The human voice is one of the most potent tools of transformation we have available to us. It expresses emotion, ideas, and intentions. It celebrates, communicates, sing, and sounds. We use the voice to connect with the world. It functions as a unique sound print that says, “Here I Am”.

Stewart Pearce, in The Alchemy of Voice, puts it this way. “The voice can move us to tears, shatter a glass, or mend a broken heart. It can mesmerize, seduce, infuriate, or command–inspire fear and dread, trust and love. The sound of the voice can evoke memories, sensations, thoughts, and feelings. It has the awesome force to make or break strong bonds, to torture or uplift, create or destroy. The voice, therefore, lies at the core of our personal power and resonates the essence of our truth.”

The voice is meant to be heard. Yet, so many have been compromised or silenced….seen but not heard, like a good little boy…mouthing the words to the song. The words unspoken and the energies underneath them can lead to significant physical dis-ease. The unspoken can leave us feeling powerless. It can render us hopeless. It can limit our forward movement in life, setting us in the background of our moments, yearning for someone who will listen and validate our very existence.

The Sound Alchemist has the profound opportunity and responsibility to assist one in freeing the voice, reclaiming one’s primal connection with the expression of our very being. And, in so doing, give the person back their vitality and health. Yes, it is that important.

We shall look quickly at the mechanism of the voice, discover elements about its sound or timbre, explore its expression, discuss the cost of the voice silenced, offer tools to give it wings. In this introductory course, we shall bring greater focus to how you can make your voice work for your whole being.

Building upon our previous lessons, Nature of Vibration, and Breath we begin to see how the very vibration sustained by the breath sounds as our voice. From the depth of our being comes this tone that varies in pitch and volume to express a primal element of each of us.

Most of us have limited use of our voice due to life experience, personal judgment, beliefs, or even physical compromise. Let’s explore and remedy that now.

• Breathe to your belly through your nose. Focus on the feel of the air as it moves to expand the diaphragm. Watch the belly rise with the oxygen and life force. Exhale out the mouth in a breathy ah. Do it again and listen to the air as it moves out the mouth past the throat. Feel the movement of the air…the smoothness of the flow. Notice how the sound of the ah is familiar, like the sound of the wind. The more you repeat it the calmer you become, relaxing into an expansive inner place that seems to soothe the very cells of your Being.
• Now turn on the voice as you exhale and hear how the sound of the ah punctuates the blissful state you created. It startles and moves outward to give birth in the air around you. Do it again and again. Notice how it feels, where it sounds, what it elicits in your inner well. Now vary the phoneme from ah to ay to oh to oo to u to ee. Experience each like it is the first time you made sound as a newborn. You do have this memory within you. This primal play can actual do a reboot on elements of your true being in expression.
• Play with the voice. Learn to breathe to the belly so that you can sustain the tone to give you a long winded sound that you can manipulate with delight. Vary the shape of your mouth and notice the result. Move the placement of the tongue and notice. Now do both. Move your awareness to the back of the throat as you make the sound. Notice how it expresses. Now place it in nose, in the middle of the mouth, at the tip of your lips.

The vocal mechanism is a remarkable construction, a perfect dance of cooperation and support between each element. The sound, sustained by the breath, is made manifest by passing over the vocal cords, causing them to vibrate and make the sound. That sound then moves from the windpipe into the resonance cavities of the mouth, sinuses, and cranium. This impacts the timbre which is then articulated, or clarified, by the tongue, the palates, and the lips. Combining all these elements into one fluid motion that is changing in real time results in words and communication with others.

Small movements strongly effect the sound of the voice. Learning this is what the vocal play in infants is about. They explore and begin to mimic the sounds they hear in their world.

If one is silenced or compromised at this critical time then the voice is penned in, structured into a narrow corridor of specific sound. This, in turn, impacts the voice energetics of expression or volume which then begins to squelch the emotional expression and diminish the trust of the voice to convey our communications effectively.

Thankfully, it is never too late for vocal play. Learning to use your voice is a powerful freedom that is often accompanied by the release of historical emotional wounds. The actual blocks to full expression are being disintegrated. The energy that sustains patterns and beliefs is altered to give you the moment back…to freely express your in the now experience.

Play with this idea and begin to see what gift you can give to another by shepherding them through this playful and profound release.

Three main resonance chambers impact the tonality of the voice: body cavity, throat, and the cranium. Each creates a strong identifiable placement sound.

The cranium sound is nasal, a hollow, round, and warm texture. Too much and it can be annoying. Yet, it is critical in impacting the Third Eye and Crown chakras. Their companion glands, the pineal and the pituitary master gland are primary elements of spiritual connection and the capacity to visualize and develop intuitive powers. Thus, it is necessary that these be stimulated.

The throat resonance chamber gives strength and clarity to the voice. The articulators work like a megaphone to project this hard, strident sound. Stimulating the throat chakra, which pairs with the sacral chakra to clear the woundings of life, is an essential ingrediant to vocal release and emotional expression.

The largest resonance chamber is the body cavity, which provides the substance and foundation to the voice. It brings warmth, fullness and believability into one’s expression. It expresses the heart vibration, the action center, and the juice of life, connecting to the power and foundation of the Earth.

Additional
Information