Latest / The Vocal Hack Podcast / #18 Voice Vocab Session: Resonance vs Projection
Transcript
- Joana Lisboa: everyone, my name is Joana. Assumpta: And I'm Assumpta. Joana Lisboa: Welcome back to the vocal hack podcast where we can explore all the tools, techniques and mindsets that shifts the way you understand your voice and you can use it better and communicate with more confidence. Today we're talking about two concepts that are often used as if they were the same thing that are resonance projection. What difference between of them? And if you want to be heard in the meeting or on the stage or in the room full of people, which one do you actually need? Assumpta: And I think this is particularly important because when we tell someone you need to project your voice, they often immediately think, Okay, I guess I just need to speak louder. And that's usually where the problem begins, because projection isn't simply about increasing your volume, and resonance isn't simply about making your voice sound beautiful. They are related, but they are not the same thing. So let's break it down and make it practical. Joana Lisboa: Yes, as usual. let's Assumpta: Ha ha ha Joana Lisboa: start with resonance. Very simple. Resonance is about what happens to the sound after your vocal folds create the initial vibration here on your larynx. The sound travels through the vocal tract, your throat, mouth and other spaces this structure shapes and amplifies the about an acoustic guitar. The strings create the vibration, like the vocal folds, helps amplify the color of that sound. Your vocal tract works in a similar way. Resonance contributes to the richness, clarity and quality of your voice. Assumpta: Yes, I actually think a perfect example for this is when you are a little bit sick and your nose is stuffed, all of a sudden your voice sounds completely different. Why? Because this part of your resonance is just lost. Because it's so stuffed that the sound waves cannot travel there anymore. So all of a sudden your voice sounds completely different than it did before, and it's just because this little room here is not free anymore. And this is also something you can feel when you're not sick. So let's try a little experiment. Close your mouth gently and make a mmm sound as if you would smell something extremely delicious. Don't push it or or make it loud. It's just about noticing where the vibrations are, like for example around your lips or in your face. Singers love to call it the mask. So everything in your face, it's basically like a mask of resonance. So some people feel it more in their jaw, some feel it more here on their forehead, or some feel it like behind their eyes. or their nose. So explore it a little bit and just let the sound travel and see where you can feel it. And notice that we're not asking you to make it louder, to increase that volume. We're simply changing the way the sound is produced and experiment depending on where we can feel it in the vibration. Joana Lisboa: Yes, very important not to speak louder when you're doing this exercise and that takes us to the projection. What is the projection? Projection is your ability to make your voice reach the listener clearly and effectively. Particularly when you don't have a amplification or a microphone. Imagine you're speaking to someone sitting at the other end of the room. Projection is about getting your voice to be heard without shouting. It includes several things working together. vocal efficiency, resonance, articulation, volume and intention. So resonance can help projection, but projection is the bigger picture. Assumpta: Exactly. you can say that resonance is one of the tools that can help your projection, but it isn't projection itself. And this distinction is really important. If you try to project only by pushing more air or making your voice louder, you can create tension. and vocal fatigue because you can't just push and push and push and not expect your vocal folds to be like, this is enough. I'm tired now. they're so small, such small muscles. So a good projection should feel more like sending the voice towards the listener than forcing it out of your throat. One example out of my life is when I was studying music and I just started out, we did the magic flute and it was the first time that I sang with the other students in that university together and we had an orchestra and it was an open air performance. And I had a very small role, but it was quite interesting to see because there was a lot of singers that had way bigger voices than me, way, way bigger. But my teacher told me while I was training for it, he was like, don't get intimidated, just trust your voice. Don't try to push it harder because your projection is good. And at that point I didn't really understand the difference. Because I was like, but their voices are way bigger. They have so much more volume. They can speak way louder. in the end, a lot of people told me at the performance that my voice was actually one of the ones that was the loudest in the audience because the projection of it was so good that they could hear it through the orchestra just like cut through compared to other voices that had massive volume, but like their projection was not there. So you see is not the same thing and it's very important that you don't force your voice. to be bigger or louder than it actually is if that's not your natural voice. Joana Lisboa: Yeah, so true. And I think it's also related with the intention. Like I said before, if you have a specific intention, your voice will travel like laser. it will go to the place that you want to go. And that makes a lot of difference. Yes, I also know a lot of singers that are very loud, but I can feel that not really a supported Assumpta: Right. Joana Lisboa: And that is something a little bit more specific for singing, but I think we can inspire ourselves in singing even when we are talking because it's the same apparatus, it's the same instrument so we can take some notes from one side to the other and we can do reverse also we can take notes from the speaking voice to singing voice and sometimes it's helpful so it was a very nice example that you gave, this is probably one of the biggest myths that we If people can't hear me, I need to speak louder, like you said. not necessarily. Sometimes you don't need more volume, You need more clarity, better breath coordination, better articulation, or more efficient. resonance. Imagine someone whispering a sentence and then someone speaking with a clear focused voice in a moderate volume. The second person may actually be easier to understand even without being dramatically louder because it has focus also, intention and support. Assumpta: I think we all experience this. You can be sitting in a meeting where someone is speaking quite loudly, but you're still struggling to understand them because their words aren't clear or their voice is all over the place and lot of people don't pronounce their consonants correctly or they just drop the the rest of the word because their breath is not supporting the rest of the sentence and Then someone else speaks with a objectively lower volume, but suddenly everyone turns towards them. And that's projection. That's also your presence. And it's not necessarily about them being the loudest persons in the room, but actually it's about making your voice available to the people who need to receive it. That's where Joanna's intention comes back in place. Joana Lisboa: One of the things I tell to my clients and students is, especially in the speaking voice, you can have like this vocal hack that really works very well. It's just instead of projecting the voice in front of you, you just project to the floor in front of you. it's like an acoustic thing that happens. because the sound does like this. And so it goes downwards and then it goes up and it fills up the room. let me just break this down for you because it's easier to understand with an example. When you do like blah blah blah, you're just having your sound upwards It kind of like, you know, like smoke, it disappears. But if you say blah blah blah, you're just pushing it. to the floor and suddenly you control your voice and it's much more easier to control your resonance and projection at the same time. So you can try this out at home and you will find it very useful. So it's a vocal hack, really. Assumpta: I really have a question for this because I was wondering, do you mean with like pushing it down? Pushing inside of you down or pushing it when you speak it down? Joana Lisboa: It's like imagining that your voice is around your chest and you're going to push it down. it's outside of you, no it's outside Assumpta: But inside outside, okay. Joana Lisboa: of you. like near the chest, but then you can push it down, like you grab it and you push it down, but in front of you, like in the diagonal in front of you. Assumpta: So you don't imagine your voice comes out of your mouth actually, but it comes out of here from your chest. Joana Lisboa: No, So it goes like this and then from the chest goes to the floor. But if Assumpta: Interesting. Okay. Joana Lisboa: you just have to throw your sound to the floor in front of you, like in a diagonal. And it really works because suddenly you just grab the sound and you push it. And you get a more assertive voice, automatic, because you connect with your chest voice. Assumpta: Listen up guys. here are the real hacks in here. Joana Lisboa: Yes. And the other thing that I also say is don't talk. Of course, you have to look to the person in the eyes, but don't throw your sound to their faces. Throw to their shoes. Assumpta: Ha ha Joana Lisboa: if you imagine that your sound is like a beard that goes down, but your face remains the same, looking to the person that you're talking with. But instead of blah blah, you say blah blah. So you push it down. Assumpta: No Joana Lisboa: Just don't look at the shoes. Assumpta: That's why you Yes, otherwise everyone is just walking like this with their heads down. Joana Lisboa: Talking to the shoes but not looking at the shoes. Assumpta: what is really interesting with this exercise that Joana just told you guys, it is not just one thing, but it actually involves all the different parts of your vocal system and the space and the listener. So it's not just that she said, okay, and then you just speak to your feet. No, you push down, you're it's more connected to your breath. You actually still keep your Eye contact with the people. So you see it's not just one thing, but actually it's like almost like a chain of things that all tie into each other. And that's why changing your speaking habits is not something that you just do like this. It's something that takes time and training because you have habits and we need to break those habits or redirect these habits. it's not simply turning up the volume button. Joana Lisboa: Yes, this is where resonance becomes really useful. A well-resonant voice can make a better impact because the sound is being shaped and amplified efficiently. You don't necessarily need to push harder. Think about the difference between throwing a ball using your whole body and trying to throw it using only your wrist. So it's a big difference guys. One is much more efficient. Your voice works in a similar way. We want coordination rather than unnecessary effort. Assumpta: And that's why singers often talk about resonance when they're trying to sing across a large room. Because the same principles apply to speaking. If you're giving a presentation, teaching a class, leading a meeting, or speaking on stage, you want your voice to have enough energy and clarity to reach people without exhausting yourself. The goal isn't to leave the room with a sore throat because you projected really, really well, because that means you didn't. Joana Lisboa: Yeah, there's another important thing. Projection is always connected to the environment. Speaking in the quiet office to three people is completely different from speaking in a large room with 50 people or outdoors with background noise. So you just have to adapt. And this is why projection is in one fixed vocal setting. You need to understand the space, the distance, the audience and the acoustic conditions. Assumpta: This is where microphones change the game. If you're Joana Lisboa: Yes. Assumpta: using amplification, don't need to project acoustically in the same way you would in an unamplified room. when we give workshops, I don't know about you, Joana, but if I know it's gonna be a larger group. I always tell them I'm gonna need a microphone because I know I don't have the loudest voice naturally. So I don't wanna overextend myself and then don't have a voice anymore. So it's really important for me to know what kind of room am I gonna give this workshop in. And if there is, don't know, more than 20 people, I will need a microphone because we're gonna do exercises and there's talking and I don't wanna scream over them. it's not about saying I can't do this, but it's knowing your own boundaries and knowing your own limitations. And you still need a clear, well-supported voice, but the microphone is doing some of the work of carrying your sound. And if you continue trying to project as if you don't have a microphone, you can actually end up sounding overly loud and tense. Joana Lisboa: And of course, we can talk about projection without talking about breath. We already dedicated an entire vocal hack episode to breathing. because breath is the one of the foundations of an efficient voice. But remember, more breath doesn't automatically mean more projection. If you simply push a huge amount of air through your vocal folds, you're not necessarily becoming more powerful. You can actually become less efficient. We want controlled, coordinated breath, not maximum breath. So this is not a competition with ourselves. Assumpta: Exactly. Your voice needs a balance between breath, vocal fold vibration, resonance, and articulation. Only then you get the best results. If you overshoot one of them, it doesn't make the result better. When those elements cooperate, you can get a strong, clear sound without feeling you're working incredibly hard. Joana Lisboa: one would say, resonance is about how your sound is shaped and amplified. while projection is about how effectively that sound reaches to your listener. So one is about the quality of the sound, And the other one is the distance that you can go with your sound. So you can adjust the distance, the projection, depending where is your listener. Nice. Assumpta: And that's why you can have a very resonant voice but still not project well. Maybe you're speaking too quietly, or you're mumbling, so you're not articulating enough. Or you're not directing your voice forward. You're not directing your voice towards the audience because you're doubting yourself too much and you're just like holding basically all of your voice here instead of actually telling it to someone. And you can also be very loud without having particularly good resonance. That's when people often feel like they're being shouted at rather than communicated with. So we're looking, you know, for the sweet spot. Clear, resonant, supported, And appropriately projected. Meaning what Joana said earlier, knowing your room, knowing your environment, knowing your audience in a sense of how far are they from me? Are they right in front of my face or are they fifty meters away? Joana Lisboa: And record yourself if you can. Listen back and ask yourself three questions. Can I hear every word? Does my voice sound easy or pushed? does it feel like I'm speaking to someone? rather than simply producing sounds. So these three questions are very important. Because effective communication isn't about making noise, it's about making your message reach another human being. Remember that. Assumpta: Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Vocal Hack Podcast. And if you found this useful, share it with someone who's always being told to speak louder or I can't hear you or any of the above. Joana Lisboa: And don't forget to follow and subscribe. We also love to know, do you struggle more with resonance, projection, or knowing the difference between the two of them? Assumpta: We'll see you next time. Until then, have a wonderful week. Bye. Joana Lisboa: Bye! See you next week!