When I was 10 or 11 years old, a family member told me my voice was very irritating. I looked back at this years later and realized the circumstances, and the stress this person was feeling,and how the stess wasn't really being caused by me, but I was caught in the cross-fire, so to speak.
My singing voice really was not so hot, and didn't really evolve until I was in my 20s. I had a revalation about my speaking voice through a brilliant vocal coach in my early 30s. I left one voice-mail for him, probably rambling on as I do, and he called back later and proceeded to analize my voice, and inadvertantly analyized my life in the process. He said I wasn't speaking with my true voice; that I was holding it in a specifically narrowed range, and it was likely because I had been in the music business, around men most of the time, and so was trying to sound like them, to be taken seriously. This was before we even got to the singing lessons, where he was able to show me I had 5 more notes at the top of my register that I didn't believe were there.
So, in the past decade or so, I have not only sung, but occasionally recorded speaking parts for ads, political or commercial, at my husband's studio - I usually saw this as 'pick up' work when the real professionals weren't available. This year, I was asked to be 'the voice' for all the ads for 'Kenai Fjord Tours' for the summer. A friend of mine owns an ad agency and has loads of clients, and staff, and a wealth of professional voice talent to draw from, and he picked me. My first reaction was to ask Kurt a bunch of questions: He wants me? Why? Does he owe you a favor? Does he owe me a favor? etc etc. It took Kurt a few minutes to sort out what I was saying, and he had to get it through the layer of 'my voice is irritating' so I could hear it: that my voice is compelling (okay, not every minute of every day, but that I had access to that when trying for it) and that it is pleasing to hear, that it could do this job. Here I am at 44 years old, and this information brings tears to my eyes.
I had to confirm this with my dear friend, who owns the ad company. He thinks I should put together a 'reel' of these ads, and read some others, and go after even more voice work - that I could be in that national database of talent that he and every other ad agency in the country can turn to. Thanks to digital everything, you don't have to be in the same city anymore.
My daughter is 11. I can see it in her, how anything and everything that is said to her, about her, leaves an indelible impression right now. She is beginning the search for herself. I'll bite my own tongue off before I say anything in anger or stress that puts her down.
