Set Your Voice Free: How to Get the Singing or Speaking Voice You Want PDF
Preview Set Your Voice Free: How to Get the Singing or Speaking Voice You Want
Copyright Copyright © 1999, 2016 by Roger Love Cover design by Susan Zucker Cover copyright © 2016 by Hachette Book Group, Inc. Author photograph by Joanna DeGeneres Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights. Little, Brown and Company Hachette Book Group 1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104 littlebrown.com twitter.com/littlebrown facebook.com/littlebrownandcompany First ebook edition: November 2009 Expanded ebook edition: December 2016 Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher. The Hachette Speakers Bureau provides a wide range of authors for speaking events. To find out more, go to hachettespeakersbureau.com or call (866) 376- 6591. 6591. ISBN 978-0-316-31128-1 E3-20161122-JV-PC Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Preface to the Expanded Edition CHAPTER 1 Your Best Voice CHAPTER 2 How Do I Sound? CHAPTER 3 Breathing CHAPTER 4 The Miracle of Middle Voice CHAPTER 5 How to Practice CHAPTER 6 Staking Claim to Middle CHAPTER 7 Making Your Speaking Voice Sing CHAPTER 8 Songs without Fear CHAPTER 9 The Care and Feeding of Great Voices CHAPTER 10 Essential Extras for Singers CHAPTER 11 Standing Out in a World Shaped by American Idol CHAPTER 12 Going Big When You Sing CHAPTER 13 Creating Your Own Material: Yes You Can CHAPTER 14 Essential Extras for Speakers CHAPTER 15 The New World of Presentation CHAPTER 16 Secrets of the Internet Stars CHAPTER 17 Breakthrough Techniques for Stuttering and Spasmodic Dysphonia CHAPTER 18 The Healing Power of Voice Epilogue Appendix Acknowledgments A Note About the Author Companion Website Newsletters This book is dedicated to for MIYOKO, MADISON, AND COLIN, teaching me what unconditional love feels and sounds like. Preface to the Expanded Edition W ELCOME TO the new, expanded edition of Set Your Voice Free. The world has changed massively since this book first appeared in 1999, and shifts in technology, the music industry, and our understanding of the true power of the voice have opened amazing new possibilities for people who know how to control the way they sound. Today, any of us can potentially reach millions of people almost instantly, and start the process of getting our audience to trust us, believe us, like us, and connect with us. Based on what people hear as soon as we begin to sing or speak, they decide whether they want to listen to our music, hand us money, be moved by our message, or fall in love with us and what we have to offer. Your new SoundCloud track, your Kickstarter campaign, your TED Talk, your audition, your big break—all that opportunity hinges on the power of your voice. Scientists tell us that we have one second to make the vocal impression that determines the way we’re received, and in the time since this book first appeared, I’ve developed new techniques to help you ensure that your voice carries the precise sounds that will make people want to stay with you, rather than immediately tuning you out. By using the classic exercises and the new material in this book, you’ll be able to showcase the best of yourself—your talents, your passion, your originality, your authenticity. The techniques at the heart of the book are the ones I’ve been refining for decades in my work with artists such as John Mayer and Gwen Stefani, as well as with actors such as Reese Witherspoon and Jeff Bridges, who didn’t consider themselves to be singers before they worked with me, and these techniques will give your voice the power and resonance you’ve always wanted. If all you do is focus on these techniques, you’ll be way ahead of almost every other singer or speaker competing for the attention of your audience. But I hope you’ll take advantage of the additional exercises and advice you’ll find in this edition to go beyond simply sounding good. I’d like to plant the seed of the idea that you can use your voice to become a master influencer. The most profound discovery I’ve made in the past fifteen years is this: If you know how to control the pitch, pace, tone, volume, and melody of your voice—the elements that form the core of this book—you can consciously use them to guide the emotions of your listeners and magnify the impact of every communication you have. The link between music and emotion has always been clear to us—a song can make us weep or rage or dance for joy—but we rarely carry the power of music into the way we speak. By marrying music and speech, I can help you become a much better singer and speaker at the same time. I’ll show you how the best communicators use the intimate, musical power of sound to control people’s perceptions of them and move their listeners to action. That’s what real influence is, and I’ll give you the tools to develop it. New Tools for Singers It’s odd to think about, but when this book originally appeared, there was no American Idol or America’s Got Talent or The Voice. Idol debuted in 2002, AGT in 2006, and The Voice didn’t sing out in America until 2011. When the book came out, not even 50 percent of Americans were using the Internet regularly. iPhones weren’t even a glimmer in someone’s imagination. That time looks almost like the Dark Ages. But I was busy on the front lines of the transformation of the music industry into a place where reality singing competitions, music-centered programs like Glee, audio streaming, and live performance became the new kingmakers. So in new chapters of this edition geared to singers, I’ll share what I learned. I’ll give you a firsthand look at what it takes to live through the whirlwind of a show like Glee, or an Eminem or Gwen Stefani tour, managing the demands of performing on insane schedules and keeping your voice in top shape. When it’s time to hit the stage, where the profits are made in today’s music industry, you need to be able to count on your voice. You can’t just hide in the studio and order takeout. I’ll show you how the hardest-working people I know do what they need to do, put shows together, and make sure their voices keep working for them.
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