Why Speechsmithy?

When I first started working on my voice and articulation it was already one of my stronger attributes as an actor. I had always been really good at doing voices and impressions of people. So I thought changing things would be easy. 

But, while I could create the voices of other characters and take on different accents quickly I struggled with keeping up good pronunciation in my own relaxed voice. I didn’t know how to do an RP accent without sounding a little bit put on.

The first time I went to work on my pronunciation with a coach I was surprised at how easily the coach seemed to change her voice. Her approach was different to my own self taught method of sound imitation. She focussed more on the movement of the articulators and the gentle release of air instead of fighting and pushing to get the sound out.

One issue I had was my S sound was quite sibilant and hissy. Instead of using the tip of my tongue against the alveolar ridge and breathing out to make the sound I was folding the tip of my tongue behind my bottom teeth and using the middle of the tongue against the alveolar ridge. This kept my mouth in a more tightly closed state.

I drilled the S tongue twisters hundreds if not thousands of times with a cork in my mouth to try to open the mouth setting and force my tongue to obey me and go up for the sound.

I’d always ground my teeth growing up and my jaw tension was off the charts. I didn’t open my mouth enough to speak. 

For years whilst training my accent drew many irritating comments because it was neither Yorkshire nor RP. 

Every time I went to London people would point out the strange twangs and closed up vowels and dropped letters. Every time I went home I would be informed how I wasn’t “proper yorkshire” or scolded for sounding “like those southern posh toffs”. 

It appeared I couldn’t settle in either group. 

I didn’t feel comfortable in RP or Yorkshire and for some reason the world demanded I choose a side and stick to it. 

I needed to be able to slide between accents without friction, without self consciousness and to do so in a way I felt comfortable in that felt like my own authentic voice.

I wish I’d saved myself the minor tortures of caring so much about not quite fitting in. But I had no one to tell me there would be that place I would eventually arrive at the voice I was happy with. I just knew something wasn’t right and it didn’t seem to matter how much I practiced, or how many classes I took, it just wasn’t clicking for me. I couldn’t shake the feeling of constantly having to watch my sound and pronunciation and never quite being satisfied and still drawing unwanted comments. 

I learnt that people judge you a lot by the way you sound. Moreover, they judge you and then won’t let go of that judgment for a while if ever. Studies have shown it takes 7 more meetings for someone to recalibrate a first impression and I felt trapped by the projections others would put on me due to the way I sounded.

Of course, there were other issues in my communication that I wasn’t aware of that caused my message to be lost in translation. 

I could be very self-conscious despite going to drama school. Many would have described me as extraverted, even flamboyant but I never really felt at peace speaking in front of others unless I was acting. When I did I never felt I came across as well as I’d like to. I reasoned that when I acted I wasn’t being the real me and this gave me a kind of freedom that became addictive. But as my understanding grew I realised these characters were only resonating with the hidden parts of myself I rarely visited because I thought they would be ‘unacceptable’.

In truth, I was just discovering these hidden aspects that were being suppressed. 

I learnt that one reason my jaw was tense is because I wasn’t using its full range of motion. When I started stretching it and engaging the muscles fully the tension became relieved.

I think self expression works the same way. The reason I was feeling so tense and (dare I say it) resentful towards others who judged and overlooked me because of how I came across- awkward, inauthentic, tense- was because I wasn’t using my full range of motion in my expression. I was dumbing down and trying to manage things to sound and look ‘right’ instead of sounding and looking aligned with myself more fully.

I realised that the voice was not something that identified only with accent or a certain pitch or resonance. It was something inaudible, the essence of who I really was.

In my essence I was tense, conflicted, unaligned and so that was the way I came across. 

In a certain sense it actually worked out rather well. I was already doing everything I could physically to make my voice as powerful and dynamic as possible. When I started to relax and release my tension, physical, emotional, psychological and let my voice ride through those changes it began to feel more like my real voice at last. 

People began responding differently. They paid me more attention. When I spoke, people listened because I was no longer an imitation of other voices. I was no longer broadcasting that conflicted energy. Instead people received my ease and lightness.

I was able to think faster on the spot and improvise quickly and at length without feeling inhibited and worrying about stumbling or mumbling or worrying too much what people thought. 

When I graduated in 2017 voice was my strongest attribute but I had only laid the foundations. To most, their voice is something they grew into and they use it everyday without ever trying anything new, ever exploring any different sounds or modes. 

The result? Huge untapped potential. 

I always felt very lonely before I could express myself in a way I was comfortable with. I had so many things holding me back from being able to join in and communicate with others the way I really wanted to. I can’t imagine where I would be if I never found a way to integrate this aspect of life. 

At the most basic level, it all boiled down to not using my instrument correctly. Not understanding it, having no ability with it and allowing tension to distort my authentic voice that was always ready to be unleashed.

The process of honing the physical abilities of the voice requires unlearning bad habits and installing new ones. 

To do this we have to create new neural pathways in the brain.

The process always felt to me like forging. Like sitting over the fire and banging away incessantly at those stubborn neuron pathways until they become engrained. To many that might not sound all that endearing and in the beginning it was hard work. But once I learnt what to focus on the process became faster and I spent less time doing mindless and unnecessary repetition. It felt more and more like careful crafting, an art form rather than work.

I’m still refining that process today and teach a much more streamlined version than the one I took on. If I’d known what I know now I think I could’ve saved more than a few hours practice. All the doubts and uncertainty about whether this would actually work could have been set aside so I could focus on just enjoying the process as I do now.

A new sound, a pattern of speech, a way of using gestures, at first would feel alien.

I would slip into the old, incorrect forms like sliding into the well oiled grooves of the old pathways and patterns.

To learn the new method required casting it like a sword in its cast before going into the oven.

Through slow, methodical repetition the cast is made, the neuron pathway is forged in the brain. When the shape of it is clearly defined and it can be reproduced consistently it must then be put under stress just like steel can be tempered in the furnace. 

To do this with your speech you repeat it in different contexts and at greater speeds. The more efficiently and the more often the neuron pathway is fired, the stronger it becomes. 

Every time you repeat it it’s like running a wet stone over the edge of your blade.

Before I worked on my speech I felt naked and unprotected in my communication. I’d open my mouth and always be doubting whether people really heard or understood me.

Comparatively, once I found my voice and learned to use it I felt like I had a suit of armour and an array of tools at my disposal.

There is always room to grow with the voice.

A Speechsmith is someone who is dedicated to perfecting their speech all their life through and using their voice to serve themselves and others ever more powerfully. 

They do this by always returning to the fire and wet stone. By always polishing, sharpening, always forging and reforging. 

So that when the need arises they have the requisite instrument to amplify their voice; their personality, thoughts and emotions so they can be heard and felt by others in a way most will never access.