241. Your valuable voice

Your voice is more valuable than you know!

To celebrate WORLD VOICE DAY (April 16) I've invited fellow voice coach Rachel Pietsch to help you learn more about your wonderful voice.

We cover -

🎤 How to safely project your voice.

🎤 The importance of the low breath and how to do it.

🎤 A fantastic voice exercise anyone can do.

🎤 The must-have product to keep your voice hydrated.

transcript

Hello, this is the last guest episode for this season of That Voice Podcast. I'll do a little solo one next week, and then I'll take my four week break. And it's a very exciting week in the That Voice Podcast world because on April 16, it is World Voice Day. Yes, I've also finished my first draft of my book Voiceprint, and hit 100 recommendations on LinkedIn. I should also mention another celebration actually, on April 18. It's Patrick and I anniversary. So we are off to the Hunter Valley, which is a wine region outside Sydney for a little romantic weekend away, and it happens to coincide with Easter.

We did not realize that when we booked the hotel price did not seem to be unusually expensive, and now we're researching what's open on Good Friday?. Stay tuned on my Instagram stories @SallyProsserVoice if you'd like to follow along. Okay, back to World Voice Day. This is a day to raise awareness about the importance of the human voice and how important it's to take care of it to prevent health issues down the track. I actually have a whole chapter in Voiceprint, the book, it's called Prolong the Print This year, the theme of World Voice Day is "Empower Your Voice". Love that I'm celebrating by offering a free 45-minute one-on-one to anyone who joins my group online program, Soul Speakers in the whole month of April, the whole month of April, 2025, A free 45-minute one-on-one for joining Soul Speakers. Now, the investment to join Soul Speakers is less than what it would be to get the one-on-one, so this is a really, really fantastic deal, just reach out.

Soul Speakers has everything you need to speak from the heart with confidence. If you wanna be a better communicator, come and learn how to do it. Okay, so apart from the Soul Speaker offer, what better way to celebrate World Voice Day than to bring on another voice coach, the wonderful Rachel Pietsch, pronounced like the fruit spelled P-I-E-T-S-C-H. In this episode, you'll learn how to actually project your voice, why you need to breathe low and how to do it. Rachel guides us through a fantastic voice exercise and she reveals the product you must have in your handbag to keep your voice hydrated. So for those of you who get dry mouth, ugh, you need this tip. I wrote this one down. Okay. Are you ready to get to know your valuable voice?

Sally:

Rachel Pietsch. It is an absolute delight to have another voice coach on That Voice Podcast. Welcome.

Rachel:

Thank you so much for having me, Sally. It is an absolute delight to be here chatting to you today.

Sally:

It is such a important area, of course, coming from me, I would say that. How did you get into voice coaching?

Rachel:

Well, that's a really interesting question because I was predominantly a piano teacher, and I actually started teaching piano when I was in year 12 at school before I even went to university. And I'd been classically trained and I'd always wanted to be a teacher. When I went to university, I continued to teach piano. I was also a vocalist at the time, and I was studying to be a music teacher at uni. So it was in my best interest to keep, you know, my, my skills going. But my singing teacher at the time said to me, she joined the cast of a local show and she asked if I would be happy to look after some students of hers. And I thought, well, why not? I've been teaching piano for a while. I would like to pursue some singing teaching. So I did that.

Rachel:

But I actually found very quickly that I was very ill prepared to be a singing teacher, but I did find a teacher training program that allowed me to understand voices from every aspect, not just, you know, I mean, for example, some people would come to me and say, you know what? I don't class myself as a singer or someone who sounds very good when I speak. Can you teach anyone? And my answer to that is absolutely yes, absolutely yes. Because I gained the skills that I, that is required to be able to teach every voice, to sing and to speak really effectively.

Sally:

Yeah. And so now do you do a mix of singing and speaking coaching?

Rachel:

Yes, I do. I do. I've done many years of singing training, but it wasn't until I was asked to do a workshop for a bunch of teachers who were very tired in their speaking voices, and I thought, you know what? I've never done this before. This is good five years ago. And and I thought, well, why not? I can just pivot the knowledge that I have and just package it differently. And that was actually really successful and I found a real need there.

Sally:

Yeah, because it is this musical instrument. Of course, if you're a singer, you're using it at a more elevated level. However, in speaking, it is still the same instrument we're using. So at your focus is really, as you mentioned on the technical on voice function. Can you explain for us what that is?

Rachel:

So voice function works with works very closely with the mechanics of our work of our voice. So the inner workings of the voice, it's really common to give someone advice like singing advice for example where we say, just project as if you are singing to the person in the back row, you have to be loud or open your mouth more or take a big deep breath. That kind of advice is, you know, it can actually be good for some people, but for most people it needs to be far more targeted and far more dedicated to personalizing that experience for each voice. So for example, if you are going to open your mouth more, how far do you open your mouth and what value you using at the time? Are you, are you saying your vows in a way that's going to support the balance of your voice? Or is it going to upset the balance of your voice when you breathe in? Are you breathing high or are you breathing low? Or are you taking in too much air? And unless we have guidance from someone who can actually show us exactly how far to take it, you can become problematic.

Sally:

And I love the way that we're speaking about vocal projection with hammering in the background.

Rachel:

I'm so sorry, would you like me to go and deal with that?

Sally:

No, it is. Okay. This is, you know, this is the real world, isn't it? So let's take that example. It's a really good one because people do hear this kind of advice, like, you just need to speak louder. I like, I understand it's like quite a technical approach to this, but what is just something extra that will help people get closer to being able to project rather than just being told to do it?

Rachel:

Yes. Something extra would be to learn how to breathe low so that you are not throwing a lot of air at your voice. Because if we get a low breath, the breath, the breath is sitting further away from the vocal cords. And so the vocal cords don't have to stress so much trying to hold that air back. So we don't need to put a lot of effort behind speaking louder.

Sally:

Low breath. Are we talking in the, in the belly area?

Rachel:

Yeah, we're talking in the belly area and I would say the distance between the bottom of your sternum and your belly button, that area there. And when we talk about a low breath, we're talking about getting air into the bottom of our lungs. We're not talking about getting air into our diaphragm. Our diaphragm muscle actually descends downwards. It flattens.

Sally:

Yeah, you can't, you can't technically breathe into a muscle.

Rachel:

No. And being told to use your diaphragm is actually, it's just too much information. We're already using it, it will automatically happen. So I think what's more effective is to think about putting your breath in that area between your sternum and your belly button and even, you know, wrapped all the way around your body in like a big tube a around that level. And not taking in too much air can actually give you everything that you need. We often think that we need to take in a lot of air, but again, if we've got too much air going on, our vocal cords have to work unnecessarily too hard to hold all that air back because it's trying to valve it more effectively.

Sally:

Yeah, absolutely. I see with my clients that it's not so much the quantity, it is the positioning of the air. It's where the breath is coming into rather than the amount coming in.

Rachel:

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, that's, that's the first place that I would start in terms of trying to, to project. And the second place I would start is to, is to get to know your own voice a little bit more. Get to get to know your voice from, for example, from a humming perspective, get into the habit of humming because humming actually, when done correctly, like mm.

Rachel:

With a lovely little creek at the beginning of it, what it does is it isolates our vocal cords away from what we call extrinsic muscle. So extrinsic muscle is the muscles on the outside of our voice box that aren't meant to be used in getting sound out. And unfortunately, when a lot of us try to project, what tends to happen is we drag these muscles in or we harness these muscles because we're trying to get our voice out. We're trying to get power behind it, and that feeling of power behind it. But in fact, we're meant to do it from the vocal chord level. So humming is a really good way of finding that spot and then, you know, slowly increasing your volume from there.

Sally:

Oh, such a great tip. So all of those extra muscles, are they more there for like swallowing and things like that?

Rachel:

Oh yeah. There's a swallowing muscle and there's also like the strap muscles and like muscles there that are designed to hold that whole system up there. I think there's about 18 different muscles surrounding our larynx, and they all had their own specific functions, and yes, there are muscles that are meant to be moving when we are creating sound in the bottom part of our voice and in the top part of our voice, there are very specific muscles that have to kick in and then kick out.

Sally:

Yeah. And you can feel your voice box actually go physically up and down when you sing or speak different pictures.

Rachel:

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. And, and the, the goal is to have your voice box sit in a relatively, what we call a low and resting position. It can, it doesn't have to be fixed, but what tends to happen, and again, this ties in with the projection, is that, you know, when we project, we tend to raise our pitch, but we also tend to raise our voice box or our larynx area. And it jams the easy stretch of the vocal chords. So learning to be able to stretch your vocal chords and get to those higher pictures without that jamming happening is something, you know, that will give you so much more expression and also access to those that higher end. Because if we think about it, if you wanna sound more interesting, if you want to put across what's on your heart, having access to high and low sounds is is really fun because it's, it's like painting with more colors.

Sally:

Yeah, absolutely. When we can explore the range in our voice more, we're able to have our voice closer linked to our intention, it will match the meaning of what we're trying to say so much better. So Rach, can we do a little humming exercise?

Rachel:

Yes.

Sally:

So if somebody's listening to this going, okay, how do I hum? Just Mm. You know, what do I do? Start?

Rachel:

Yes. Well, I, I always say to people, think of a, like a creaky door first and the sound that you would have to create to emulate that, so

Rachel:

Mm mm mmm

Rachel:

Yeah, you nailed it. Absolutely nailed it, Sally.

Sally:

The creaky door metaphor is perfect!

Rachel:

Yes. So yeah, so starting with that Mm. And then getting used to the feeling of how, how you come into that creek, and we call that onset how we start this out. And the reason we need that creek is what happens is it draws our vocal chords together just nicely, and it doesn't drag in any other muscles. So it has to be that creek and you just have to be aware that it's not a squeeze. So I'll show you the difference. So here's a good creek.

Rachel:

Mm mm And

Rachel:

Here's a good squeeze. Mm

Rachel:

Mm

Rachel:

Like I'm holding something heavy at the same time. Put that down again and just allow my voice to be free and

Rachel:

Mm mm mm

Sally:

Mm mm Yeah, it's beautiful, that freedom over force. I love that.

Rachel:

Yes. Freedom over force. I love that!

Sally:

Yeah. It's one of, one of my, actually I should write that down. I've been meaning to do a video on that one. Freedom over force. So we've talked about the, the humming. What is one other thing that people can do to improve the function of their voice?

Rachel:

The low breath is in incredibly important because, I mean, yes, we can think of it in terms of support for the voice, but it's also really good for settling nerves and bringing our sense of self back to ourself. So the best way to find the low breath that I introduce to people is to close your mouth and breathe in and out through your nose and just see where your breath goes. And what you wanna do is you wanna place your hand gently on that area between the bottom of your sternum and your belly button, and just aim to get some movement there. When your breath goes in, you wanna feel that expansion there. And when your breath goes out, you wanna feel it deflate. And if you only get a little bit of a flutter, then you know you're in the right direction. It doesn't have to be big and full, just a little bit of movement. And you wanna try and shut down the movement of your chest and your shoulders?

Sally:

Yes. I say keep all the action below the bra.

Rachel:

Yes. All the action below the bra. Absolutely love it.

Sally:

So good. What about, I'm not sure if this is an area that you go into, but what about something as far as voice care goes? So I know that I had people say, Oh, my throat's really dry. And I say, well, how many coffees have you had this morning?

Rachel:

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. If I was to take the example of having a dry voice, do you drink enough water? That's the first question you wanna ask. Secondly is, are you on any medications that gives you dry mouth? A lot of people find themselves taking antihistamines certain times of year that can dry the mouth out as well. And, and the voice and steering clear of things like lozenges that contain menthol, eucalyptus, peppermint, those sorts of things can have a drying effect on the voice.

Sally:

I'm so glad that you mentioned that because it challenges what people think. People would think, oh, well, eucalyptus lolly or a menthol lolly would be fantastic for my voice. That's not the case.

Rachel:

No, it's actually really drying for the voice and it can really irritate it. And irritation makes the voice work harder, so you wanna avoid that. There is a really great product that I recommend to people. When I did my research on this, I found that a lot of performers actually use this as well. It is nebulizing saline solution.

Sally:

Ooh, write that down. Nebulizing saline solution.

Rachel:

Yes. 0.9% saline solution. You can get it online, get it from the pharmacy, and if you just get a little pocket nebulizer, you can get that from the pharmacy as well. They usually cost around about $80 to $120. Nebulizing saline solution has more benefits compared to st inhaling steam because the droplets that come from Steam are actually slightly bigger and don't penetrate as easily as the mist that is produced by a nebulizer. The droplets are much smaller. It's like when kids are inhaling their asthma medication. The thing about the saline solution is apparently it has properties that is really good for rehydrating the voice. So if you were dehydrated and in hospital they put you on IV fluids and it's made of saline solution. So I recommend it to a lot of people, particularly if they are performing or if they do find that they get a dry mouth. And I think in, in our Australian climate.

Sally:

Yeah, I know you are in Melbourne, so you'd have a lot drier weather than up here in Queensland. I really notice the dryness of my throat and my skin when I'm in the UK. Being here in Queensland, the general humidity of the air is good for the for the voice. So it's good to have that product when I am in those drier areas. And you say, you know, people who are performing a lot, but it's also those in jobs where there's a heavy workload for the voice, like teaching, like you know, workshop facilitating even leaders who are often speaking all the time.

Rachel:

Absolutely, because we, we live in a time where, you know, we we're very career-focused, which is great. We find ourselves going from, you know, from one place to the other. We're doing this, we're doing that. We have very little time for self-care. This is something that you can actually bring with you wherever you go. It can just live in your handbag or your briefcase, and you can just pop it out in between gigs and rehydrate your voice. And it is much more effective than sucking on a lozenge or drinking lemon tea.

Sally:

Oh wow. We love a quick fix because as, as we know in voice, a lot of things aren't a quick fix. A lot of things are going through that process, retraining the voice, <laugh>. So it's good to have that. So on April 16 is World Voice Day. There's a day for everything and there's a day for voice. And the theme this year is empower your voice. What does empower your voice mean to you?

Rachel:

It's a very personal thing for me because I had to come into my own voice and voice training really helped me do that. So I grew up in a household where I was, you know, it was just the typical children are to be seen and not heard. Your opinions were dictated to you. And I had to come into my own, you know, when I came, became an adult. So when I hear the word empower, it really means something to me personally from that perspective. But I also see that there are a lot of people who are in the same camp. It doesn't matter who I speak to, it doesn't matter whether I'm speaking to singers or speakers. Most people undervalue what they can bring to the table from a, not just a vocal point of view, but putting themselves out there and making their mark on the world.

Rachel:

They're very quick to hide behind someone else and also to disqualify themselves in some way. And I think if only you knew how powerful you could be, because every one of us is capable of bringing something very unique to the table. And when we allow ourselves to interact with people on a genuine level, we can actually find, I call it the audacity factor. We start to find our audacity that, you know what, I can speak up here and, and you know what, I think I have more to say, you know, just to take those first steps and to allow that snowball to occur is, is incredibly important. Whenever I work with a voice, I'm always watching that process occur, and I'm always watching for when it really ticks over in someone's mind, and you can see it on their face where, where they're like, the possibilities are just starting to open up because their voice can now match what they really want to say. And I don't think we think about the effect of our voice nearly enough when it comes to how we express ourselves.

Sally:

Oh, Rachel, so well said. This is why we love the voice coaching profession, because it's so much more than just the voice as an instrument. It really is changing lives by allowing people to be able to step forward and not just be seen, but be heard.

Rachel:

Yeah. That takes, that takes a bit of coaxing with a lot of us, we have to believe that we have the the right to have something to contribute.

Sally:

Absolutely. And that's why I say, you know, our physical voice is a megaphone for our inner voice. If we don't get those inner voices, speaking to us in the way we want to, it's very difficult for that voice to function in the beautiful way that it can. Oh, Rach, I honestly could chat to you all day. It's my favorite subject area. Was there anything else you'd like to add?

Rachel:

I would just encourage your listeners to think about how they see their voice, just to cast a thought towards how, how people are seeing themselves in the context of how they come across and how they feel about the sound of their voice. It can be a bit of an icky subject because, you know, no one loves listening to themselves speak. It's, it's even worse when, you know, we hear ourselves recorded, we don't hear that. We hear you be in that mindset of how can, how can I challenge myself to move beyond that because it is a possibility. And there, there are people out there to help you over that line.

Sally:

Absolutely. And if people would like to contact you, to work with you, to learn more about their voice function, how can they do that?

Rachel:

They can look me up on nowyouretalking.com.au And I'm also on LinkedIn, Rachel Pietsch, so if you wanna send me private message there, that's, that's totally fine. And yeah, we can set up a chat and talk through your needs.

Sally:

Amazing. Rachel Pietsch, thank you so much for coming on that voice podcast.

Rachel:

Oh, you're absolutely welcome. It's been a true delight chatting with you, Sally. Thanks for having me.