Has anyone changed there monotone voice?

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Has anyone changed there monotone voice?
No, my voice has always been monotone for the most part. 49%  49%  [ 40 ]
My voice has NEVER been monotone. 28%  28%  [ 23 ]
Yes, my voice used to be monotone but then it changed. 23%  23%  [ 19 ]
Total votes : 82

NeoPlatonist
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17 Feb 2007, 5:07 pm

When I am talking about philosophy or theater, I slip into a quiet and fast monotone. When I'm just having normal conversation I tend to have a more mobile voice.


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18 Feb 2007, 8:04 pm

Any good books for changing from a monotonic, robotic, uninspiring voice, to a normal, expressive voice? On amazon, the books about voic training seem to be all about singing . perhaps those would be of value? Since I don't speak with any inflection, my voice is obviously out of tune.



jspark-311
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18 Feb 2007, 9:51 pm

Anxiled wrote:
Any good books for changing from a monotonic, robotic, uninspiring voice, to a normal, expressive voice? On amazon, the books about voic training seem to be all about singing . perhaps those would be of value? Since I don't speak with any inflection, my voice is obviously out of tune.


I don't know about books, but...
Wikipedia has articles that are pretty good:
Nonverbal communication
Intonation


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beaker
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18 Feb 2007, 10:45 pm

I used to but as I am conscious of it. I make sure and force my voice to vary now.



TheBladeRoden
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18 Feb 2007, 11:19 pm

Where's the option for "My voice used to be less monotone but then it changed"?


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CockneyRebel
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19 Feb 2007, 12:08 am

I have a wonderful Cockney accent. :)



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19 Feb 2007, 12:47 pm

Sometimes people mistake me for being depressed because of my monotone. It gets old after a while :?



Candymanic
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19 Feb 2007, 8:20 pm

Again, like somebody else who posted before, i benefited from doing theatre for alot of my life. I also kinda naturally varied the pitch and tone of my voice, so whilst it remained fairly 'flat', it did go up and down which made it slightly more interesting.

I've still kept my very, very, VERY posh English accent mind :p


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BeautyWithin
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19 Feb 2007, 8:44 pm

I used to have a monotone voice....
The first thing I did that 'helped' was join the choir through my church. After a while I was able to notice things like speed, pitch and intonation. I also joined the choir through my school- and they focussed on breathing and rhythm on top of everything else. We did all sorts of exercises to get us to speak louder or softer, higher or lower and scale exercises and all sorts of things.

I joined toastmasters in my teens and I did some speech competitions through the Optomist club. The first couple years I was HORRIBLE. They taped the competitions so I could see what I looked like speaking in a public arena and I could objectively see how people reacted. In my third year of competitions even though I didn't win, I was able to manipulate my voice enough to come in the finalists of the first round. (That boosted my confidence)

I then tried my hand at the debate club and we did voice training exercises as a group but since my strengths were in 'fact checking' and 'research' I wasn't on the actual debate team.



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19 Feb 2007, 9:44 pm

I don't think I have a monotone voice (no one's ever pointed it out), but I like to joke around with a very deadpan voice, to the point where some people don't even realize that I'm joking (but I do - and I'll try not to laugh!).



sigholdaccountlost
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20 Feb 2007, 5:51 pm

My voice has NEVER been monotone. In fact, I had to try to sound monotone so it sounded normal. When I was little, I sang off-key rather than spoke.


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21 Feb 2007, 9:27 am

Also, my voice is mumbly, in addition to or in combination with being monotone. Is it a matter of opening your mouth more and over-enuncuating words? my mouth is small, so anatomy may play a role in my situation. In many ways, when I speak, I am performing a quasi-ventriloquist act. I soulnd like a bad vaudeville performer.



BeautyWithin
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21 Feb 2007, 9:51 am

Anxiled wrote:
Also, my voice is mumbly, in addition to or in combination with being monotone. Is it a matter of opening your mouth more and over-enuncuating words? my mouth is small, so anatomy may play a role in my situation. In many ways, when I speak, I am performing a quasi-ventriloquist act. I soulnd like a bad vaudeville performer.


For mumbling... you'd need to work on breathing.
Speaking is a lot of work. You need to stand with your back fairly straight, and breathe from your diaphragm. Then you have to speak with your voice being carried/supported by your breath. Of course, opening your mouth helps. ;-)



gobi
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21 Feb 2007, 10:18 am

I don't think about this very much but I recall my mother yelling at me when I was a teenager for talking in a monotone. Nice baggage.

Anyway, I find that I normally talk in a monotone unless I'm telling a really animated story expected to get laughs, or if I've been drinking. The voice in my head talks in a monotone too. When I talk to myself, it's really really monotone.



consilience
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08 Mar 2007, 3:29 pm

When you say "talk to yourself" do you mean in your head or out loud. Out loud it's usually by myself and during a manic-stage so my voice is crazy-sounding with lots of intonation. People used to laugh when I would get hurt like bump my head and say "Ow." cause it'd be monotone.

I've been called Eeyore before too. And depressed. Robot. No personality. No emotion. Monotone.

It's really socially limiting.



Lightning88
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08 Mar 2007, 7:29 pm

I don't have a monotone voice unless I'm feeling really down in the dumps. Otherwise, my voice is just fine.