Nothing is more embarrassing for a speaker than to be tormented by a voice that trembles, quivers, or jumps an octave when standing at the lectern or at the head of the conference table. It is a problem for many people and can be easily eliminated by taking control of your nervousness and speaking from your chest. And his reaction to those words is probably to question how he can possibly speak from his chest when everyone knows that he speaks from his larynx, his throat, his mouth and, in some cases, his nose.
You are correct in that most people use only those 4 resonators when speaking. However, those 4 resonators are only part of the picture. You can’t have a voice like James Earl Jones, Kathleen Turner, George Clooney, or Ashley Judd unless you include your fifth resonator, the chest cavity. That’s why their voices are richer, deeper and warmer than most of the voices you hear among your family, your friends or your colleagues.
In order to produce sound, it must have a cavity in which sound waves can vibrate and be amplified. The cavities, including the larynx (which houses the vocal cords), the throat, the mouth, and the nostrils, will produce a voice of higher pitch, less resonant quality, possibly nasal, guttural, weak, faint, strident, raspy. , young-sounding, too high or too low. I could go on and on listing the various characteristics of the speaking voice that is fed in this way.
However, what happens when you add your chest cavity will change the quality of your sound, which is why I refer to it as your ‘real’ voice. Everyone has a better voice inside. It is simply a matter of finding it.
By now, you’re probably wondering what this has to do with a shaking voice. Nervousness, and a sound that arises primarily from the larynx and throat, sometimes produces a wobble or tremor in the speaking voice that cannot be eliminated until you control the nervousness and at the same time remove pressure from your throat .
Once your chest is boosting your sound and you are speaking in your ‘real’ voice, you will notice an immediate difference because your chest will be doing more work and your larynx and throat will be doing less. It’s almost like you’re going down your throat when you speak. Another benefit of letting your ‘chest speak for you’ is that you will discover the best way to control nervousness in any form of public speaking.
