Once you’ve learnt the basic Better Voice technique in Part One, Part Two will take your Better Voice to the next level. You’ll learn how to add interest to your voice and use more of its potential, so you can:

• Maintain your Better Voice technique over a larger range of notes and jumps in pitch.
• Add interest to your voice with a more musical and varied delivery.
• Smooth over breaks (those areas of your voice where you feel a gear change in the sound quality).
• Quite possibly extend your vocal range by moving beyond breaks that have been a floor or ceiling to your voice.
• Identify and include sound qualities your voice has but that you don’t usually use when you speak.
• Develop safe add-on voice effects.

‍Here’s an extract from the section in Part Two on adding interest to your voice:

Make a start: sound interesting

We’ve all had to listen to someone with a really monotonous voice. (The word ‘monotonous’ actually means ‘on one note’.) It doesn’t take long before you switch off, however fascinating their subject.

A good speaker uses many pitch variations. Put another way, their voice has a lot of music in it. Think of the Italians with their naturally musical language, and how enjoyable it is to listen to them, even when they’re speaking English.

Try this

Say ‘I’d love a cup of coffee’, making the ‘o’ in ‘love’ as long as possible. Now say the same phrase but making the ‘o’ in ‘love’ short and the ‘l’ and ‘v’ as long as possible. It’s not difficult to see which version gives you the greater possibility for putting music and meaning into the word ‘love’.

You have discovered that:

Vowels provide the music – and therefore interest – in your voice.

So don’t be one of those people who ‘clips’  their vowels very short. Linger on the vowels so you can put the music into your voice that makes it interesting to listen to.

Experiment saying different phrases really slowly, seeing how varying the notes in the vowels adds both interest and meaning.