Audio - Are We Really Connecting?
“Everyone is born with a beautiful voice”
Chris James
If you have ever had the misfortune of standing too close to a wailing infant, you'll understand that the human voice is immensely powerful - right out of the box. In fact, let's digress for a moment ... a normal conversation registers around 50 decibels. Now, humans can begin to register hearing damage at around 85db.
Ahem - a child's scream can stop the meter at 110db, just short of an ambulance siren at 120db.
So, what happens in the transition from this level of power and confidence to where most of us find ourselves at adulthood - barely able to express ourselves vocally or sing? This is a great question, and one that affected me very personally indeed. I have loved singing for as long as I can remember, but somehow growing up in Australia I swallowed (forgive me) the notion that it wasn't the most masculine thing I could possibly choose and that I should really be wrestling wild boar and engaging in rollicking nights of self-harm with Bundaberg Rum. So, over time I began to resist singing in public, then resist my own voice itself until I found my youthful vocal flexibility had vanished.
Over the past 5 years, I have been studying what it is to express, not only as a singer but also in every way. Confining the topic to the voice however, I have come to realise that, just as Einstein says "everything is energy". Effectively what I had done, was to take on some erroneous influences that were telling me it wasn't 'cool' to sing. After some time, I began to let these impositions go. This took some commitment of course, and some considerable but gentle ego bashing from one Chris James (www.chrisjames.net). I have spent many hours now with Chris, and he has ever so lovingly brought me to an awareness that I do indeed have a beautiful voice. And so do you.
I have learned that the voice is incredibly powerful in that everything we say to another person affects them. In song, it's not only the way in which we sing the song, but the sing itself that carries an energy. What are the lyrics saying? By whom were they writtten? What was the inspiration? Were they on drugs at the time? Or angry? Or had they just lost someone? As a society we have a tendency to glorify the amount of emotion in our music. To revere the political or motivational speaker who gets the most worked up and frenzied. We call this "passion". So, it is possible to sing from the heart, as an individual in a joyful expression of 'just you', or should we lace as much emotion in there as possible?
Let's look at it from a cooking perspective. Yes, it's possible to make everyone fall over with delight at your cooking using the right amount of sugar and salt. It's not hard to win people with taste. However, we are learning gradually that it's not really all that healthy for us. I feel that we will learn in the future that every voice carries an energy even before the words are spoken that can and does affect all of us. We can all feel the emptiness of a reluctant apology, the suspicion in an innocent question and the guilt in a hasty excuse - and we can definitely feel the energy of heavy metal or thrash music. It's a constant evolution, and one I'm enjoying very much.
I both love and welcome the chance to bring this passion to what I do professionally - whether it's for a corporate voice over, a song or an eLearning animation.
I attended Sounds Wonderful's Power of Sound Training Level 1, 2 and 3 in the UK, however Chris James travels all over the world presenting on the voice, and his schedule may be found here.
Chris James
If you have ever had the misfortune of standing too close to a wailing infant, you'll understand that the human voice is immensely powerful - right out of the box. In fact, let's digress for a moment ... a normal conversation registers around 50 decibels. Now, humans can begin to register hearing damage at around 85db.
Ahem - a child's scream can stop the meter at 110db, just short of an ambulance siren at 120db.
So, what happens in the transition from this level of power and confidence to where most of us find ourselves at adulthood - barely able to express ourselves vocally or sing? This is a great question, and one that affected me very personally indeed. I have loved singing for as long as I can remember, but somehow growing up in Australia I swallowed (forgive me) the notion that it wasn't the most masculine thing I could possibly choose and that I should really be wrestling wild boar and engaging in rollicking nights of self-harm with Bundaberg Rum. So, over time I began to resist singing in public, then resist my own voice itself until I found my youthful vocal flexibility had vanished.
Over the past 5 years, I have been studying what it is to express, not only as a singer but also in every way. Confining the topic to the voice however, I have come to realise that, just as Einstein says "everything is energy". Effectively what I had done, was to take on some erroneous influences that were telling me it wasn't 'cool' to sing. After some time, I began to let these impositions go. This took some commitment of course, and some considerable but gentle ego bashing from one Chris James (www.chrisjames.net). I have spent many hours now with Chris, and he has ever so lovingly brought me to an awareness that I do indeed have a beautiful voice. And so do you.
I have learned that the voice is incredibly powerful in that everything we say to another person affects them. In song, it's not only the way in which we sing the song, but the sing itself that carries an energy. What are the lyrics saying? By whom were they writtten? What was the inspiration? Were they on drugs at the time? Or angry? Or had they just lost someone? As a society we have a tendency to glorify the amount of emotion in our music. To revere the political or motivational speaker who gets the most worked up and frenzied. We call this "passion". So, it is possible to sing from the heart, as an individual in a joyful expression of 'just you', or should we lace as much emotion in there as possible?
Let's look at it from a cooking perspective. Yes, it's possible to make everyone fall over with delight at your cooking using the right amount of sugar and salt. It's not hard to win people with taste. However, we are learning gradually that it's not really all that healthy for us. I feel that we will learn in the future that every voice carries an energy even before the words are spoken that can and does affect all of us. We can all feel the emptiness of a reluctant apology, the suspicion in an innocent question and the guilt in a hasty excuse - and we can definitely feel the energy of heavy metal or thrash music. It's a constant evolution, and one I'm enjoying very much.
I both love and welcome the chance to bring this passion to what I do professionally - whether it's for a corporate voice over, a song or an eLearning animation.
I attended Sounds Wonderful's Power of Sound Training Level 1, 2 and 3 in the UK, however Chris James travels all over the world presenting on the voice, and his schedule may be found here.
