watch your words

7/28/2019 Watch Your Words

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A careless word may kindle strife,

A cruel word may wreck a life;

A bitter word may hate instill;

A brutal word may smite and kill.A gracious word may smooth the way;

A joyous word may light the day.

A timely word may lessen stress.

A loving word may heal and bless.

LOVE WORKS FOR THOSE WHO WORK AT IT.


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One reminder: Take good care of your voice. The good qualities youare striving to develop and maintain will be negated by havinghoarse voice. Here are some practical tips:

1. Avoid strain. When others speak too loudly, dont try to drownout their voices with your own. Get attention by some mechanicalmeans, such as rapping the table, then speak with quiet emphasis.

2. If you must smoke, do so only moderately.

3. If you have a cold that has affected your chest, speak as little as

possible. The strain may cause nodes (callouses), resulting inpermanent hoarseness.

4. Dont clear the throat by force. Try panting to remove the phlegm.Keep your voice vital or animated. A vital voice has life. A vital

voice will keep you vital.


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YOUR VOCAL QUALITIESI. Voice ImprovementAsk yourself these

questions: How do I sound to

others? Is my voiceworking for or againstme?

Do I have these qualitiesof a good voice? Audible,pleasant (not too loud ortoo soft, not gutttural,raspy metallic, nasal.Harsh, shrill, but fluent,flexible and articulate)

Identifying yourweaknesses is your firststep in improving yourvoice

Improving your voive is

accompanied by beingconscious of it.

Taping your voice is onebest means to do so;reaction when you first

heard yourself on tape?Surprised? Doesntsound like me at all.What do your friendssay?


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Vocal Qualities (continued)

Reason for difference ofopinion is: the vibrationswhich make up your voiceare transmitted to yourinner ear through the bonystructure of your skull aswell as through the air. Butwhen you hear your voiceon tape, you do hear yourvoice approximately asother people hear it. The

purpose of voiceimprovement training is toput you and your voice onbetter speaking terms.

Remember, voice trainingrequires ear training. You will have to become really

interested in speech soundsfor the first time,perhaps.(You will begincomparing your speech with

those of others, and will learnto judge voices as good,mediocre and poor andappreciate what makes themso.

The first lesson you will have

to learn is HOW TO LISTENto your own sound and othersin order to bring your own upto the level of its highestpossibilities.


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A. Expel air from your lungs in short/sharp gasps;

put your palm on your abdomen to make sure theres asharp inward contraction of the muscle wall, at the sametime with chest contraction on each outgoing puff.

Vocalize hey with a great deal of force 5 10x; vocalizewith rah with staccato accent and considerable vigor.

B. Fill your lungs with air, exhale as slowly as possible untillungs are empty. (time yourself by counting to see howLONG you can keep exhaling without a break or inhalingsoon enough again. (no stealing of breath)


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Breathing Exercise (Continued) Note: the object here is NOT to see how much air you

can get into your lungs but how slowly you can let itout.

Fill your lungs, vocalize the outgoing breath streamfirst with a long continuous hum (avoid breathysound) keep the tone clear.

C. Articulate easily and carefully the words of the

following quotation in one breath stream producinglow, mellow tone:

Her voice was ever soft, gentle, and low, an excellentthing in woman.


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D. Take a deep breath then release with ffff sound as softly and

gently as you can. Continue the release as long as you canwithout difficulty.

E. Take a deep breath without straining, keep well relaxed.Count 1 20 or longer if you can. 40?

F. To induce relaxation of the throat:

- with eyes closed, relaxed neck, jaw and muscle, raise headto an upright position and YAWN with mouth open as wideas possible.

- still with mouth wide open, inhale deeply, then exhale

quietly 2 or 3x and intone a-a-ah quietly and slowly_ repeat the same 3x more each time nodding your headforward quietly and without tension.

- tongue - in - cheek exercise


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-Say the following words putting your fingertipson nose and cheekbone to see if you can feel

vibration there. Give them a ringing quality.Avoid breathiness.

-fine loan tone home one

-soon lean doing plain rain

-Moan alone mine nine ring

watch your words

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