Voices, Vibes, and How DO We Hear Them(?):

I became aware of listening to something when coming home from shopping after our Sunday Breakfast. I was listening to NPR, and what "I" heard wasn't what they were talking about. There is a guy who talks about little venues or stories that has a different kind of voice than the norm. I almost want to call the station and tell him to clear his throat, but it's just his way his way of talking. So I concentrated on exactly what voice sound I was hearing. Was it all of his words or just the vowel sounds. It was the vowels, but in his case, the whole word, the whole delivery of his thoughts for the day were like a rapid fire stutter of each word from his voice box. The vowel sounds are the more breathy sounds, so, thinking how our trachea is and especially the larynx is formed, I was thinking that since all voices are vibrations, that the "strings" of his larynx must be loose in the middle, where the more breathy sounds are formed and somehow cause this vocalized sensation.

Now, I am no expert. But I haven't ever heard anything said about actually HOW we form our words in respect to our voice box. Certainly our lips and tongue do most of the conscious work, but how we automatically control-our larynx and trachea makes a real difference. There are voice teachers and elocution lessons that can train people to better use their voice box or larynx. My stepchildren's aunt Jane was losing her voice, which was always raspy, and went to a specialist. She was supposed to talk differently from then on to preserve what little voice she had left, and just couldn't do it after over 60 years of doing it one way... talk about a habit hard to shake. So, I'm thinking about her voice while I'm listening to these people talk, and the person interviewed by this NPR regular moderator also rasped or rattled his A's and U's. Any word with an a pronounced A or U in it would kind of rasp or rattle. It was like if you slowed down their talk without changing the timbre or key, you would have a sound like a kid's riding a bike with cardboard sticking into his spokes to make a sound. If they said "Ahh" it would kind of stutter in the throat (nothing to do with the tongue). It would be like a rapid fire "ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah" ...and I mean really rapid, and probably more ahs than I put down. The problem with slowing down the tape, you also lower the voice, so it would be a difficult thing to have some kind of a computer break down the person's vowel pronunciation without losing the actual timbre of the vibrations.

I got thinking of Chinese Restaurants... more the old style ones than the newer Americanized ones in that all the help used to seem to talk high when talking their native language. Not understanding the language you notice more the key in which the person or group speaks. But the help in those restaurants now, for the most part, when they talk in either English or their native language seem to talk in the same "key" as our Americanized English. Why was it that in the old movies, in the old Chinese neighborhoods... maybe Japanese as well, they would talk in a higher key than the normal American "Key of English." Not being a music major ever, but knowing the song from the Sound of Music, in the United States I think we generally talk in the key of C. The "'Doe'" in "Doe a deer a female deer...."

Then I got thinking about how we hear. I could never unlock the riddle of why some voices bother me to the point where I have to tune them down or off if I hear them on a radio or television set. I don't know why these raspy voices bother me so. And it's not just that, classical music bothers me, as the opera's aria hurts my ears, and violin string music seems to clash with the ringing in my ears. And forget about Hard Rock. And why is it I love the sound of Zamfir's pan flute music. I had a girlfriend who had such a nice low voice I called her my velvet-voiced friend.

Why is it we all LOVE Morgan Freeman's voice. I think low voices that are smooth are not only easy on the ears, but sensually pleasurable... take the bedroom music of the late Barry White.

There also are the voice teachers and elocution lessons that can sometimes actually change someone's voice. The worst voice I ever heard was from a woman who was single at the same time I was single back in the early 80s. She wondered why it was so difficult to attract a man. I couldn't tell her that it was because her voice was a nasal disaster, but it was. Loud without effort, and a nasal twang that twanged me the wrong way. She actually was once married and had a young adult daughter, who was at the time at an Ashram retreat, and I could understand why. If this nasally woman somehow did modulate her voice, I'm sure she would have come across better, but her personality was kind of grating as well. Grating-that's a good adjective for the kind of voice she had. But hers wasn't the voice that is like a cardboard stuck in spokes-grating kind of voice. But it was just as irritating in a different way to me.

Take Sara Palin [better you than me... Just kidding]. Palin had a series on Alaska which I watched with my husband Tom, her number one fan. I actually like that series. I surprised myself more than anyone, as I thought I hated the sound of her voice. Now I realize that when she's speaking, she has to project her voice, and the timbre of her voice seems to change and sound more piercing to my poor eardrums, let alone the interpretation of what she's actually saying, but it could be 'just me.'

We are getting back to ME... what a relief, as it's all about ME, isn't it. Or do you have a problem with the actual sound of some people's voices too? Sometimes the sound of music becomes the sound of mucus. What can you do? If you have subtitles on your TV, you can mute them and read, or on the radio you can just bear with it or turn it down to a whisper. Too bad we can't do that when out in the public.

I just wonder how many people have the same problem listening to irritating voices. I'll betcha (a favorite Palin word) a lot of you do.

Sincerely,
The sound of silence lover [or Morgan Freeman's voice],
Cranberry Jo

PS It's such a hot day today I think I'll again watch The March of the Penguins
and cool off... and enjoy that mellow voice of Morgan Freeman.