Learn some basic voice production for stage techniques. How your voice sounds is an absurdly strongly weighted component of a first impression, particularly over a phone or prior to direct introduction, and being able to project your voice in a commanding fashion has an overpowered influence on how much people listen to you and consider you a ‘natural leader.’ In particular, learn what it means to speak from the diaphragm, and learn some basic exercises for strengthening your subsidiary vocal chords like Khargyraa and basic tuvan throat singing, and you’ll be surprised at how much it makes people sit up and listen. You might coincidentally have your voice drop into a lower register after about a month of such exercises, it (anecdatally) happened to me and several people in my voice production for stage class in college. (class of 25, 6 people had their voices drop within the first 4 months, teacher said those numbers were normal.)
Most people just assume you’re born with a voice and have to deal with it, which is demonstrably untrue, and so they consider your voice to reflect your character.
Yes, I do have particular books, classes, youtube videos, lectures, exercises, and other resources. It is highly dependent on your particular vocal tendencies, so your mileage will vary for all of them.
But just as i don’t feel comfortable posting physical fitness advice due to the above issues, i don’t feel inclined to share the techniques which worked well for me or have worked for my students without providing the support to ensure you gain maximum benefit from them. So I will simply state some intriguing names of techniques and remain available to answer questions from your own journey, instead of listing techniques which will be mostly useless and are easily disproven in the majority of circumstances.
The best tip for the Khargyraa stuff is just to watch that video and maybe this one and then wing it for a while, trying to get the sound right. If you manage it, try just saying some stuff in a normal voice and note the difference. It is immediate and surprising.
This link is nice because the guy is such an amateur! He clearly learned, like, one technique (probably from youtube) and then posted his immediate results on youtube, so it’s a good starting point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X54KBdi5_xg
How do you guys feel about sharing hacks to increase your status, given that status can be a bit of a zero-sum game? I think I may have identified a nootropic that has the effect of making one feel and act higher status, but I’m not sure I want to just tell the entire world about it, given the positional nature of status.
A very small number of people read LW, and a fraction of those people are going to apply any status hacks. Only a small number of people are going to apply status hacks, and they are the people who are diligent enough to research and implement them.
Posting such hacks is not going to push everyone to universally adopt them and return everyone to the previous status quo.
Posting such hacks is not going to push everyone to universally adopt them and return everyone to the previous status quo.
And even if it did, some of the actions that would increase one’s positional status also have positive-sum effects (though in this specific case of voice training, they don’t seem to be overwhelmingly large to me).
Well, the more people who know about it, the greater the chance that one of them will tell someone about it who I’d prefer not to have high status. I guess there are decently big taboos against taking drugs in our culture, so it probably wouldn’t spread like wildfire. Actually, right now I have the opposite problem: I have friends who I’d like to be higher status and I’m trying to persuade them to try it but they won’t.
There no reason why we should give more status to tall people or who are otherwise physically strong. It’s much better to give status to those people who are smart enough to apply hacks.
There no reason why we should give more status to tall people
Actually, like skin color and facial structure, height is a pretty good indicator of intelligence. (This isn’t genetic or even A->B causative; it’s simply a fact that height and IQ are both highly dependent on childhood nutrition).
I don’t say this to advocate heightism any more than I would advocate racism; I’m merely pointing out that in our current environment, they happen to correlate pretty well, and anyone under 6′2″ should pause and contemplate the implications of that.
I had the impression that the height/intelligence correlation was actually quite weak:
the correlation between height and intelligence is not that high. This association is probably not going to be intuitively visible to anyone, but rather only shows up in large data sets.
anyone under 6′2″ should pause and contemplate the implications of that.
Um, I don’t think you’re using this correlation correctly. Because we have a model where nutritional deficiencies lead to both short height and low IQ, the amount of information we get is dependent on where we are in the height and IQ spectrum. Basically, if you’re uncharacteristically short, say −2 sigma or lower, then you should be worried; if −1 sigma or lower, a slight suspicion; 0 or higher, little information, rather than the “if you aren’t more than +1.3 sigma, contemplate.”
Except that this correlation is much less informative than, say, IQ tests.
Certainly; nor is it the only determinant of intelligence. “Highly dependent” != “solely dependent”. But someone who wanted to maximize the chance of interacting intelligent and successful people would do well to pay attention to height, for multiple reasons—not the least of which is that everyone ELSE who wants to maximize the chance of interacting with intelligent and successful people tends to pay attention to height (even if they themselves are not tall).
Also, note that your “name X highly intelligent people who were not at optimal height” strategy is primarily anecdotal, and also that 6′2“ to 6′4” is the optimal height for maximizing your height-based status gain, not the baseline height.
But someone who wanted to maximize the chance of interacting intelligent and successful people would do well to pay attention to height, for multiple reasons
There probably are lots of things you could pay attention to instead that would give you more information.
(I’m 6′2″, just in case anyone suspects this is sour grapes.)
I’m not sure that someone can just feel higher status—I don’t think status is a single, persistent variable. Like my karate teacher is high-status when it comes to karate, but when it comes to the associated history I think he’s about as useful as tits on a bull.
The upshot of which is that while I think there are probably things that relate to multiple domains, confidence for instance, the questions to do with increasing those individual things seem less loaded to answer in terms of whether you should post a hack.
Being high status is difficult. Acting high status is probably easier, and likely to increase your actual status somewhat simply because people mistake you for high status and so treat you as high status and it’s all self-referential.
Disclaimer: it’s also possible you would be seen as having ideas above your station and promptly quashed.
How do you guys feel about sharing hacks to increase your status, given that status can be a bit of a zero-sum game?
If you have a reason to wish to favour non-munchkins over munchkins in regards to status then it would follow that censoring such things is appropriate.
I think I may have identified a nootropic that has the effect of making one feel and act higher status, but I’m not sure I want to just tell the entire world about it, given the positional nature of status.
Which one? There are plenty of substances that have the effect of making one feel and act higher status. I am somewhat curious which one you are referring to.
Which one? There are plenty of substances that have the effect of making one feel and act higher status. I am somewhat curious which one you are referring to.
I didn’t deliberately set out to find it, really. I’m also not quite sure how well it works yet. The effects are supposed to be cumulative, meaning the longer you have been taking it, the more of a confident jerk you become, and you continue being a confident jerk even after coming off of it (maybe). I doubt it’s that much of a game changer really, it’s a pretty commonly used nootropic and not many people list improved confidence as one of the effects—perhaps because the effects are subtle and only come with continued usage, or perhaps because they simply aren’t very strong effects to begin with. It might be useful for people who have chronic social awkwardness though.
(if anyone reading this ever sees me act like a confident jerk, please tell me)
Late to your question, but the issue is IMHO that status-hacks are fairly obvious, just expensive / time-consuming / hard, and actually they are supposed to be. The whole reason they work is that they are fairly exclusive, they convey status by putting you into a club most people cannot belong to, and this cannot really work as a cheat code that is protected only by secrecy. It must be, by necessity, something hard enough to do even if you know how. One obvious example is hiring a stylist, using his advice to replace your whole wardrobe, probably with DKNY level of designers stuff and even getting them fitted by a tailor afterward. Perfectly well know except it costs about a car and thus most people won’t / can’t do it.
I’ve read some basics on this, around 2006, but it’s hard to think of more to say than “let most of the force in your breath come from lower.” I do find that sitting up straight or standing is much better for this than slouching or lying down, etc. I generally do voicework standing (I only do the minimum for my own projects; I’m not much of an actor). It’s the same breathing principals for playing a wind instrument, a lot of martial arts, meditation, etc. (The latter just focuses on breathing without the forceful projection, but the principal of controlling the breath with muscles lower than your throat and upper chest remains the same.)
@cae_jones, the technique you are referring to here is technically known as ‘Diaphragm Breathing.’ It is very effective and good both actively and passively, and used in voice training for stage, singing, and a variety of martial arts and meditative schools. It will also become second nature very quickly when practiced, and is the single best technique to know the existence of, which is why I taught it at the first rationality minicamp and the first boot camp.
Here is the technique, in brief form. YMMV.
Take a deep breath, placing one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach. Note which hand moves. If your upper chest hand moves, you have much to gain. If your stomach hand moves, you will have an easy time making progress. If both move, you are partway along already.
To improve your diaphragm breathing, keep one hand on your stomach and fake a yawn. Your stomach hand should move, a lot. Not a little bit, but noticeably. It should feel like you just got fat :).
continue fake yawning in this fashion until you can separate the breathing from your stomach from the concept of a ‘fake yawn,’ and whenever you have a moment include either fake yawns (at the beginning), or diaphragm breathing (same thing, without the ostentatious yawn) in your quick meditations.
For voicework, I also find that “open your mouth more” and “keep your voice pitched as low as you comfortably can” are often helpful suggestions. Depending on who I’m working with, exercises to open up the chest are helpful too (that is, bring the shoulders down and back, straighten the spine, let the skull “fit” on the end of the spine, etc.). Of course, posture work is useful for actors for other reasons as well.
I have often thought that pranayama work ought to help, also, though I don’t know much of anything about it and haven’t seen much benefit from what little I do know.
@the other dave, those are excellent for singing and, when actively used, social situations, but there are other techniques which are more passive. The Khargyraa, Tuvan, Diaphragm Breathing, Nasal Passage Opening, and some more general speech techniques including speaking slowly, pausing often, knowing when to gesture, all of these contribute more effectively to your impression than the techniques you mention, which fade as soon as you get caught in the moment.
@Zaine, I considered a lesswrong post on it, but it is very difficult to give general advice on the topic due to interactions between identity and voice, the fact that many people already use many techniques and so could get bored with a list, etc etc. How would you advise structuring such a sharing post?
I would identify a representative set of specific circumstances which would benefit from ‘vocal training techniques’, then go into detailed explanation of the physiological changes that effect a benefit in each specific circumstance. Now that the generally applicable part has been covered, you can detail various techniques designed to achieve the effects. As each person will have differing degrees of success with different exercises, list many, but at the outset state the ultimate goal for the technique the set of exercises are designed to develop, exempli gratia “You will feel X once it has worked” (I don’t know if this is possible).
If you are clear that one is only learning how to use their body more effectively, I should not think considerations of identity will prove problematic—if it does, abandoning the exercises undoes the effects, correct? I would also mention that incorrect use of one’s voice over long periods of time damages it; increasing one’s ability to use it correctly will help preserve their ability to produce voice into the future.
@army 1987, it is the difference between knowing how to do push ups well, and run well, and do situps, and being strong in the sense that a blacksmith is strong. One is a sort of ability to perform a bounded activity, the other comes from constant use of the muscles in question over time. When you’ve done the right exercises, you don’t have to remember, you’re just strong and you have a life which makes you stronger every day.
Makes sense to me—I’ve noticed the same difference between improving my posture by telling myself not to slouch vs improving my posture by exercising so that I won’t even feel the need to slouch in the first place.
This is cool! -- but how does being able to do it make a difference when you’re speaking normally? (Other than the voice-lowering thing you mentioned.)
While I’m asking questions: Did you or any of your classmates find it did long-term harm to the high singing voice? (I’m specifically interested in the male voice just below the break.)
‘How does being able to do it make a difference when you’re speaking normally?’ The vocal exercises drop your register immediately, particularly even a moment or two of Khargyraa will sort of… remind you that you have a lower register under your normal voice for no extra work, and sticks with you for about an hour if stressless or fifteen mins if stressed (public speaking, etc.). Also after extended use you develop the additional vocal muscles- it’s like working on your core to increase your run times, by improving a range of seldom-used muscles you gain capabilities in your mains.
‘Did you or any of your classmates find it did long-term harm to the high singing voice?’ We weren’t singing students. It was a Voice Projection for Stage class, followed by Diction and Dialects. Personally i’ve found that my high singing voice is more accurately pitched, but that may be due to an entirely different suite of exercises i’ve been pursuing simultaneously.
You might coincidentally have your voice drop into a lower register after about a month of such exercises
That would be rather surprising for me, considering that I already have a deep bass singing voice. Or are you talking about your speaking voice and not your vocal range? Because I often speak at a much higher pitch, especially when I’m trying to sound friendly.
Yes, i am referring to your normal speaking voice. Khargyraa and Tuvan techniques in particular add undertones to your normal speaking voice, making it seem deeper and more resonant when the exercises are performed regularly. It is not that your ‘normal voice’ becomes more resonant, but that the concept of ‘normal voice’ is actually based on a combination of vocal chords and you simply add to the mix, increasing the apparent depth and resonance of the timbre which the brain sums the voice into. In short, yes, I am referring to normal speaking voice, though it also allows some fun things when singing. Like metal screams without injuring vocal chords, at any register.
Learn some basic voice production for stage techniques. How your voice sounds is an absurdly strongly weighted component of a first impression, particularly over a phone or prior to direct introduction, and being able to project your voice in a commanding fashion has an overpowered influence on how much people listen to you and consider you a ‘natural leader.’ In particular, learn what it means to speak from the diaphragm, and learn some basic exercises for strengthening your subsidiary vocal chords like Khargyraa and basic tuvan throat singing, and you’ll be surprised at how much it makes people sit up and listen. You might coincidentally have your voice drop into a lower register after about a month of such exercises, it (anecdatally) happened to me and several people in my voice production for stage class in college. (class of 25, 6 people had their voices drop within the first 4 months, teacher said those numbers were normal.)
Most people just assume you’re born with a voice and have to deal with it, which is demonstrably untrue, and so they consider your voice to reflect your character.
That sounds like very useful advice. Do you have some suggestions for where to start learning this? E.g. particular books, classes, or Youtube videos?
Yes, I do have particular books, classes, youtube videos, lectures, exercises, and other resources. It is highly dependent on your particular vocal tendencies, so your mileage will vary for all of them.
But just as i don’t feel comfortable posting physical fitness advice due to the above issues, i don’t feel inclined to share the techniques which worked well for me or have worked for my students without providing the support to ensure you gain maximum benefit from them. So I will simply state some intriguing names of techniques and remain available to answer questions from your own journey, instead of listing techniques which will be mostly useless and are easily disproven in the majority of circumstances.
That being said, here are a couple of links.
Diaphragm Breathing/Speaking: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=3
Khargyraa Techniques: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCom9ZCJAmE
The best tip for the Khargyraa stuff is just to watch that video and maybe this one and then wing it for a while, trying to get the sound right. If you manage it, try just saying some stuff in a normal voice and note the difference. It is immediate and surprising.
This link is nice because the guy is such an amateur! He clearly learned, like, one technique (probably from youtube) and then posted his immediate results on youtube, so it’s a good starting point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X54KBdi5_xg
How do you guys feel about sharing hacks to increase your status, given that status can be a bit of a zero-sum game? I think I may have identified a nootropic that has the effect of making one feel and act higher status, but I’m not sure I want to just tell the entire world about it, given the positional nature of status.
Edit: see here for more.
A very small number of people read LW, and a fraction of those people are going to apply any status hacks. Only a small number of people are going to apply status hacks, and they are the people who are diligent enough to research and implement them.
Posting such hacks is not going to push everyone to universally adopt them and return everyone to the previous status quo.
And even if it did, some of the actions that would increase one’s positional status also have positive-sum effects (though in this specific case of voice training, they don’t seem to be overwhelmingly large to me).
Just tell people in such a way that only the kind of people you’d want to have higher status will pay attention.
For example, by posting it on lesswrong!
Well, the more people who know about it, the greater the chance that one of them will tell someone about it who I’d prefer not to have high status. I guess there are decently big taboos against taking drugs in our culture, so it probably wouldn’t spread like wildfire. Actually, right now I have the opposite problem: I have friends who I’d like to be higher status and I’m trying to persuade them to try it but they won’t.
There no reason why we should give more status to tall people or who are otherwise physically strong. It’s much better to give status to those people who are smart enough to apply hacks.
Actually, like skin color and facial structure, height is a pretty good indicator of intelligence. (This isn’t genetic or even A->B causative; it’s simply a fact that height and IQ are both highly dependent on childhood nutrition).
I don’t say this to advocate heightism any more than I would advocate racism; I’m merely pointing out that in our current environment, they happen to correlate pretty well, and anyone under 6′2″ should pause and contemplate the implications of that.
I had the impression that the height/intelligence correlation was actually quite weak:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2013/04/why-are-taller-people-more-intelligent/#.UZsQvIpDsqg
Um, I don’t think you’re using this correlation correctly. Because we have a model where nutritional deficiencies lead to both short height and low IQ, the amount of information we get is dependent on where we are in the height and IQ spectrum. Basically, if you’re uncharacteristically short, say −2 sigma or lower, then you should be worried; if −1 sigma or lower, a slight suspicion; 0 or higher, little information, rather than the “if you aren’t more than +1.3 sigma, contemplate.”
Except that this correlation is much less informative than, say, IQ tests.
Tesla was just under 6′2″, I’ll spot you him.
Einstein was 5′9“. Christopher Langan is 5′11”.
Wolfram Alpha couldn’t give me a height for Feynman, Hofstadter, or Darwin.
Nutrition is not the only derterminant of height.
Certainly; nor is it the only determinant of intelligence. “Highly dependent” != “solely dependent”. But someone who wanted to maximize the chance of interacting intelligent and successful people would do well to pay attention to height, for multiple reasons—not the least of which is that everyone ELSE who wants to maximize the chance of interacting with intelligent and successful people tends to pay attention to height (even if they themselves are not tall).
Also, note that your “name X highly intelligent people who were not at optimal height” strategy is primarily anecdotal, and also that 6′2“ to 6′4” is the optimal height for maximizing your height-based status gain, not the baseline height.
There probably are lots of things you could pay attention to instead that would give you more information.
(I’m 6′2″, just in case anyone suspects this is sour grapes.)
I’m very curious why someone would vote this down.
I’m not sure that someone can just feel higher status—I don’t think status is a single, persistent variable. Like my karate teacher is high-status when it comes to karate, but when it comes to the associated history I think he’s about as useful as tits on a bull.
The upshot of which is that while I think there are probably things that relate to multiple domains, confidence for instance, the questions to do with increasing those individual things seem less loaded to answer in terms of whether you should post a hack.
Being high status is difficult. Acting high status is probably easier, and likely to increase your actual status somewhat simply because people mistake you for high status and so treat you as high status and it’s all self-referential.
Disclaimer: it’s also possible you would be seen as having ideas above your station and promptly quashed.
If you have a reason to wish to favour non-munchkins over munchkins in regards to status then it would follow that censoring such things is appropriate.
Which one? There are plenty of substances that have the effect of making one feel and act higher status. I am somewhat curious which one you are referring to.
http://lesswrong.com/lw/hvu/what_are_you_working_on_july_2013/9bea
I’m curious as to how you went about identifying such a nootropic.
I didn’t deliberately set out to find it, really. I’m also not quite sure how well it works yet. The effects are supposed to be cumulative, meaning the longer you have been taking it, the more of a confident jerk you become, and you continue being a confident jerk even after coming off of it (maybe). I doubt it’s that much of a game changer really, it’s a pretty commonly used nootropic and not many people list improved confidence as one of the effects—perhaps because the effects are subtle and only come with continued usage, or perhaps because they simply aren’t very strong effects to begin with. It might be useful for people who have chronic social awkwardness though.
(if anyone reading this ever sees me act like a confident jerk, please tell me)
How do you know it works better than a placebo ?
This description doesn’t really make me want to use it. At all.
Late to your question, but the issue is IMHO that status-hacks are fairly obvious, just expensive / time-consuming / hard, and actually they are supposed to be. The whole reason they work is that they are fairly exclusive, they convey status by putting you into a club most people cannot belong to, and this cannot really work as a cheat code that is protected only by secrecy. It must be, by necessity, something hard enough to do even if you know how. One obvious example is hiring a stylist, using his advice to replace your whole wardrobe, probably with DKNY level of designers stuff and even getting them fitted by a tailor afterward. Perfectly well know except it costs about a car and thus most people won’t / can’t do it.
I feel great about it. Let the users decide for themselves.
You seem to have knowledge about how to do this effectively—please share that knowledge or the sources for it.
I’ve read some basics on this, around 2006, but it’s hard to think of more to say than “let most of the force in your breath come from lower.” I do find that sitting up straight or standing is much better for this than slouching or lying down, etc. I generally do voicework standing (I only do the minimum for my own projects; I’m not much of an actor). It’s the same breathing principals for playing a wind instrument, a lot of martial arts, meditation, etc. (The latter just focuses on breathing without the forceful projection, but the principal of controlling the breath with muscles lower than your throat and upper chest remains the same.)
@cae_jones, the technique you are referring to here is technically known as ‘Diaphragm Breathing.’ It is very effective and good both actively and passively, and used in voice training for stage, singing, and a variety of martial arts and meditative schools. It will also become second nature very quickly when practiced, and is the single best technique to know the existence of, which is why I taught it at the first rationality minicamp and the first boot camp.
Here is the technique, in brief form. YMMV.
Take a deep breath, placing one hand on your chest and one hand on your stomach. Note which hand moves. If your upper chest hand moves, you have much to gain. If your stomach hand moves, you will have an easy time making progress. If both move, you are partway along already.
To improve your diaphragm breathing, keep one hand on your stomach and fake a yawn. Your stomach hand should move, a lot. Not a little bit, but noticeably. It should feel like you just got fat :).
continue fake yawning in this fashion until you can separate the breathing from your stomach from the concept of a ‘fake yawn,’ and whenever you have a moment include either fake yawns (at the beginning), or diaphragm breathing (same thing, without the ostentatious yawn) in your quick meditations.
For voicework, I also find that “open your mouth more” and “keep your voice pitched as low as you comfortably can” are often helpful suggestions. Depending on who I’m working with, exercises to open up the chest are helpful too (that is, bring the shoulders down and back, straighten the spine, let the skull “fit” on the end of the spine, etc.). Of course, posture work is useful for actors for other reasons as well.
I have often thought that pranayama work ought to help, also, though I don’t know much of anything about it and haven’t seen much benefit from what little I do know.
@the other dave, those are excellent for singing and, when actively used, social situations, but there are other techniques which are more passive. The Khargyraa, Tuvan, Diaphragm Breathing, Nasal Passage Opening, and some more general speech techniques including speaking slowly, pausing often, knowing when to gesture, all of these contribute more effectively to your impression than the techniques you mention, which fade as soon as you get caught in the moment.
@Zaine, I considered a lesswrong post on it, but it is very difficult to give general advice on the topic due to interactions between identity and voice, the fact that many people already use many techniques and so could get bored with a list, etc etc. How would you advise structuring such a sharing post?
I would identify a representative set of specific circumstances which would benefit from ‘vocal training techniques’, then go into detailed explanation of the physiological changes that effect a benefit in each specific circumstance. Now that the generally applicable part has been covered, you can detail various techniques designed to achieve the effects. As each person will have differing degrees of success with different exercises, list many, but at the outset state the ultimate goal for the technique the set of exercises are designed to develop, exempli gratia “You will feel X once it has worked” (I don’t know if this is possible).
If you are clear that one is only learning how to use their body more effectively, I should not think considerations of identity will prove problematic—if it does, abandoning the exercises undoes the effects, correct? I would also mention that incorrect use of one’s voice over long periods of time damages it; increasing one’s ability to use it correctly will help preserve their ability to produce voice into the future.
I know how to project voice, and I do it when singing all the time, but I always forget to do that in normal conversations.
@army 1987, it is the difference between knowing how to do push ups well, and run well, and do situps, and being strong in the sense that a blacksmith is strong. One is a sort of ability to perform a bounded activity, the other comes from constant use of the muscles in question over time. When you’ve done the right exercises, you don’t have to remember, you’re just strong and you have a life which makes you stronger every day.
Makes sense to me—I’ve noticed the same difference between improving my posture by telling myself not to slouch vs improving my posture by exercising so that I won’t even feel the need to slouch in the first place.
This is cool! -- but how does being able to do it make a difference when you’re speaking normally? (Other than the voice-lowering thing you mentioned.)
While I’m asking questions: Did you or any of your classmates find it did long-term harm to the high singing voice? (I’m specifically interested in the male voice just below the break.)
‘How does being able to do it make a difference when you’re speaking normally?’ The vocal exercises drop your register immediately, particularly even a moment or two of Khargyraa will sort of… remind you that you have a lower register under your normal voice for no extra work, and sticks with you for about an hour if stressless or fifteen mins if stressed (public speaking, etc.). Also after extended use you develop the additional vocal muscles- it’s like working on your core to increase your run times, by improving a range of seldom-used muscles you gain capabilities in your mains.
‘Did you or any of your classmates find it did long-term harm to the high singing voice?’ We weren’t singing students. It was a Voice Projection for Stage class, followed by Diction and Dialects. Personally i’ve found that my high singing voice is more accurately pitched, but that may be due to an entirely different suite of exercises i’ve been pursuing simultaneously.
That would be rather surprising for me, considering that I already have a deep bass singing voice. Or are you talking about your speaking voice and not your vocal range? Because I often speak at a much higher pitch, especially when I’m trying to sound friendly.
Yes, i am referring to your normal speaking voice. Khargyraa and Tuvan techniques in particular add undertones to your normal speaking voice, making it seem deeper and more resonant when the exercises are performed regularly. It is not that your ‘normal voice’ becomes more resonant, but that the concept of ‘normal voice’ is actually based on a combination of vocal chords and you simply add to the mix, increasing the apparent depth and resonance of the timbre which the brain sums the voice into. In short, yes, I am referring to normal speaking voice, though it also allows some fun things when singing. Like metal screams without injuring vocal chords, at any register.