Response: Freeing The Natural Voice

Kristin Linklater's Freeing The Natural Voice is basically a step-by-step manual for realizing the full potential of the human voice. It offers a series of exercises and pieces of advice designed to help actors increase their breath control, vocal range, and emotive capacity. I first picked up this book for my Voice Acting class last year, and I found it extremely helpful. At the time, I already had very well-developed breath control because of the four years I spent in marching band in high school. However, this semester I decided to revisit the book because I have found my breath control totally out of whack. Using the lessons and exercises taught in this book I have been able to begin my efforts to regain the superb breath control I once had.

Linklater's whole philosophy and approach towards expanding the voice is based on the idea that the tensions and idiosyncrasies that every person picks up throughout the course of our day-to-day lives are the worst enemy of the optimal voice. In order to develop one's voice to its full potential, once must first focus on eliminating those tensions. This can be achieved through a series of carefully targeted vocal exercises, many of which are laid out in this book.

The exercises are designed to stretch out the spine, open the throat, relax the diaphragm, and direct the voice to its optimal vocal positions. They are especially useful because they rely on imagery; they ask participants to picture the voice in a variety of ways which, though anatomically misleading, help put the voice in ways that feel correct. For example, even though breath is drawn in and out of the lungs, which are in the chest, Linklater asks readers to try to use breath to fill the abdomen and pelvic cavity; though in an anatomical sense this is impossible, picturing the voice in this way inspires the readers to take very deep and expansive breaths instead of the shallow breaths most people take during their everyday lives.

Since I am, as a general rule, a very tense, stiff, and physically idiosyncratic person, this book was tailor-made for people like me. In high school the exercises I did in marching band allowed me to cultivate a very strong and relaxed voice, with excellent diaphragmatic support; however, since graduating I have stopped doing vocal and physical exercises, and my breath control has suffered dramatically. Though I still have a strong and loud voice, it is no longer supported by a healthy breath control. My hectic schedule during this semester limited my ability to commit to the regimen suggested by this book, but when I did have a chance to perform some of the exercises I found them remarkably helpful. After doing the stretch and relaxation exercises, I found that my voice dropped significantly, to its natural pitch, and the tension I usually feel in my shoulders, neck, and back was dramatically reduced. If I can make it so that they way I feel after these exercises is the way I feel all the time, my vocal abilities can reach a level I have never experienced before.

I plan to commit fully to following Linklater's exercise regimen over the summer. By the time I return to SDSU next year, I will have developed my voice so that I can blow all of you away at generals!