Perfect Pitch: vocal variables...

Almost everyone learns to write but not everyone becomes a published writer. Lots of people sing in the shower but few get a recording contract. We all spend lots of time talking but talking is not the same thing as being a trained public speaker.

So what really makes the difference between the amateurs and the pros in any human endeavor? And what can that difference teach you about optimizing your voice for Perfect Pitch?

Obviously some people just have more talent than others. But Perfect Pitch doesn’t depend on the kind of unique gifts needed for ballet or advanced mathematics. You don’t need to be a genius in any way. In fact, by far the most important requirement for using your voice effectively is wanting to do it. It’s just a matter of paying attention to something that most people ignore. You don’t have to be six feet ten or have an IQ of 258.

So the first prerequisite for Perfect Pitch is attention. Be attentive to what you’re doing with your voice, and to making your voice more effective. It’s easy, but it doesn’t happen by itself.

Once you decide to give your voice the attention it deserves, you should be aware of four variables that determine how it sounds:

Physical—as in all areas of life, people are born with different voice characteristics: high pitched voices and low ones, stronger and weaker, soft or abrasive. This is simply the raw material you will be working with.

Maturational—human voices sound differently at different stages of life. With age, the vocal cords don't vibrate as fast or as strongly as they used to. It’s just like a man losing his hair, but with one very significant difference. Most people aren’t aware of how their voice has changed. You can’t see it happening by looking in the mirror.

Healthful—Smoking and drinking will affect your voice just as they’ll affect your kidneys and your bladder. The difference is, other people don’t have to listen to your kidneys and your bladder. Sometimes people have a wheezing or breathy aspect to their voices from asthma or a similar disorder. There are even actors in Hollywood who have turned the sound of a “hard drinking” voice into a signature attribute. The point is, however, that this is not how nature intended them to sound. They got to sound like that on their own.

Cultural—This is probably the single strongest influence on how people use their voices. If you grew up in a family of twelve kids with everybody shouting at the dinner table, shouting will be your idea of a normal tone of voice. In fact, it will seem better than normal. It will bring you a sense of nostalgic security and well-being. But it will give other people a headache. You may wind up only shouting at yourself.

The fact that your voice has developed in a certain way doesn’t necessarily mean you should try to change it. There’s also no assurance that you could change it even if you did try. As in many areas of life, the important thing is to play the cards you’ve been dealt in the best possible way. As long as you know what you voice is really like, you can turn a “weakness” into a strength when you approach the challenge intelligently. Many very memorable voices aren’t textbook perfect. That’s why they’re memorable.