Wish I can stop obsessing about the way my voice is

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K_Kelly
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10 Nov 2015, 8:27 pm

I have developed a self-criticism of how my voice sounds to others. It is very weird and nasally, and I'm truly afraid that the condition I have means that it cannot be treated. Lately, I've also began to stumble on my words. I feel like a ret*d "special" person whenever I can open my mouth. I want to sound smooth and articulate, but I don't know why I can't. The condition is similar to having cerebral palsy, but it's mild where other people with the rare condition are severely affected, so I'm not sure what is going on. Anyway, people will get a negative first glance at me because everyone takes everything at face value. I would hate needing to explain "what is wrong with me" to people I meet, my psychologist tells me that is what I need to do.

Please help with advice, I'm SOOOO scared... :(



EzraS
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10 Nov 2015, 8:59 pm

K_Kelly wrote:
I have developed a self-criticism of how my voice sounds to others. It is very weird and nasally, and I'm truly afraid that the condition I have means that it cannot be treated. Lately, I've also began to stumble on my words. I feel like a ret*d "special" person whenever I can open my mouth. I want to sound smooth and articulate, but I don't know why I can't. The condition is similar to having cerebral palsy, but it's mild where other people with the rare condition are severely affected, so I'm not sure what is going on. Anyway, people will get a negative first glance at me because everyone takes everything at face value. I would hate needing to explain "what is wrong with me" to people I meet, my psychologist tells me that is what I need to do.

Please help with advice, I'm SOOOO scared... :(


Sounds a little like my my severe dyspraxia which effects my speech and is kinda similar to CP.
I find that two things often happen in a situation like this. First it's easy to think your voice sounds worse than it is and most people hate the way their voice sounds. The second is ignoring people who don't have great voices and focusing on the ones that have the very best voices and setting the bar way too high.

This guy has a very nasal voice and he's a famous radio celebrity.



2wheels4ever
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12 Nov 2015, 12:32 am

I too have always cringed at the sound of my recorded voice playing back at me. Making my own musical compositions has sort of forced me to endure hearing it (since nobody ever seems to sing the lyrics the same way I hear them in my head when I write them) and I can always model my 'singing' style after singers who don't have a super-wide range. People like Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash went on to have lifelong careers based on their 'signature sound' of not the most expressive voices around, in the case of Dylan with mumbling a lot of the lyrics. Many many many people who the public regard as incredibly talented had to overcome speech issues. James Earl Jones stuttered badly in childhood, today when you hear Darth Vader or the CNN bumper you know instantly who it is.

Practice making an audiobook or study a foreign language to stretch your vocal abilities. Another big thing is particularly in the US, many people in the broadcast business strive to affect a neutral "American" accent to the point of not being able to differentiate between a Texan and a New Yorker. There may even be content on UToob.


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