Browsing in category 'Voice Coaching'
Are You A Subdued Wallflower or a Spiky Thistle?
In our attempts to promote ourselves, our brands, teams or organisations, there is a sweet spot somewhere between being a Subdued Wallflower and being a Spiky Thistle. We don’t want to be the shy, unnoticed bundle of fear in the corner, and we certainly don’t want to become the brash in-your-face-noise-machine who talks at everyone and connects with no one. […]
We Are All TV Presenters
At a recent TV Presenting Course that we ran in Dublin, Ireland, it became very clear to me why most ‘presentation skills’ type courses fall short of achieving the results they should be getting – those results being a more confident, persuasive and eloquent speaker. In fact most of them miss the point completely! They fail to acknowledge the most […]
Smile, We Can Hear You! Does Your Voice Charm or Alarm?
A smile can be charming and distractingly disarming. What better way to put people at ease than with a friendly display of your pearly whites! There is truly nothing more mesmeric than a beautiful smile. However, with a slight change in the facial muscles, and a distinct change of purpose, we notice a grimace of pain, anger or aggression. In […]
Body Talking – To You or To Me?
It was very interesting to recently become aware of the research work that Social Psychologist Amy Cuddy has been pioneering at Harvard Business School. She gives evidence to show that body language can change other people’s perceptions — and even our own body chemistry — simply by changing body positions. As a young training Actor in the 1980s I was introduced to […]
Vocal Aphrodisiac
So, it’s official. If you’ve got a great voice, you’re going to have a better sex life, and live longer! I must fire my Marketing Department. How could they have missed this opportunity to promote the importance of improving vocal skills?!! Actually, the original research conducted by Dr Gordon G Gallup Jr., and Dr Susan Hughes, highlights many interesting results, […]
Smart Phones vs Smart People
Last year I read research which revealed that smart phones are now outselling desk top computers and more than 57% of people in Japan are reading their emails only on their iPhone, Blackberry or Galaxy. The statistics showed that USA, Canada and Europe are not far behind and very quickly heading the same way. As if there wasn’t enough pressure […]
Congratulations Jared Leto!
I’m really thrilled to see that Jared Leto won an Oscar for his role in ‘Dallas Buyers Club”. Jared was the first Actor I coached on the first film I worked on as a Dialogue Coach. His extraordinary portrayal is mesmerising and the award well deserved. In our next newsletter I will be writing an article about how Jared, and […]
Charisma – Fact or Fiction?
Charisma is one of those words that is hard to define. Ask 100 people to explain why someone is charismatic, and you’ll notice that very quickly it becomes subjective – “the passion in her voice”, “his confidence”, “her intelligence”, “the way he moves”, “the connection to her message”… etc. Each of us has our own process of evaluating what’s important […]
Are You the ‘Singer’, the ‘Song’ or the ‘CD’?
What makes you want to listen to music? The singer and their unique passion? The song and it’s compelling melody or lyrics? Could it be the memories of experiences and emotions associated to the song? It’s probably any one, or all, of these depending on each unique situation. Years ago when I was coaching a well known recording artist, a […]
Improve Your Word Power – 8 Ways To Say Yes!
Yes is a very old word. It entered English before 900, and comes from the Old English word gese loosely meaning “be it.” Before the 1600s, yes was often used only as an affirmative to a negative question, and yea was used as the all-purpose way to say “yes.” Aye. This archaism is still used as the formal response meaning […]