Wise ole' Johnny Cash

Blaring from the car radio today was that characteristic dum ta da dum ta da dum bass line you hear in many Johnny Cash songs. Then that thick, flat, splayed out voice boomed, unmistakably Johnny. I'd never heard this song before (not really being a JC fan), but it really struck me as great wisdom. The song was 'Get Rhythm' and the lyric holds so true: 'Get rhythm, when you get the blues'! Go Johnny! One of the best things you can do if you're depressed is put on some music and start dancing! Bang on some pots and pans; make weird rhythms with your voice; use your body as a percussion instrument! To get yourself out of that blue funk, try singing! Even if you think you can't do jazz 'scat' singing, put on a jazz instrumental CD and sing along, pretending your voice is a trumpet, a bass, or even drums! It's all about having fun, and getting your mind off your problems. Remember that singing and dancing releases endorphins, and endorphins make you feel good! So even if you're not a fan of good old Uncle Cash, pay attention to his lyric and 'Get rhythm, When You Get the Blues!' Want more Tips on how to live more fully, sing like nobody's listening, and have a healthy voice for Life? Get my Voicegram Newsletter, Blissential Buzz, and FREE Voice Tonic Recipe!

Cheers, Beth Lawrence http://allaboutvoice.com

Seniors Just Want to Have Fun!

Here I am in the middle of my Singing For Health class CHORUS LINE! Clearly, Seniors like to have fun, too, and I drag everybody up 'on stage' even if they are in a walker! We sing, we dance, we hoop and holler -- we just spend 45 minutes supporting each other and having a silly, raucous time. And guess what - a lot of the folks who haven't talked in months are singing, moving, laughing. Music opens everyone's heart and accesses parts of the brain that regular therapy can't. It's marvelous!

Singing releases feel good endorphins!

Here's more confirmation about the benefits of singing, especially group singing, from Julia Layton @ TLC network:  

All types of singing have positive psychological effects. The act of singing releases endorphins, the brain's "feel good" chemicals. Singing in front of a crowd, a la karaoke, naturally builds confidence, which has broad and long-lasting effects on general well-being. But of all types of singing, it's choral singing that seems to have the most dramatic effects on people's lives.

A study published in Australia in 2008 revealed that on average, choral singers rated their satisfaction with life higher than the public -- even when the actual problems faced by those singers were more substantial than those faced by the general public [source:MacLean]. A 1998 study found that after nursing-home residents took part in a singing program for a month, there were significant decreases in both anxiety and depression levels [source: ISPS]. Another study surveying more than 600 British choral singers found that singing plays a central role in their psychological health [source:ISPS].

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Your Voice Is Your Calling Card!

Unless you're talking to yourself - you're a PUBLIC SPEAKER!

I coach speakers, as well as singers, and increasingly, folks are realizing the importance of developing a rich and compelling speaking voice - a voice that reflects your power and self-confidence.

I also coach clients over the phone and online, and can 'hear' exactly what their challenge is, as well as know how to help them.  If you're interested in developing your voice, which is your best calling card, please contact me.

Cheers,  Beth Lawrence, Viva La Voice

BY JENNIFER SARANOW, Wall Street Journal

       VINYA LYNCH HATES the sound of her voice. She thinks it is timid and sing-songy. She blames it for why she is frequently cut off giving presentations at work, and for why it takes her as many as 10 tries to record a voice-mail message.

       "When I listen to myself, it doesn’t sound intelligent," says Ms. Lynch, a 35- year-old handbag designer.

       So last summer, simply to change how she sounds, Ms. Lynch began seeing a speech pathologist. Total cost: $2,250 for 10-sessions plus evaluation, text and tapes. "I want my voice to be charismatic and confident all at the same time," she says.

       Speech therapy used to be for stutterers, lispers and other people with medically diagnosed language problems. But in a culture increasingly devoted to personal trainers, self-help books and cosmetic surgery, a new outlet for self-betterment is emerging: the personal voice trainer.

       Eager to boost their prospects professionally or socially (or both), a growing number of people are hiring speech pathologists to "tone" and improve normal voices. It’s a phenomenon driven partly by the tight job market, where every little advantage counts, as well as the pervasiveness of cellphones and voice mail, which can amplify the eternal tendency to cringe at the sound of ones own words.

       "This is not speech therapy, this is beautification of the voice," says Ita Olsen, a speech pathologist in New York whose firm Oslic Consultants LLC sees about 275 individuals a week for "cosmetic" voice-changing, compared with about one per week three years ago.

       Technological advances are making cosmetic voice changes easier. A number of speech-therapy practices are using digital video endoscopy, a technology that allows speech pathologists to see the vocal folds as they are vibrating - and to home in on what the talker is doing wrong. (It involves sticking a small fiber-optic tube with a camera at the end up the patient’s nose.) Others use a computerized system that quantifies speech. Patients speak into a microphone and a line appears on a computer screen that reflects their pitch, loudness and vocal quality. The number provides a quantitative baseline voice from which doctors can work.

       But speech therapists are also finding low-tech ways to capitalize on the growing market. Sandra McKnight, a voice coach in Santa Fe, N.M., offers voice training over the phone (a typical treatment program is four 75-minute phone sessions for $640). She says she doesn’t have to see patients in person to know what their voice problems are; she just needs to hear them. Susan Miller, a Washington, D.C., speech pathologist, and Susan Berkley, a voice expert in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., recently released a compact disc package, available through the Internet (www.voicetrainer.com), called "Vocal Vitality: A safe, easy warm up program to energize and enhance your speaking voice" with morning vocal exercises for unsatisfied talkers. They’ve sold several hundred so far.

       Dr. Miller says the growing demand for voice improvement became apparent to her in the fall of 2002 when she gave a six-week course at the Smithsonian called "Cultivating the Medium of the Message: Your Voice." She expected about 30 participants at the first class. More than 150 showed up. "I was shocked," says Dr. Miller, who estimates about 35% of her 120-patient-a-week practice now is devoted to training normal voices, up from 5% three years ago.

       People have been wincing when they hear themselves speak since the dawn of the recording. Common complaints run the familiar litany of too high-pitched, too monotone, too nasal, too much like the opposite sex. For women, they often include: too shrill, too "valley girl," or too faint. For men, familiar grievances are too gravely or too weak.

       Voice experts say that many voice "problems" are caused by unbalanced talking, or using too much of one part of the voice. (The components of the voice include breathing, vocal chord vibration and the sound of the voice as it resonates out of the mouth, nose and throat.) For example, hypernasality results from letting sound resonate too much through the nose. A gravely or harsh tone comes from excessive tension in the throat area.

       The voice "is very similar conceptually to a person’s knee," says Joseph Stemple, a speech pathologist at the Blame Block Institute for Vocal Analysis and Rehabilitation in Dayton, Ohio, and author of a well-known voice pathology textbook. "It can become strained and weakened and unbalanced and you can do direct exercise to enhance it."

       The key behind most voice exercise programs is teaching patients to find their "true" sound when emphasis isn’t on one part of the voice over others. Patients learn to breathe from their stomach and let the voice carry more fully out of their mouth. They learn to feel whether they are exerting their mouth, nose or throat too much when talking. They use relaxing exercises to relieve tension that may be putting emphasis too much on one area.

       Patients say that the end result is a better voice and more- effortless talking -- but getting there takes a lot of work. Learning to talk with a "true" voice can mean anything from figuring out how to hold your tongue while speaking to breathing differently -- movements that feel weird and unnatural at first. It takes extensive practice to turn such changes into habit.

       "The results are largely dependent on the amount of energy that they are willing to put into their practice," says Kate DeVore, a speech pathologist from Chicago, who estimates that personal training of normal voices now accounts for about half of her practice.

       It requires not only practice, but a substantial amount of money, usually between $100 and $200 per session. Group sessions, which Dr. Olsen in New York has dubbed "voice spas," cost less.

       Ms. Lynch says the gain has been worth the pain. At her third session with Dr. Olsen this past summer, Ms. Lynch relaxed her head from side to side, took a few breaths and practiced saying phrases she utters daily such as "40th and Broadway" and "two tickets please" using her new "true" voice.

       A few weeks ago, she finished the last of her 10 sessions. Her new sound is deeper, slower and stronger than her regular voice, thanks to relaxing her throat muscles more to let air out and figuring out how to use her tongue differently.

       "I learned a lot in theory and now, it’s just a matter of applying it," she says. For now, she’s mostly practicing around strangers -- when she orders coffee, for instance, or gets in a taxi. But one day at work, she decided to use her new voice -- or as she prefers to call it, her "natural voice" -- all day. Everyone asked, " ‘Why are you speaking that way?' "

       -- The Wall Street Journal Online

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Common Sense Public Speaking!

Steve Jobs was a passionate, confident speaker!

Public Speaking is  like everything else - you've got to use plain common sense.  If you speak too fast people can't understand you - and can't process what's being said fast enough to 'get' your message.  If you speak too slowly, you give the brain too much time for distraction - you lose them.  Filler words are a distraction.  Constant movement is a distraction.  A speaker needs to minimize distractions so that the audience is locked on to the message, not the quirks of the messenger!

If you're totally connected with the real message you're presenting, and are passionate about it, your energy will reflect that.  If you're speaking too slowly or too fast, that tells me, as a listener, that you're not totally 'feeling' what you're talking about, or that you're not  reading your audience to determine whether they are tuned in to you or not.  During a presentation I believe that a speaker has to know their topic so well that they can be flexible to change up pace, audience interaction, and just overall, be able to take command of the energy in the room!

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Whitney Houston Star Spangled Banner

What an incredible performance!  This is what I call 'going for it'!  She sang this with so much energy, courage and confidence that it really is one of the best renditions I've every seen or heard.  Although she had her demons and fought her own internal battles, I know that she reclaimed her beautiful soul and stunning voice when she left this plane.  Sing on, lovely Whitney!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Cheers,  Beth Lawrence

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The Ultimate Blog Challenge!

My first time joining the Ultimate Blog Challenge  Fun! #blogboost

Do Senior Singers Live Longer?

This from Bryant Stamford, professor and chairman of the department of kinesiology and integrative physiology at Hanover College:

"Research tells us, there was a study of senior singers, average age 80 years, in which they were tracked over a prolonged period and their data were compared with folks the same age in the general population. The researchers found that the elderly singers experienced less depression, took far fewer than the typical four prescription medications and a like number of over-the-counter meds, and they were more socially active.

Does this mean the older singers will live longer? Hard to say, but it’s not a far reach to suggest the answer is yes.

We know, for example, that the mind-body connection is very important, and that health and longevity of the body can be influenced by mental state (depression, etc.). Medications and their side effects greatly impact the quality of life, and if there is poor quality of life, the zest for living goes out the window. And those with a strong social network are likely to be happier, better adjusted in old age, and more accepting of change, and therefore likely to live longer and healthier lives."

So I say, again - get out there and sing, no matter what your age!  You will feel better, and just possibly live a longer, healthier life!  Want help with your singing?  My new book From Shower To Stage...7 Easy Steps for Singing Like A Pro!  can help!

Dedicated To Whitney Houston - An original Song

A song I wrote that I think is a perfect tribute to Whitney.

Smash - Marilyn Monroe Video

'Smash' airs Monday on NBC with tons of buzz.  Have you seen this video??