I’m doing a couple of sessions at the South Tyneside International Magic Convention in March, and I’m really looking forward to it. Although my Dad was a magician I’m not, so this won’t be as cool as the magicians that are there – I’m just doing some work on voice, so that your average jobbing magician can do gig after gig after gig in a day (six children’s parties on a Saturday, anyone?!!?) without losing their voice.
Essentially, it’s all about breathing.
And keeping your throat relaxed.
And your head in the right place.
And….
Oh, hang on…. this isn’t going to work so well in short sessions, is it. Â After all, if it was easy you’d not need months at RADA to do it; just an afternoon would do.
Actually it is easy – breathing right is how we all breathe when we’re children. It’s not until after puberty/adolescence that we pick up the habit of breathing in the wrong way (according to Cicely Berry – God of Voice at the Royal Shakespeare Company.) That means it should be a relatively easy thing to get our breathing back as it should be, right? Â Well, no, because the thing that gets our voices all screwed up in anxiety.
And what’s one of the biggest causes of anxiety in the world? Â Yeah, presentations and public speaking. Â Oh good.
If I have one simple tip (I hate simple tips, they’re always simplistic, not simple!) about presenting it would be this: breathe low.
You’ll hear a lot of people working in this field who tell you to take big, deep, calming breaths. Â They really should know better. Â Why? Â Because there are two ways of breathing – high in your chest and low in your abdomen. Â The former will stimulate the creation of the stress hormones as your flight-or-flight syndrome kicks in whereas the latter causes your body to create (and release) the calming hormones.
If you’re breathing in your chest (which is what people tend to do when they’re anxious or nervous) then all that’s going to happen when you tell them to take big breaths is that they take big chest-breaths, making a bad situation worse.
By all means take big breaths, but only if they’re from the right place. Â The low place.
So don’t take big breaths, take low ones. Â Slow ones help too, but low is the key thing!
