Day 51 – 5 May 2020
The annoyance among parents and in the WhatsApp groups that siblings won’t attend school on the same days, that schools should have been deprived of autonomy in this respect etc. etc. doesn’t stop – but I’ve left that out now.
Besides, in all the Corona madness I would like to turn to a positive topic today: My voice coaching continues again.
I have missed the lessons of my very ambitious voice coach Doris Meixner very much during the last eight weeks. Today was the first day she was back in office and I had gotten an appointment. Some of you will now ask yourself what you can expect from such a speech training & voice coaching, as it is correctly called.
Doris Meixner – Stimmig, Speech Training & Voice Coaching
In my case, for example, because of my great need for communication, which I can now meet in part through my blog, it is often the case that I speak much too quickly. I must openly admit that this criticism of some people is justified. Obviously I had the feeling that I could put more information into the conversation if I spoke as fast as possible. Whereby the main thing is that you have to give the words and sentences their space, as I know today.
Tempo & Height
I also remember the remarks of an uncle who is an opera singer. He always appreciated my quite powerful voice, but with his fine ear he also suffered from the dizzying heights that my voice climbed from time to time in the intoxication of narration. I hadn’t attached any importance to this fact for a long time and thought, how can you change your voice – until aa a few years ago I happened to get a free voice analysis.
A speech coach had also told me at the time that sometimes, if I get too fast, my voice moves more into the head voice where it doesn’t belong. In general, you should always speak in your own voice – then you give your statements more space and also more weight. I was totally enthusiastic about the idea that such a thing is possible.
Unfortunately there was always a lack of time to put this plan into practice. However, due to lucky circumstances, at the end of last year the time had come: My voice coaching could begin. After I could no longer find the lady who had offered me the first voice analysis, I found Doris Meixner via the Internet. Her pleasantly deep voice was immediately appealing to me on the phone and I knew immediately that she was the right one for me. And my gut feeling did not deceive me.
Not only did we get along well right away, but you can also tell straight away that she really knows a lot about her subject and is a good teacher. What surprised me was that correct breathing was very important in the first training sessions. But voice and breathing simply belong together. Another extremely positive side effect of the intensive relaxation and breathing exercises was that my annoying allergies almost disappeared. Very pleasant 😊.
Then I rolled Rs, hissed S-sounds, formed vowels in my throat, stretched and relaxed facial muscles that I had never heard before, recited poems, read aloud, recorded and analysed texts, brought my voice forward, put arguments on the table, slowed down the tempo and cut the highs. Intoxicating what is possible.
I had a lot of fun, the learning curve was enormous. I’m almost a bit sad that this colourful and varied programme with my last lesson in two weeks will soon come to an end. But who knows, even if the goals are all well achieved and internalized, maybe I will allow myself a refresher coaching here and there.
And if you are still in the mood, more information can be found here: https://www.stimmig.at/sprechtraining-stimmcoaching-stimmtraining.html
Das Corona-Tagebuch der Roberta Stein 