As an instrument, the human voice is unique in that it is alive and intimately bound to our whole physical and psychological being. When I start teaching a new group of acting students, I often ask them what brings their voice into play. I point out that as they sit listening to me, there is no voice, no sound. The answers they give are nearly always intelligent and informed: breath, vocal folds, the diaphragm, vibrations. It sometimes takes a bit of prodding until eventually someone offers up ‘the brain’ or ‘thought’ and this is correct. Our voice is the result of a desire to communicate something. We have a thought we wish to express, that thought inspires the body to draw a breath, and that breath initiates the vibration of the vocal folds which becomes the sound wave upon which we speak.
Our voice is a coordination of thought, breath, and muscle, responding directly to our desires and emotions, and forming a bridge between our inner, imaginative, and spiritual life, and the outside world. It is the means by which we make known our desires, joys and sorrows, and thoughts and opinions. For the actor, their voice carries the potential for the dramatic expression of every possible human emotion. An actor also carries the responsibility of bringing a writer’s words to life. The words of a play remain print on a page until the actor literally breathes life into them and lifts them off the page. For all this to happen, a healthy vocal practice, together with an understanding of how the voice works, is essential for the performer or professional speaker, and can be of enormous value to the non-professional.
Professional voice differs from the non-professional in that it needs to be able to sustain the expression and communication of dramatic text and emotion in a way that does not strain or damage the muscles and organs involved in producing sound. It needs to have stamina, strength, and flexibility, to be interesting and varied, capable of being heard and understood in all kinds of performing space, and to be responsive to the actor’s thoughts, imagination, and the emotional implications of the text.
These qualities are inherent in every voice, however, and the desire to improve vocal stamina, quality and range, is something that brings many people to training. To know our voice and understand how it works, as well as what happens when it doesn’t work, is also to know and understand more of ourselves and of what drives us forwards in life or holds us back. As the voice becomes freer and stronger so we too become freer and stronger as people, performers and communicators.
Fellner Voice 