Recommend me some books on the human voice?

July 11, 2023 4:44 AM

The human voice has to be one of the most powerful conveyors of our personalities ever. There seems to be tons of books written on body language, conversation, social etiquette and social skills. However, most of these seem to gloss over the aspect of ourselves which is much more visceral - the human voice.

I will be very frank with you here. When dealing with people over the phone I usually make snap decisions about people purely over they way they speak. I'm not talking about accent here. I'm talking about the tonality of the person's voice. Within 20 seconds, my reptile brain will make snap assessments of people purely on the tonality of their voice. I decide whether the person is mean. Or, whether the person is cunning or sneaky. I make judgements whether the person is smart, funny or genuinely kind. I know that sounds so terribly shallow but I'm making the assumption that's how our brains have evolved.

However, I've yet to see a resource (book, podcast, Ted Talk etc.) which deals with this topic in a profound yet easily accessible way.

I would really love to hear your recommendations for books, podcasts, YouTube clips about the power of the human voice. And of course, the more inter-disciplinary the better!

posted by jacobean to Human Relations (9 answers total)

It's been several years since I've read it, but you might give Voice And The Actor by Cecily Berry a try.
posted by rjs at 5:50 AM on July 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

This immediately reminded me of the many things that have been written about Margaret Thatcher's intentional voice change when she ran for/became Prime Minister e.g. here, YouTube
posted by atlantica at 6:11 AM on July 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

You could look into the work of Nadine George - she studied under Cicely Berry mentioned above and then went on to devise her own way of working with the voice for actors which is taught in some drama schools. I did a one-day workshop with her once and it was incredible, she’s a real force of nature. Although her technique is aimed at actors, she talked a lot about how voice and body are vital parts of human expression and soul and sense of self, and how working with the voice can actually be therapeutic and healing.

There’s a 14 page pdf here by her talking about her work, and looks like there’s a book about her work too, Growing Voices, though I must admit I’ve not read it.
posted by penguin pie at 6:47 AM on July 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Check out lingthusiasm . Specific episodes to look at, dealing with (1) tone/intonation/voice quality/etc, and (2) social judgement of speech:

Tone and Intonation

Various Vocal Fold Vibes

What Does it Mean to Sounds Black? Intonation and Identity with Nicole Holliday

Who You Are in High School, Linguistically Speaking

One of the co-host's book, Because Internet might also be good. It's technically about language and the internet, but it's a really solid introduction to sociolinguistics and social attitudes towards particular types of speech and language more broadly.
posted by damayanti at 7:07 AM on July 11, 2023 [2 favorites]

Probably somewhat adjacent to your question, but: there is a great book called How To Wreck A Nice Beach which is about a musical instrument - the Vocoder - with a nice long piece of the book being about the history of electronic voice transmission, speech synthesis, and voice manipulation. It's a niche music history book, to be sure, but if this piques your interest, you'll probably really like it.
posted by niicholas at 7:49 AM on July 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Kristin Linklater was a big influence on the field of voice, text and vocal technique. Her books and methods may be of interest.

The field of voice training is large but tends to get subsumed within acting/performance studies.
posted by stray at 8:01 AM on July 11, 2023

Best answer: Seconding lingthusiasm, and you might also check out these resources:

Do I Sound Gay? documentary which includes interviews with speech scientists about stereotypes around the "gay voice"

Podcast Vocal Fries which focuses a lot on grammar and linguistics which includes episodes that get into the sound of speech (including the infamous "vocal fry") https://vocalfriespod.com/
posted by Ms. Toad at 8:17 AM on July 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

This Is the Voice by John Colapinto. I didn't read it but I listened to the Fresh Air interview and it was fascinating.
posted by catquas at 9:09 AM on July 11, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I highly recommend The Right to Speak by Patsy Rodenburg.
posted by brookeb at 1:52 AM on July 12, 2023 [1 favorite]