The voice is our calling card. A man's character betrays his voice

When we hear another person, we intuitively draw his image: old or young, fat or thin, kind or evil, modest or arrogant, and so on. And what do other people do towards us? The same. For example,

A loud voice can create an image of a person who seeks to dominate, control people and situations. There is a misconception that speaking loudly is a sign of confidence. Often this is just an attempt to get attention.

Sometimes people of small stature or with a poor physique speak loudly, trying to compensate for their physical complexes.

Truly confident people rarely speak loudly. And if they do, it always turns out to be appropriate and, as a rule, to exert pressure.

A calm, confident voice and clear diction draws a person who knows how to present himself to the world. Self-leadership and self-discipline are his forte. However, in communicating with him, you may have a feeling of some kind of theatricality: too clear expression of thoughts, devoid of feelings.

If a person speaks clearly, quickly, assertively, then he is quite energetic and reactive. This is the person who first does and then thinks.

If his speech is slow, he seems to be weighing the words, then this person is unhurried, thorough and prone to analysis.

Slurred speech may indicate that a person is unable to express his thoughts, anxious, shy or tired. He is not a leader, he lacks life experiences, joy, energy. He is characterized by weak handshakes, sluggish body movements.

A low voice is associated with confidence, self-sufficiency, intelligence. The owner is intuitively perceived as authoritative and knowledgeable. The lower the voice of a man, the more reliable and stronger the woman considers him. And rightly so, because associated with high hormone levels.

We all from childhood, not yet understanding the meaning of words, learn to evaluate the emotional coloring of speech and sounds by intonation. Thanks to this ability, we can determine the character of a person by voice, judge intelligence, occupation, temperament.

Much more often than from diseases and overloads, the voice suffers precisely from them. And then we feel that our voice is, as it were, suppressed, our throat is “intercepted”, pinched, up to a feeling of pain, but we can’t do anything about it. Why is this happening?

The fact is that throat clamps are the psychological reactions of the body to stress. And if your voice is constantly clamped, it means that you are experiencing stress, even if you do not feel it.

Our body gets used to it and freezes in some kind of defensive reaction, and we stop feeling this part. And only when the rest of the body is relaxed - then the contraction, spasm in this area becomes more noticeable. That's why we get sick on vacation so often.

How are voice clips related to psychological ones? Is it possible to free your voice from them so that it resounds in full force of its natural, natural beauty? Oh sure. But for this you need to do some work on yourself.

Pay attention to how we, adults, well-mannered people, react to pain, mental and physical. We want to scream - from pain, from anger, from resentment - and we clench our lips, teeth, throat. Unlike children, who immediately react with an open, ringing cry.

The reaction of the child is instantaneous, priceless: an impulse is a reaction. We have a hitch on the assessment (decently or indecently?). Therefore, the child splashes out emotion through his voice and quickly forgets about his misfortune. And we hold back our natural reactions and chew on our “unvoiced” problems for years.

And another wonderful rule: “Crying is indecent!”. And instead of “roaring”, as children roar, we “swallow tears”. What hurts and pinches at this moment? That's right - the throat. And yawning is indecent! Moaning with pleasure is also indecent (what if the neighbors hear?).

The muscles of the larynx stop working, the pharynx closes, and the voice, finding no other way for itself, comes out either through the nose (nasal sound) or “gets stuck in the throat” (dull dull sound, pain, perspiration).

How do we smile? Lips fakely stretch into a smile when you do not want to smile at all. This is a “social smile” – our defensive reaction to danger. In animals, such a "smile" is called a grin and means - "better not come close, I'm strong, I have sharp teeth."

And we have such a “stretched” smile unconsciously signals: “I am strong”, or “I am strong”. Also, "Don't get too close." This smile betrays our fear: fear of sincerity, openness, naturalness. That is, in fact, reveals our weakness.

And in order to cope with all these clamps - we have a special course called "Freedom of the body." On it, we realize our personal reasons for the formation of these clamps, learn to talk about our feelings, voice emotions, breathe in stressful situations, and do special exercises. You are changing from the inside and your voice is changing.

I invite you to my course, but for now here are a few recommendations:

• To “unclench” the clamp in the larynx, practice opening your mouth so that the lower jaw, as it were, “unfastens” from the upper jaw and moves in a relaxed way.

• Keep your hand on your chin and read any text aloud.

• On each drum A, O, E, lower your jaw (with your hand!) As low as possible, make sure that your mouth opens vertically as wide as possible - and you will be surprised how much louder and freer your voice will sound!

• Learn to yawn at the top of your voice, as children, cats and dogs yawn. Try to make yourself yawn artificially and pay attention to how your larynx, pharynx, where the tongue is located, moves at this time.

• Another exercise, this exercise is laughter.

• Remember how you laughed and could not stop. What hurt you? That's right - the stomach. And, more precisely, the diaphragm, which actively works with voice load. And the throat at this moment makes sonorous, voluminous, loud sounds. If you learn to laugh "on demand", you can instantly remove the voice clip, and quickly cheer yourself up.

And another little secret - in fact, it does not sound like a throat or ligaments, - the voice resonates throughout the body.

And wherever there is a clamp in our body, it is instantly reflected in the sound of the voice.

How to understand the voice of a person? The voice is the first thing we get to know in a person at the beginning of communication. The voice can tell a lot about him. The timbre of the voice, its height and strength play an important role in communication. The knowledge of these simple rules is very skillfully used by politicians, psychologists, and businessmen.

Properties and characteristics of the human voice

If a person begins to stutter, blush, look away, his palms begin to sweat, then this a clear sign that he is lying. But sometimes you have to deal with the fact that with some people the opposite happens: they are quite confident when they lie, and begin to stutter when they tell the truth.

It is also important to pay attention to the tone of the interlocutor, as he can express different thoughts. For example, a high-pitched and lively tone can indicate both acceptance of your words with enthusiasm, and distrust of what you said.

It is important to listen to the words of the interlocutor and notice all the changes in his voice. If a voice changed from joyful to dull and quiet, then you probably offended the person with something.

With people who are trusted and sympathetic, they usually talk a little quieter, as in the case if they say something that is not intended for outsiders.

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Not only the appearance draws the image of a person, but also his voice. After all, the way we speak depends on the characteristics of our psyche and, of course, on our mood.

website decided to find out how the way we speak reflects the characteristics of our personality and correlates with how we are perceived.

Sometimes we all meet lovers of lisp, whose voice is like from a cartoon. To someone who speaks like this, it may seem cute, but for others, such a manner of speech is associated with duplicity, a desire to please everyone, and even passive aggression. And it also seems that a person needs something from you.

This manner of speech causes great discomfort in the listener, so he strives to quickly end the conversation.

Often a steely voice happens to people whose profession is connected with commanding people(teachers, big bosses and military), so they just used to talk like that. It is also found in those who love to give orders in life and do not tolerate objections.

There are usually several reasons for people to talk quietly:

• They are unsure of themselves and feel uncomfortable in the company.
• As children, their parents constantly hissed at them: “Be quiet!” They have formed an attitude that if they speak loudly, they will interfere with someone, they will seem intrusive.
• They are tired of life, they do not have enough energy, they do not want to be active.

It may seem that those who are self-confident speak in raised tones. Such people are counting on this - they often hide their insecurities in this way, the fear of being misunderstood and unheard. They want to draw attention to themselves and add weight.

There can be several reasons for the slow speech of the interlocutor:

• A person is used to weighing every word so as not to make mistakes. He is usually a little slow, but serious and thorough.
• He is arrogant and wants to draw attention to his speech. He does not care at all that the interlocutor's eyes are already sticking together.
• In some cases, slow speech indicates depression, despondency, grief, or fatigue.

Most likely, a lover of fast speaking is assertive by temperament - choleric or sanguine, he reacts quickly to everything.

• Or it could be that the person is not sure of himself and thinks that others are not interested in listening to him. And he tries to finish the thought faster.
• As in the case of loud-speaking people, it is believed that lovers of chattering grew up in large families and tried to express their whole idea before they were interrupted by one of the brothers and sisters.
• Well, or a person is angry at something, experiencing stress.

Bass-speaking men are liked by ladies, and women with a deep voice are considered very attractive. Usually we call such voices "velvet" or "voluminous" - they are really pleasant to the ear and are associated with maturity, authority and stability.

When it seems to you that a person is trying to seduce you with their voice, they probably are. But in order to understand this, it is important to evaluate the voice, coupled with body language. They play the role of followers in life, but at the same time they are not averse to manipulating other people.

For example, the ancient Greek orator Demosthenes had a weak voice and spoke extremely indistinctly. His attempts to speak to the public ended in failure - his speeches caused only laughter.

But Demosthenes set about correcting the shortcomings of his speech. In the end, he became a brilliant orator and a politician who went down in history.

"In one of the radio broadcasts, I heard that specialists appeared who, by their voice, can not only determine the character of a person by voice, intelligence, diagnose various diseases, but even predict the fate of a person. If this is true, tell me how to get an appointment with them?"

K. Lyamina, Smolensk

As for fate, of course, it’s an exaggeration, fiction, - smiles Professor Vladimir Petrovich MOROZOV, head of the laboratory of non-verbal communication of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, - and as for everything else, it’s pure truth. The voice itself, no matter what words are spoken, carries a colossal amount of information, you can determine the character of a person by voice and much more.

Agree, it will not be difficult for anyone to guess who is speaking on the phone: a man, a woman or a child, but not everyone will be able to determine the physical data of the speaker: a tall person or a short one, thin or fat, young or not very ... Experts of our laboratory gender, height, weight and age are almost unmistakably determined by voice. Moreover, it is difficult to deceive them even when someone skillfully imitates a child's voice (remember how great Rina Zelenaya did it?) Or a man begins to speak in a thin female voice.

- I wonder how they do it? Well, a man or a woman - this is understandable, but where are the height and weight "hidden" in the sound?

The fact is that the voice is directly related to anatomy and physiology: it depends on the structure of the body in general and the organs of voice formation in particular. Let me remind you that sounds are born during the vibrations of the vocal folds, which, like strings, are stretched in the larynx. They can make from 80 to 10,000 or more oscillations per second, and oscillate both with their entire mass and in separate sections. It has been established that under the influence of nerve impulses coming from the central nervous system, the vocal folds change their length, thickness, and degree of tension. The contraction of their various sections determines the whole richest range of sounds, just as pressing guitar strings with fingers in different places gives a different sound.

The height of the voice depends on the length of the folds, and their very length and thickness depend on the structure of the larynx: the larger it is, the longer and thicker the folds, the lower the voice, and the owner of this voice, therefore, is higher, because a large larynx is an advantage of tall people.

True, there are exceptions to the rule: nature rewards a short person with a large larynx or powerful resonators. After all, the timbre of the voice, its strength, color depend not only on the length and thickness of the folds, but also on the structure of the resonators. Do you know why the great Caruso sang in tenor, although he had bass folds? The resonators "did not come out in size."

The pharynx, nasopharynx, mouth, nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses are the upper resonators, and the trachea, bronchi and lungs are the lower ones. For each person, these organs have individual characteristics, and therefore the voices are so dissimilar to each other. The voice acquires an individual coloration at the moment when the baby announces its appearance in the world with the first cry. The owner of a unique voice was born! It does not matter that he will never be a singer, his voice is unique, he is the only one.

- And what about skillful imitators? Say, everyone's favorite Vinokur or the same "Dolls". For us, TV viewers, the voices sound "one to one".

For you - maybe, but not for an expert who, using modern methods and equipment, any voice is able to sort out, as they say, on the shelves, that is, according to timbre, rhythm, frequency-amplitude, intonation parameters. Just as graphological examination reveals the most skillful forgery of handwriting, so our methods allow us to recognize the imitation of someone else's voice. You can copy intonations, some features of pronunciation, but it is almost impossible to completely fake a voice. It is no coincidence that a whole scientific direction in forensic science is developing on this basis. This property of the voice has found application in ... business. In the largest banks in the world, many safes are programmed not only for a passphrase, but also for the voice of the owner. It is worth, say, some overtone deviate to the side - and the safe will not respond, no matter how much they call to it "Sesame, open!".

- So, you convinced me that with the help of voice you can identify a person and even draw her, this person, a portrait: tall-short, thin-fat, young-old ...

Good-evil, open-closed, modest-arrogant, - continues Vladimir Petrovich. - Not only a physiological, but also a more important psychological portrait for us. If a person speaks quickly, clearly, assertively, completing a thought, he is energetic, reactive, one of those who first does and then thinks.

But if he speaks slowly, as if weighing every word, he is unhurried, thorough, analyzes the situation, likes to measure seven times before cutting off. A person who pronounces words in a patter, swallowing endings, not connecting phrases logically, in character, intellect and in life such as his speech. Unless this is a speech "mask", a specially developed manner, like Talleyrand, for example. This most intelligent diplomat and politician deliberately spoke indistinctly, muttering something under his breath, but then he could always retract his words and say that he was simply misunderstood.

It has already been said that the voice is associated with anatomy and physiology, so almost any disease in one way or another affects the sound of the voice. First of all, of course, it reflects the state of the vocal and articulatory apparatus and resonators. We know how unrecognizably it changes with various acute respiratory viral infections, bronchitis, tonsillitis, sinusitis ... But it would seem that everything is in order with the vocal apparatus: there is no inflammation, no anatomical changes, and the voice is getting weaker and weaker - phonosthenia develops . The reason for this ailment lies in the deep parts of the central nervous system, where the centers responsible for the activity of the vocal apparatus, the reproduction and perception of speech are located.

Complex electro-acoustic processing of the voice, pronouncing phrases expressing different emotions - joy, grief, anger, fear, showed that each state has its own set of distinctive acoustic features. For example, for grief it is the greatest duration of a syllable, characteristic "rises" and "congresses" in the pitch of sounds, for fear, sharp drops in the strength of the voice, a violation of the tempo rhythm, an increase in pauses turned out to be distinctive ...

- It seems to me that even without electro-acoustic processing, each of us is able to determine the emotional state of the interlocutor and his attitude. It happens that they kindly say to you: “How glad I am to see you!”, But you hear: “Well, what ... brought you!” Fake intonation, like a smile, is easy to read.

You're right. The brain centers responsible for the perception of the emotional coloring of speech and sounds begin to work almost from the moment of birth. A two-week-old baby unmistakably reacts to the emotional coloring of the speech addressed to him, although he will begin to understand the words, their meaning much later, when the speech centers “ripen” in the left logical hemisphere.

But do you know what our recent studies have shown? There is a total "blunting" of emotional hearing, and already at the level of preschool, school age.

- Vladimir Petrovich, is it possible to take part in your experiment and test your emotional hearing?

Of course you can. I will let you listen to the same phrase, uttered with different intonation by the wonderful actor Oleg Valerianovich Basilashvili, and you will tick the boxes "anger", "fear", "surprise", "joy", "norm". Listen carefully...

Now let's count the ticks. Based on the test results, you scored 75%. Quite good. This and other tests are offered to applicants entering theater universities, the conservatory, future radio and television announcers. We offered them not only to "lyricists", but also to "physicists". The results were not unexpected: people of artistic and humanitarian professions had better emotional hearing than, say, computer programmers, mathematicians, and engineers. Most women with emotional hearing are fine, on average it is 10-15% better than men. The children upset the younger generation, so to speak. More than half of those who participated in the experiment (and these were students of ordinary Moscow secondary schools) had lowered, distorted emotional hearing. Imagine, more than 60% rated angry and threatening intonations as neutral, wrote them down in the "norm" column. This speaks of a deep rebirth of our psyche: aggression in the minds of many pushed the norm and took its place. An aggressive-defensive style of relations begins to dominate everywhere. From an early age, children get used to either attack or defend. This is becoming the norm.

- Haven't such studies been carried out among politicians, officials, endowed with power? I wonder how they are with emotional hearing.

Politicians have not yet been covered, but we tried to draw psychological portraits of the "new Russians". Only a small number of the surveyed showed such necessary qualities as high intelligence, competence, self-esteem, respectful attitude towards partners and colleagues, to a sufficient extent. The psychological portraits of the overwhelming majority leave much to be desired. Work on them and work!

- Tell me, do you have a recipe for how to do this?

A center is being opened at the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where everyone can find out how they perceive him, how he looks in the eyes of others, and get a number of practical tips on how to improve his psychological portrait and, consequently, increase his influence on others. After all, the image is not only fashionable makeup and a suit from a prestigious tailor, but also your voice, manner of speaking, communicating. Do you remember how Professor Higgins started when he decided to turn a dirty street flower girl into a lady of high society? No plastic surgery or other complex tricks were required - the girl was simply taught to SPEAK.

Interviewed by O. ZEDINE

Voice is your calling card. Now for many - politicians, businessmen, bankers, managers and others - it becomes the most important tool of work. So try so that no one can say: "It would be better if he did not open his mouth."

For those who cannot come to the institute, we give some practical advice. Sonority, flight voice acquires due to the upper resonators. To make the most of their capabilities and correct the dull sound of the voice, the following exercises will help:

1. Standing or sitting, take a short breath through your nose. Exhaling, with your mouth closed, without tension, say "m" or "n" with an interrogative intonation. Try to feel the vibration in the nose and upper lip.

2. Take a deep breath. Exhaling, say one of the following words: "bimm", "bonn", "donn". Prolonging the last consonant, achieve a sensation of vibration in the nose and upper lip.

3. Take a deep breath. Exhaling, draw out the syllables "mimm", "momm", "mamm", "ninn", "nann", "nunn", etc.

4. Take a deep breath. On one exhalation, first say briefly, and then draw out one of the open syllables: mo-moo, mi-mi, mu-muu, ni-nii, but-noo, etc.

Performing exercises for the lower resonators, try to pronounce the vowels "o" and "u" as low as possible and drawling, achieving a clearly pronounced resonance in the chest area.

1. Standing, put your hand on your chest. Yawn with your mouth closed and lock your larynx down. as you exhale, say the sound "o" or "u", trying to feel the vibrational movements of the chest. If this does not work, artificially induce vibration by lightly tapping your hand in the sternum area.

2. Standing, put your hands on your chest. Leaning forward, as you exhale, say the vowels "o", "u" for a long and drawn out.

Performing the same movement, as you exhale, say the words: "eye", "window", "tin", "milk", "flour". The articulatory apparatus also takes part in voice formation - lips, tongue, soft palate, lower jaw. Good diction and sonority of the voice depend on how clearly, quickly and consistently it works.

When practicing in front of a mirror, make sure that only the organs of articulation take part in the exercise, and the nose, forehead and eyes remain motionless. Do each exercise slowly and smoothly.

1. On the count of "one", lower your lower jaw about two fingers. Hold this position for a count of two-six. Close your mouth slowly.

2. Lower your lower jaw and slowly move it to the right and left.

3. Lower the lower jaw, slowly push it forward and return to its original position.

4. The mouth is closed, the lips are closed. At the expense of "one", stretch your lips to the sides, exposing your teeth and, as it were, pronouncing the sound "iii". Hold your lips in this position for a count of two or three. On the count of "four-five", stretch your lips forward with a tube. On the count of "six-seven" stretch your lips to the sides.

Some psychologists can only determine the character of a person by his voice. Find out what is more important for you family or career, whether you are prone to alcoholism and much more. A specially designed test includes singing, verbal description of the sounds and words heard, etc. Studies have shown that even the fears experienced in childhood influence the voice of an adult.

Courageously endure all hardships people with deep and resonant voice. Self-confident, they trust people and are usually kind to those around them.

Severe trials were in the life of a person with sharp voice. Now he is looking for solace in a solid position at a serious job.

Subject to outbursts of anger, a rude and callous person is the owner harsh, loud and screaming voice.

Explosive the tone of people who want to stand out among others, to excel in something. It can also indicate heart disease.

Arrogant, ironic and cold subjects have a voice unpleasantly harsh.

Whistling "s" shows fear.

From birth, people with talents and a sense of beauty have melodic voice.

Owners sharp and lingering voices are hard to move. Their thoughts flow slowly, and they are constantly dissatisfied with something.

Remember your lisping acquaintances - cunning, false and arrogant. They can be good employees, but never occupy leadership positions.

Lack of energy and will to live in men with quiet and hoarse voice.

Fuzzy, stuttering speech is usually the result of childhood neuroses. A person who repeats or swallows syllables or words lacks the concentration of the mind, but his ideas are diverse and he knows how to adapt.

Mental imbalance can cause weakness of the vocal cords and "lack of voice".

I love to laugh, especially to neigh.

Did you pay attention to your laughter? Are you giggling, squealing, growling, or is your laughter accompanied by the silliest expression on your face?

Haha. Open laughter. It can be high, like a bell ringing, or low, deep bass. This is how sincere, friendly people laugh.

Hehe. Be careful. Such deliberate or ironic laughter in those who feel their inferiority in some way.

Hee hee. Hypocritical laughter. This is how young, not yet self-confident people laugh. Or young people, those who are trying to seem not who they really are.

Ho-ho. So laughs one who is very frightened or pretends to be frightened well. Somewhat cutesy laughter.