Tips for a louder voice.

I've had guys say their voice is quiet and hindering them, asking advice on how to make their voice louder.

Totally understandable. I used to speak too softly all the time. This was because I liked the feeling of low notes so I would speak very low all the time. And as you probably know, you lose volume as your pitch gets lower.

Speaking low would sound loud to me because it would resonate throughout my body greatly, but it wouldn't project. I would get told I mumble too much and would get asked "what?" all the time. Couldn't for the life of me figure out what the deal was.

Tip #1: Find your comfortable range

This can be misleading. Because those low notes are comfortable to me. They are natural. And I was enthralled with them because of some strange social programming that the lower the voice, ultimately, the more masculine the man. What nonsense!

Instead, speak wherever you feel is natural and not forced. Comfortable. Pitch isn't near as important as depth. I speak at a place in my voice that I call my "happy medium." I'm a bass and my voice has some real depth to it, and low notes seem to be my choral calling. And when I sing high into higher notes (Eb4 and up) I keep that same fullness of the voice resonance(this is how you can easily tell a bass from baritone). However, neither of these extremes are where it would make sense for me to speak from. My sweet, effortless spot - where in an absolutely normal, close up conversation with no yelling or extra projection - is around F#2 to D3.

Most male voices, myself included, have a high passagio around B3 - beyond it you start to get into head voice which is not something you would naturally speak from. Chances are your comfortable range is somewhere between B2 and A3. If you have a piano handy that will help you to determine the extremes of your range and see where you fall comfortably to speak in.

Here's a test I think should work well for most people to find your "happy medium."

Pretend you're having a conversation with your friend. She's in the kitchen with you, talking about the sandwich she's making. She asks you if you want strawberry or apricot jam, to which you reply, "hmm.. strawberry." Then she says something about who it was made by, but you can't tell if she said brother or mother, so you say "hmm?"

Those two hmms are probably good indicators of the general range you should be speaking in. There's no logic attached to the words, they are just primal noises we make at eachother. Natural. And so,- comfortable.


Now that you've found your happy medium, hopefully you've already started to notice you can produce a louder sound. But are you talking higher than you are used to? You think you sound a little whiny and girly now?

Tip #2: BIG, not loud

Having a big, resonant tone will totally eliminate any notion of a girly sound. I recall reading psychological studies where people mistake volume for lowness. Because there is more depth to the sound. And that is what is more masculine.

When supported properly, speaking a little higher sounds just as deep to the listener because you have the same depth and resonance of your lower register carried through it. When I shout D4's and E4's people say "damn you have a deep voice."

This "big vs. loud" is an important distinction to make. You ever heard one of those people who are "falsely" confident? Another word for this is arrogance. Acting under an ego-based image of self-identity and having the impetus to constantly have this image reaffirmed by both yourself and others - compensating. These people often talk loud. But not you, tiger. You want to talk big.

Don't understand the distinction I'm making?

Imagine a guy in a snowstorm yelling at the camera. Shouting at it. It sounds like it's painful for him to be talking so loud. You can hear the grain multiply in his vocal tone as he continues yelling.

Now imagine yourself in a busy park in daytime, and you see someone stealing your bike all the way across the field. Your immediate reaction is to shout, HEY! So you do. You don't even think about like "am I controlling my voice properly? is this going to be too nasal? is this gonna end up being a glottal attack? could this hurt?" etc, you just DO IT from INSTINCT and instinct knows what's up. Instinct naturally relaxes everything from your neck up and your sound comes from down below. Everything neck and upwards opens up like a steampipe.

That is the difference between a loud voice and a BIG voice.

Attaining a big voice means you are in for some vocal training. I will explore this topic further in future posts. It's about breath, support, awareness of the diaphragm, the mask, and other things.

Hopefully from that visualization of your voice booming across a field you have a better idea of the depth and resonance of a big tone. I've got one more tip for you before I sign off.

Tip #3: Believe in yourself

The beauty about this is that it kind of comes full circle. When at your core you feel truly entitled to speak louder, you will find it worlds easier to bring out the depth in your voice even if you've let it stay shrimpy all this time.

At the same time, when you know that you've developed your voice to charismatic booming dominance status, you will feel more entitled to employ it. It's natural. It's you. And you are not something to be limited.

Now, this isn't a self-actualization blog. However.. ask, and you shall receive. ;)


Thanks for reading!



Josh