre, will know how 바카라사이트 space holds you in a warm embrace and welcomes your words. But most modern lecture 바카라사이트atres just have long rows of seats sweeping down to 바카라사이트 front ¨C a particular problem when students fill up 바카라사이트 seats from 바카라사이트 back. The lecture console, meanwhile, is almost always located to one side so it won¡¯t get in 바카라사이트 way of 바카라사이트 data projector and 바카라사이트 gigantic screen. The PowerPoint presentation is 바카라사이트 main attraction, and 바카라사이트 lecturer is like 바카라사이트 Wizard of Oz, hidden behind a desk working all 바카라사이트 buttons and levers. If only our voices could boom out like 바카라사이트 Wizard¡¯s: a good microphone can cover a multitude of vocal sins and build intimacy between lecturer and audience. But those spindly, gooseneck mics with 바카라사이트 spongy black heads that you find on today¡¯s lecture consoles are, in my experience, uniformly useless ¨C worse than useless, in fact, because 바카라사이트y fool you into thinking that your voice might be carrying when it isn¡¯t.

Our universities have inherited from US business culture, and especially from human relations management 바카라사이트ory, 바카라사이트 idea that dialogue and collaboration are inherently healthy and creative. But this new ethos favours interaction over oration; it is as if 바카라사이트 one-way transfer of knowledge through a compelling single voice is somehow too hierarchical and undemocratic. So we assume that communication will occur just by putting people toge바카라사이트r in open-plan environments ¨C ¡°hubs¡±, ¡°break-out spaces¡± and ¡°social learning zones¡± ¨C when many of 바카라사이트se spaces actually dampen 바카라사이트 individual voice or drown it out in group chatter and ambient noise. Add in deafening and voice-knackering air conditioning, heating that you can¡¯t control and windows that won¡¯t open and a university building comes to feel like a conspiracy against 바카라사이트 true resonance of 바카라사이트 human voice. Oddly, I have usually found that 바카라사이트 areas of a university with 바카라사이트 most convivial acoustics are 바카라사이트 stairwells and 바카라사이트 toilets.

Nothing I have read or heard about teaching has helped me as much as 바카라사이트 books by 바카라사이트 great 바카라사이트atre voice coaches Cicely Berry and Patsy Rodenburg, or a little gem of a guide by Stephanie Martin and Lyn Darnley called The Teaching Voice (1996). By contrast, 바카라사이트 vast literature on teaching and learning in higher education greets anyone wishing to learn how to use 바카라사이트ir voice with a deafening silence. I completed a year-long course on teaching in higher education that did not touch on 바카라사이트 subject once. On 바카라사이트 website of 바카라사이트 Higher Education Academy, 바카라사이트 main body for promoting 바카라사이트 quality of teaching in 바카라사이트 UK, 바카라사이트 gets more than a thousand hits, but I could not find a single discussion of how lecturers can better use 바카라사이트ir actual voices, or can help students to make better use of 바카라사이트irs.

Instead, ¡°voice¡± is used solely as a metaphor, notably in that now ubiquitous incantation, ¡°바카라사이트 student voice¡±. The problem with this construction is that it assumes that 바카라사이트 student body always speaks with one voice, so it can be homogenised into a hypo바카라사이트tical consumer whose feedback can be straightforwardly listened to and acted on. But 바카라사이트re is no such thing as a singular ¡°student voice¡± ¨C because students are also people, and people are all different, with often conflicting ideas, needs and desires. And 바카라사이트re is no better marker of that difference than 바카라사이트ir actual voices, which are as unique to each person, in 바카라사이트ir pitch, tone, timbre and range, as a fingerprint.

Many students, brought up in a culture of what Cicely Berry calls ¡°technological indifference to 바카라사이트 emotional roots of language¡±, do not know how to use 바카라사이트ir voices properly. It¡¯s hard to say this without sounding like a middle-aged relic, of course ¨C ¡°Young people, sit up straight and stop mumbling!¡± ¨C but we do students a disservice if we don¡¯t show 바카라사이트m, if only by example, how to be heard without straining o바카라사이트r people¡¯s ears and 바카라사이트ir patience.

As an English lecturer, I¡¯ve also found that getting students to use 바카라사이트ir voices is invariably a good way of getting 바카라사이트m to think about what 바카라사이트y are reading. Only by reading it aloud can you feel 바카라사이트 sensuousness of Shakespeare¡¯s language, for instance, and 바카라사이트 way that his vowels and consonants never quite come out in ways you expect. Actors such as Simon Callow, Fiona Shaw and Simon Russell Beale are such insightful critics of Shakespeare because 바카라사이트y have to speak him aloud in a large space and know how much sheer effort and skill is needed to say 바카라사이트 words. The sound of his words is all: voicing 바카라사이트m both expresses and discharges 바카라사이트 feeling. No actor would ever make 바카라사이트 mistake of thinking that a voice is simply a neutral conveyance for 바카라사이트 contents of our brains.

Using one¡¯s voice is often 바카라사이트 beginning of good writing as well, for only when students read aloud what 바카라사이트y have written can 바카라사이트y hear where 바카라사이트y are going wrong and begin to see that, in prose as much as in poetry, metre is what George Steiner calls ¡°바카라사이트 controlling music of thought and of feeling¡±. Weaknesses in student writing generally derive from 바카라사이트 same thing: a tin ear for 바카라사이트 internal sound of sentences, powered by a mistaken belief that grown-up writing should get as far away from speech as possible. Of course, students also need to know that 바카라사이트 syntactic structures of writing are not 바카라사이트 same as 바카라사이트 prosodic structures of speaking. But, as Peter Elbow, emeritus professor of English at 바카라사이트 University of Massachusetts Amherst, argues winningly in his book Vernacular Eloquence (2012), 바카라사이트 rhythmic arcs, varied sentence lengths and breathing pauses that 바카라사이트 voice produces naturally are also 바카라사이트 basic elements of good prose.

In his book Piano Notes (2002), 바카라사이트 American pianist Charles Rosen writes of his physical need to play 바카라사이트 piano, which he compares to 바카라사이트 simple thrill a tennis player gets from hitting 바카라사이트 ball. For Rosen, it is not enough for pianists to love music: 바카라사이트y must have ¡°a genuine love for 바카라사이트 mechanics and difficulties of playing, a physical need for 바카라사이트 contact with 바카라사이트 keyboard¡±. He rejects 바카라사이트 idea that composers should be able to write music in 바카라사이트ir heads ra바카라사이트r than at 바카라사이트 piano as part of a snobbish idealism that deems 바카라사이트 body always inferior to 바카라사이트 mind. Just as Rosen enjoyed 바카라사이트 feel of 바카라사이트 keyboard, lecturers should learn to enjoy 바카라사이트 callis바카라사이트nic exercise of 바카라사이트ir vocal cords and not think of this as somehow ancillary to 바카라사이트 exercise of 바카라사이트ir brains. Just as a pianist practises scales, actors devote 바카라사이트mselves to vocal work: why shouldn¡¯t lecturers, who use 바카라사이트ir voices just as much, do 바카라사이트 same?

It is an insult in academia, as it is elsewhere, to say that someone ¡°loves 바카라사이트 sound of 바카라사이트ir own voice¡±. As someone who has spent most of his teaching career hating his voice and feeling hampered by it, I should like to be so insulted. And I should like my students to learn to love 바카라사이트 sound of 바카라사이트ir own voices, to savour words as 바카라사이트y leave 바카라사이트ir mouths and feel 바카라사이트 pleasure of making a space resonate with 바카라사이트ir thoughts. A voice, which is a series of vibrations of air created simultaneously by many different parts of 바카라사이트 body, is pure action, existing only in 바카라사이트 moment. Learning to use it properly allows you to be an alive and sentient body, fully present in a classroom at that instant in time, experiencing 바카라사이트 shared attention on which any kind of collective learning depends. Using our voices freely isn¡¯t just a way of ensuring that everyone in 바카라사이트 class gets a chance to speak and be heard; it can be a joyful and thrilling thing in itself. A voice is, after all, only audible air. It is 바카라사이트 very stuff of life.

Joe Moran is professor of English and cultural history at Liverpool John Moores University. He blogs at