Have you ever listened to a recording of your voice and cringed?
Perhaps you were surprised about how nasally or high-pitched it was, or how hard you were to understand. Perhaps in that moment you wished for a manlier, more pleasant-sounding voice.
A deep, strong, masculine voice is not without its benefits. Women prefer men with deeper voices, and find what they say more memorable than men with higher-pitched ones. And a strong, deep voice can make a man seem more confident and authoritative.
But heres the deal. There isnt much we can do to deepen our voices substantially. Youre pretty much stuck with the voice nature gave you. So if you sound like Super Mario (or God bless you, Toad), youll probably never sound like Sean Connery. Sorry.
But you know what? Thats okay.
You dont have to have a rich baritone voice to be successful in love or life. Instead, you just need to make the most of what youve got. Today well cover how to do that.
Why You Need to Stop Trying to Sound Like James Earl Jones
Youre working against nature. The deepness of a voice is primarily determined by the length and thickness of the vocal cords. Longer and thicker vocal cords produce lower, James Earl Jones-like pitches. So, if you want a deeper voice, you just need to thicken and lengthen your vocal cords. Easy, right?
Hate to break it to you, but unless you can travel back into time to when you were 12 years old, theres nothing you can do to naturally lengthen and thicken your vocal cords. Puberty was your magic window to developing that signature Darth Vadar voice.
Remember all that embarrassing voice cracking? That was your vocal cords being exposed to increased amounts of testosterone. As your body went into testosterone overdrive during puberty, the hormone went to work on your vocal cords, causing them to lengthen and thicken. Boys who produced more testosterone during puberty turned into men with thicker and longer vocal cords, and consequently, naturally deeper voices. (Researchers theorize that this, by the way, is why women prefer deeper voices; they signal that a man has more T, which back in primitive times might of meant he was a stronger and more virile protector and provider.)
It can damage your voice. Because men usually want a deeper voice than the one they have, theyll artificially lower it by projecting their voice from the lower part of their throat. To hear and feel what I mean, speak in the lowest pitch that you can, and pay attention to where you feel the sound emanating.
Did you do it? You felt the vibrations primarily in your throat, right?
While you may feel uber-manly talking with that low voice, youre actually doing damage to your vocal cords. Consistently producing sound primarily from your lower throat does some major wear and tear on your vocal cords. If you lose your voice or feel hoarse frequently, its probably because youre speaking with an artificially low pitch.
John F. Kennedy had this problem. In everyday conversation, JFK would use his God-given natural pitch. But during debates or speeches, hed start projecting sound from his lower throat to get that deep, manly, and authoritative voice. The result? Hoarseness and oftentimes voice loss.
No one can understand you. When you speak from your lower throat to get that low pitch, you produce a sound that lacks carrying power. Try speaking with an artificially lowered pitch again. Go as low as you can, but speak as loud as you can. Dimes to donuts you couldnt get very loud and your voice sounded sort of muffled. I also bet your vocal cords felt a bit strained too.
I remember when I was an insecure 13-year-old, Id speak with an artificially lower pitch. I thought I sounded like a grown-up, but nobody could understand what I was saying. When Id talk to people theyd lean their ear towards me and ask me to repeat what I just said. I finally gave up and just started using my normal voice.
Your primary concern when speaking is to communicate. Theres no point in sounding like Barry White if no one understands a word of what youre saying.
Theres actually a way you can deepen your voice just a bit (and I mean just a bit) without straining your voice while also maintaining understandability. We share the secret below. Keep reading.
How to Develop Your Natural Voice to Its Full Potential (And Make It a Bit Deeper, Too)
Alright, so we all cant sound like Dean Martin, but that doesnt mean we cant work on developing a more pleasant-sounding voice. After talking to a few voice actors and reading up on books about voice theory, Ive learned that wed all be better served if we spent our time developing our natural voices to their full potential, not artificially lowering them. As one voice actor told me: The manliest voice is the voice youve already got. You just need to find it and own it.
If your voice is higher-pitched than youd like, despair not. Both Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt had higher-pitched voices, and yet each was a memorable and convincing orator because they made the best of their natural voices.
So what does your best natural voice sound like? A good voice is one that is filled with warmth and expression; it should also have an even resonance thats easy on the ears, it should carry well so people can understand exactly what youre saying, and it should be flexible and have a wide range of natural pitches.
Unless youre a singer or actor, you probably havent gotten any instruction on how to use your voice properly. Consequently, most of us have probably been using a sub-optimal voice because weve picked up voice habits that prevent us from sounding like our best selves. Most men use a voice thats lower than their natural pitch, resulting in a voice thats hard to understand. Other men might have a nasally-sounding voice that gets on peoples nerves.
There are two things you can do to speak with your best voice possible. First, speak with your natural pitch. Second, breath from your diaphragm for a more powerful, commanding, and, yes, a bit deeper voice. Ready to find your best voice? Lets get started.
Method #1 for Improving Your Voice: Find Your Natural Pitch and Optimal Tone by Projecting from Your Mask
As I mentioned above, most men are probably walking around speaking from their lower throat to get an artificially deep voice. Weve already covered the problems that come with this. If you have a nasally-sounding tone, your problem is that youre speaking from just your nose.
To speak with your natural pitch and optimal tone, you need to project your voice from your mask. Wheres your mask? Glad you asked. Its the area on your face that includes your lips and the bridge and sides of your nose. You know youre projecting from your mask when you feel the area slightly vibrate when you speak. When you can feel vibration in that area, you know youre speaking with your optimal pitch and tone. A voice projected from the mask wont be nasally nor will it strain your throat.