The Importance of Relaxation for Good Voice Production
Author: Maggie Hall, LLAM, MSTSD

If we are to learn to speak effectively and confidently, we need to be sure to eliminate two of the voice’s most powerful enemies. These are tension and bad posture.

In order to ensure that our voices are being produced in the most efficient and effective way, the first thing to consider is our posture. You will find it easier to follow what I’m going to say about posture standing in front of a full length mirror.

For your voice to work efficiently and effortlessly, your air stream needs to have a clear, unrestricted passage through the vocal tract. If your stance or posture are even slightly wrong this passage will be restricted and you will be making unnecessarily hard work of producing your voice, since extra effort will be needed to try to overcome the restriction.

First, look at your stance. Your feet should be placed directly beneath your hipbones. This means slightly apart – about the same width apart as your shoulders. If you place them together, as if standing to attention, you will tend to sway when you are speaking. If they are too far apart you will eventually become uncomfortable and tend to shift the weight over onto one hip. When people do this they also tend to fold their arms. All this gives an impression to your audience that you don’t really want to speak to them at all and that you’d really rather be somewhere else. This may be true, but there are times when honesty is not the best policy.

Next, think about your spine. You should certainly not be slumped over at the shoulders, as this will restrict your breathing, but neither should you be holding your shoulders back and thrusting your chest out. This causes an unnatural hollow in your spine and encourages clavicular breathing, when you to try to breath with your upper chest and shoulders, since it’s impossible to use the full capacity of your ribcage in this position. If you stand in this position and try to speak, you will find that your voice is breathy and weak. So no standing with your shoulders back and your chest out - and I don’t care what your PE teacher said at school!

To ensure that your spine is in its correct alignment, imagine that there is a golden thread attached to the top of your head, towards the back and that some unseen force above you is pulling it upwards. This will ensure that your spine is fully extended so that your head is not slumped into your shoulders. Your arms should be hanging as loosely as possible. Their natural position is hanging slightly forward from the shoulders.

Standing in the correct way means using gravity rather than fighting against it. Standing with too wide or too narrow a stance or with the spine badly aligned means that extra muscles are habitually being used to keep you upright against the forces of gravity. Your head should be up with the eyes looking straight ahead and the ears, the point of the shoulder, the highest point of the hip, the knee, and the front of the ankle are all in alignment with each other. Check now in the mirror, to see if your posture is correct.

Having sorted out your posture, you need to ensure that there is no negative tension in the body. Negative tension is the result of nervousness or stress and needs to be eliminated for good voice production. If you are tense, the first place it will show is in your shoulders, neck and jaw, all of which need to be loose and free in order to produce a good voice and clear diction. Try the following exercises. But please do make sure that you accommodate any physical condition you may have such as a bad back or joint problems. Only do what you know you are physically capable of doing.

Standing in the centred position already described, raise your arms above your head. Now we are going to deliberately tense all our muscle groups so that you can learn to recognise consciously when they have tensed up by themselves. So we’ll start with the toes. Curl them under. Now tighten up all the muscles in your feet, then the lower legs, thighs, tummy and buttocks. Now tighten up in the midriff area, the back, the shoulders and the arms. Make your hands into tight fists. Screw up your entire face and close your eyes tightly. Stay in this position for a few seconds. Uncomfortable, isn’t it? This is how you don’t want to feel when you are speaking. So now release the face muscles and drop the jaw open. Unclench those fists and stretch out your fingers. Next drop your arms, but keep the shoulders and chest tense. Now release the tension in your shoulders, neck, chest and back. Now release the tummy and buttocks, thighs, lower legs and feet. Uncurl the toes and give them a good wiggle. Now shake out the arms and legs till they feel really loose. How do you feel now? De-tensed, I hope! This is how you need to feel in order to speak confidently with a well produced voice.

In order to ensure that the shoulder, neck and jaw area in particular remain free, try the following:

Still standing in your centred position, lift the shoulders right up to the ears and then allow them to drop with their own weight back into position. Make sure you do let them drop and don’t actually place them back in position as your muscles will then immediately tense up again. Circle your shoulders gently three times forward and then three times back. Always do all these exercises gently. This is not “keep fit”. Hold your right arm out to the front with the palm facing downwards. Gently swing it up and over in an arc until you end up with your arm out in front of you again, but with the palm facing up. Swing it down and back and over, ending with the palm facing back down again. Do this several times with each arm.

Now to loosen up the neck, stand in your centred position, turn your head until your chin is above your right shoulder. Gently drop it down till it touches your chest and continue to roll it across the chest to the other shoulder and lift the head up again so that is facing in the opposite direction to the one it started in. Repeat in the other direction. Do this several times. If you’re a bit stiff in that area you may hear bumps and clicks. Don’t worry, just make sure you are doing the exercise gently. This stiffness will improve the more you do this exercise.

Now we are going to work on the jaw. Remember, always treat the jaw gently. It’s a very vulnerable joint if it’s misused.

First, I want you to imagine that you are chewing a particularly sticky toffee. Really work the jaw and the tongue in a chewing motion. Make sure you are using a circular motion. Never swing the jaw from side to side. You are likely to hear a nasty click and end up with a dislocation.

Next, I want you to yawn, and have a good stretch whilst you’re at it, just as you would if you’d just got out of bed.

Now for the spine. Stand with your feet together. Bend your knees and start circling them round, keeping your feet still, first in one direction, then the other. Now take the circling motion up to the hips and circle them – first one way and then the other, then up to the torso and shoulders. With knees slightly bent, undulate the spine, like a snake. This does take a bit of practice.

NB: You should not attempt the following exercise if you suffer from high blood pressure or glaucoma.

Stand with the feet slightly apart and the knees slightly bent. Flop the upper part of your body forward and down, so that your arms and head are hanging loosely downward, with the top of your head pointing towards the floor. Gently swing your upper body from side to side. When ready to come up again, slowly start to unroll the spine from its base, so that the shoulders and head come up last. Imagine each vertebra sitting back on top of the one below as you come up. Make sure that your arms remain hanging loose and don’t place your shoulders back into position as you come up. Instead just swing your shoulder girdle and upper body round from side to side and you will find that they fall back into place naturally without having to re-tense the muscles.

You should now be fully de-tensed and ready to do your voice warm up.






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Maggie Hall worked for many years in admin and PA roles in both the private and public sectors before retraining as a Teacher of Speech and Drama and being awarded the Licentiate Teacher’s Diploma of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, with Distinction.

She now works in private practice, teaching all aspects of Speech, Drama and Communication Skills, including Presentation Skills, Public speaking, interview skills and voice coaching, as well as the Speaking of Verse and Prose and acting skills, including mime and improvisation. She has run several successful short Adult Education courses in both Acting and Public Speaking. She also runs Audition coaching workshops and undertakes audition coaching sessions for individuals on a private consultation basis. Many of her students enter for the graded LAMDA examinations or the RADA Shakespeare Certificates. She leads a regular Drama Workshop for children aged 10-16.

Group Workshops (maximum number 25) in any of the above subjects can be arranged for business, clubs, societies, schools and other organisations. A schedule of fees is available on application.

Maggie Hall is a member of the Society of Teachers of Speech and Drama, the British Voice Association and Voice Care Network UK and is a VCN approved Voice Tutor. She has enhanced CRB clearance.

Maggie also performs as an actor with the Murder Mystery company The Dead Funny Company at corporate and private functions in the UK and weekends in France. You can find out more about her activities by visiting her website: www.easystages.biz .

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