Elegant Speech

Elegant speech is soft—soft voice, no straining, no nasal.

Proper grammar is elegant.

Slang is not elegant.

And so, naturally, I have a voice that strains whenever I’m self-conscious (that means most of the time).  Furthermore, over the years I’ve dumbed down my grammar because of being around people who think speaking properly is a sign of being stuck-up.  And I’m dreadful about slang.  But let others say what they will; I’ve decided to speak confidently and properly.  Now I need to practice it.

In the olden days, young ladies of a certain class were given voice lessons for singing and elocution (proper pronunciation).  Lessons are still available, but if you’re time and money crunched like me, we have the Internet—a great source for video demonstrations.  And actors, bless their hearts, have put up lots of videos to demonstrate their craft.  They get exposure, we get new tips and ideas—everybody wins!

Actors practice vocal warm up exercises, such as tongue twisters and simply reading aloud from books.  I particularly like tongue twisters because not only do you have to move your mouth properly, you have to think about what you are saying—good practice for living in the moment, I say.  Both types of exercises help your elocution.

You also want to practice voice modulation.  In other words, avoid monotone and extremes in either the high or low register.  Sentences usually start in the medium to high register, and then drop to the lower register at the end, if you are making a statement.  If you are asking a question, your voice goes higher at the end of the sentence.  Basic, yes, but when people are stressed or self-conscious, they forget.  I forget.  That’s why I’m practicing this.

You also want to open your voice resonators—in other words, you don’t want to hold your body in a way that blocks airflow.  You need to straighten your back, with chin parallel to the ground, not tucked in, and shoulders down and back, rather than hunched up (I need to remind myself of this—I do the self protective posture of hunching over and being “little” when I’m nervous).  And be careful of sounding nasal.  I can’t describe how to make a nasal tone, but you know it when you do it.  (Think of Fran Drescher’s character’s voice on “The Nanny”.  And don’t do that).

I’m a believer in modeling, which means looking around you and imitating who you admire.  And don’t worry—assuming you’re mentally healthy, you won’t become a creepy, stalkerish clone of that person.  You’ll simply take on the traits you want and discard the rest.

Some examples of ladylike voices:

Ingrid Bergman, Olivia De Havilland, Donna Reed, Kim Novak, Lauren Bacall (which is particularly interesting because she had a low, almost masculine voice, but nobody would ever mistake her for a man!)

I’m sure there are more modern examples, I just can’t think of any right now.  I’m afraid we don’t live in very elegant times