Here in Massachusetts, we have a gubernatorial race that is an object lesson for students of public speaking everywhere.  The two top candidates (out of 4), Deval Patrick and Charlie Baker, both suffer from a common – but curable – malady of public speakers:  nasal voices.  Research over the years indicates that people dislike nasal voices more than any other kind of voice, so I can’t wait to see how will voters respond to this double-barreled insult to their ears on voting day.   

You can hear (and see) them here:

(You get a contrast with a less nasal voice, because Tim Cahill, who is a distant third in the polls, speaks second in the clip and is quite resonant.) 

If you do any public speaking as part of your job, the two frontrunners are wonderful examples of how not to do it – at least in terms of voices.  You can learn from their (bad) example. 

What causes a nasal voice and what can be done about it?  There are two issues:  timbre and pitch. 

When you create sound with your voice, you’re basically pushing air through your vocal chords, causing them to vibrate.  If you draw in and out only a little air through your nose, your voice will sound nasal.   If you draw in more air through your lungs, by expanding your belly and supporting the inrush of air with your abdominal muscles, expanding your diaphragm, then you get a much more resonant sound on your out breath, and one that is more pleasing to your fellow human beings. 

In the case of both Patrick and Baker, barring some sort of physical problem they haven’t revealed, they’re drawing too much air in through their noses and not supporting enough with their abdominals.  The result is that annoying nasal sound that has made this campaign seem inordinately long to voters in Massachusetts. 

It’s a problem many of us have to fight against, because so much of our days is spent sitting at desks hunched over computers.  That posture makes it hard to breathe deeply with the abdominals and diaphragm, and leads to nasal-sounding voices.  Patrick and Baker are typical of the era. 

Historically, politics favored nasal voices because the one good thing about them is that they carry.  They can be heard.  So in the era before amplification, nasal voices could carry a political message to the far corners of the outside gatherings (where the term “stump speech” came from) that were the norm. 

Today, we have radio, TV, and amplification, and the era prefers the more resonant. 

Which of the two candidates is worse?  It’s a close call, but Baker’s voice is a little worse than Patrick’s, and for the second issue that can bedevil voices:  pitch. 

Every voice has a natural resonance point.  Here’s how to determine yours.  Go to a keyboard.  Find the highest note you can comfortably hum, and the lowest.  For most people, those notes are about 2 octaves apart, or about 16 notes.  Your natural resonance point is ¼ of the way up from the bottom of this range, or 4 white notes if your range is indeed 2 octaves (16 divided by 4 = 4). 

In Patrick’s case, he seems to be speaking at roughly his natural resonance point.  This mitigates the nasal quality of his voice somewhat.  But Baker’s voice is clearly pitched too high.  So his voice combines a nasal tone with high pitch and the result is a whine.  Again, this high, nasal voice would have been an asset running against Calvin Coolidge or Abraham Lincoln, but in the 21st Century, it’s a distinct disadvantage. 

Unless Baker is tone deaf, there’s no reason why he can’t test himself to find his vocal range and maximum resonance point.  He can then slowly lower his usual speaking pitch to that note.  And both candidates can learn to support their voices with good breathing technique.  A side benefit to the candidates is that they would find that their voices wouldn’t tire as quickly.   More importantly, perhaps, the voters of Massachusetts would be far happier listening to them speak. 

You can benefit from these two examples of how not to do it by testing to find your own natural resonance point, and ensuring that your voice is pitched most of the time on or around that note.  You’re going to go higher in pitch to indicate excitement, passion, or anger, and lower to increase your authority and conviction.  But when you’re conversing comfortably, you should be at or near your resonance point most of the time.  That gives your voice a pleasing, confident quality – and it also protects your vocal chords from damage.