McCallion (1998) mentions that an actor must be able to fill up the entire theatre with the voice and that the voice reflects what is physically and mentally going on with the speaker. Therefore, to produce any sort of voice and speech, it is important that we prepare ourselves physically and mentally.
Physically, all muscles in the body are linked together so any physical injury will gradually produce strain on the voice even if we do not notice. This much is verified by McCallion, as the first part of his book claims that 'Most of the things which go wrong with the voice do not begin with the vocal organs' and 'most people actively interfere with the way their voices should work, and that interference begins the way they use the body as a whole.'. Therefore, it makes sense that the first step to supporting our voice should start with protecting our body.
It is widely known that to prevent injuries, one should always take warm-ups and stretches seriously before any form of physical activity. Conducting proper warm-ups would also improve the blood circulation of our body, thus making it easier for us to move away from any potentially dangerous situation. A good warm-up begins with breathing properly, which also helps to directly protect our voice. To breathe properly, our ribs should be free to move upwards and outwards without any pain in the process of breathing in. From this action alone, we already see that having upper torso injuries and back injuries will certainly impede the movement of the rib cage and indirectly create a problem for breathing. Going by the same reasoning, even having an injured toe can lead to a short gasp each time the toe gets simulated. Multiple short gasps will cause us to take in cold, unfiltered air through our mouth, causing our throat to dry up and that affects our voice!
McCallion also describes how a baby can cry, wail and scream for hours without losing their voice, while enthusiastic football fans may just lose their voices just after a few matches. A baby uses its voice as a response to anything it perceives as a danger while a football fan cheers in response to each scored goal. Since when a goal will be scored is relatively unpredictable and the football fan may be distracted by other activities that went on before the goal is scored, the body is not prepared to give a long and loud cheer abruptly. This is thus the difference between being mentally prepared and not mentally prepared to produce a voice.
In short, we must get ourselves warmed up and practice more before a speech so that our bodies will be in the optimal condition to support our voice for the speech.
McCallion, M. (1998). The Voice Book: For Everyone Who Wants to Make the Most of Their Voice. London: Faber and Faber Limited, pp. 3–35, 39–50.
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