After observing college students' voices in speech classes for seventeen years, and the voices of graduate students in my speech classes in the Advanced Bible School for three consecutive summers, I have concluded that one of the chief voice difficulties among our preachers and teachers is a high-pitched, strident tone. Out of one advanced public-speaking class of seventeen experienced workers, nine men were so handicapped. The number of ministers who are ruining their voices as a result of an abused vocal tract, is deplorable. This condition bears careful study.
A high-pitched voice is usually the symptom of a general body condition. Indeed, most speech difficulties are symptoms rather than diseases, and should be treated as such. We should follow the good old sanitarium method, and remove the cause of the general health deficiency rather than merely attempt to cure the symptom.
Hypertension the Cause
The immediate cause of such an unpleasant speaking voice is usually hypertension of the nerves. The speaker is continually "on the go." He is so busy doing a multitude of things, perfectly laudable in themselves, that he has no time for rest. As a consequence, he has forgotten how to relax. In no part of the body do nerve strain and general body weariness show more quickly than in the vocal mechanism. Consequently the speaker's nervous tension immediately shows in his voice: the throat grows tense, and the voice rises in pitch. And of course the higher the voice goes, the tighter the tension becomes. A vicious circle is thus created _ whiell--irltimately -becomes -habhual,---andthe speaker becomes a slave to a high-pitched, strident voice. Such a voice not only reacts on the speaker in making him more high strung, but it has an equally undesirable effect on the hearer.
It has been observed in the schoolroom that there is a distinct correlation between the teacher's voice use and the attention of the class. Many an inattentive, restless class is the result of a teacher's high, raspy voice. Many a disciplinary situation has been solved by the teacher's carefully and gradually modulating her voice to a restful key. Experiments reveal that even in their handwriting students react to the teacher's tone—the higher and more strident the directing voice during a penmanship drill, the heavier the students' handwriting; the quieter and more carefully modulated the teacher's voice, the finer and more even the pen strokes of the pupils. A congregation is but an enlarged schoolroom, with the minister acting as teacher and the worshipers as his pupils. Let him observe the relation between the modulation of his voice and the attention of his hearers, and apply the rules of tone control.
A Relaxative Exercise
If a high-pitched voice has become habitual, the speaker should master the art of relaxation. Have you noticed how a cat dozes in the sun, body limp and restful? Pick up one paw, and you will hardly feel a bone in it. Every muscle is totally relaxed. But let the cat see a bird. Watch him stretch and yawn and dip his back. And then, in a flash he is a concentrated ball of action. Learn to emulate the cat, and let relaxation precede action.
Take this exercise: Sit comfortably erect in a straight chair, feet flat on the floor, hands idle in the lap. Feel complete mental relaxation. Dismiss all cares and worries from the mind. Beginning with the extremities, deliberately feel complete physical relaxation. Wiggle fingers and toes and let them lie limp and heavy. Remove tenseness from all leg and arm joints, and allow the muscles to relax and hang loose and flabby. Communicate the same feeling to the hips, back, abdomen, chest, and shoulders.
Now relax the facial mask. Let the eyelids drop loosely as curtains over the eyes; let the muscles of the forehead, cheeks, nose_and jaw sag; allow Iff-e—no—strils to dilate and relax; let the lower jaw drop easily from its socket and the tongue lie loosely in the partly open mouth. Extend this head relaxation to the neck, and allow the head to drop forward until the chin touches the chest. Then gently and slowly rotate the head on the loose neck, first to the right shoulder, then back, then to the left shoulder, then forward to the first position, chin again resting on the chest. Do this to a count of (chest) 1-2-3, (right) 1-2-3, (back) 1-2-3, (left) 1-2-3, (chest) 1-2-3. Be sure to allow the jaw to sag, with the mouth open, throughout the exercise.
Next, gradually raise the head to an erect position, and yawn, imagining that you are swallowing your chin—your mouth still open. Let your breath come out in a deep, slightly audible sigh. Observe that you have an utterly relaxed, wide-open throat, as when you respond to the doctor's command to say, "Ah!" If this exercise is faithfully performed, there can be no tension of the voice mechanism.
Applying the Exercise
How can you apply this relaxative exercise?
Try it several times a day (morning, noon, and night), whenever the sense of nervous tension creeps over you. It can be used, if necessary, while standing; or you can adapt it to a recumbent position while lying in bed, and you will be astonished at its power to induce sleep. If occasion demands it, you can even mentally produce a general feeling of relaxation, with lips only slightly and imperceptibly open, inducing an internal feeling of a yawn with resultant open throat and relaxed voice mechanism. Now couple with this relaxed condition, habitual abdominal breathing for tone support, and you cannot fail to speak in a full, rounded, properly pitched tone—to your own satisfaction and to the pleasure of your congregation.
When you grow used to it, you can secure results by this method in a moment, by exercising it between consultations, while parking at the curb before your next pastoral call, just before going into a trying committee meeting, or upon entering the pulpit for the morning service. Teachers, in times of disciplinary tension, will find the method useful if they will pause for a brief period and have the whole class relax with them.
In addition to general relaxation as an aid to the speaking voice, here is a specific remedy: Go to the piano and speak a simple sentence naturally. Find the prevailing pitch of your ordinary voice and strike the corresponding key on the instrument. Now repeat the sentence on the next lower key, striking the key as you speak the words. Continue to play down the scale, speaking on each key level, until you reach a general pitch level that is pleasing to your own ear and agreeable to the ear of a trusted, candid critic.
Now hold this pitch level in mind as a sort of mean between the extremes of your voice range, and continually try to let your voice play around it. Whenever you feel high pitch gaining control, consciously think down to the lower level, and direct your voice accordingly. Try also reading selections of dignified poetry and prose with conscious attention to a lower pitch level.
To summarize: If the minister who suffers from a high, strident voice, causing his hearers to suffer with him, will (1) cultivate a general spirit of relaxation and (2) consciously modulate his voice, he will go far in building a voice that is ever "soft, gentle, and Iow," an excellent thing in a preacher.
(To be continued)
