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The Power of Your Teaching Voice

Why and How to Cultivate It

As a teacher, your voice is more than just a tool for giving instructions—it’s the medium through which you inspire, guide, and connect with your students. Whether you’re addressing a classroom of young learners, leading a seminar for adults, or presenting a lecture to a large audience, your teaching voice shapes the energy of the room, enhances comprehension, and communicates your passion and authority. Despite this, many teacher training programs worldwide fail to address vocal training, leaving educators without the tools to use their voices effectively and sustainably.

It’s surprising to learn that fewer than 5% of teacher education programs include comprehensive voice work. Of those, only a small fraction provide practical training on using the voice in a healthy and impactful way. This gap in training is concerning. How can teachers deliver engaging lessons and maintain longevity in their careers without understanding their most powerful tool?

This is why cultivating your teaching voice is essential—not just for the success of your lessons, but also for the longevity of your career!

Develop Your Teaching Voice in a Healthy and Sustainable Manner

Teachers rely on their voices every day, often for hours at a time. Whether you’re guiding students through a complex topic or managing a bustling classroom, your teaching voice is constantly working. However, speaking for prolonged periods can strain your vocal cords, leading to fatigue, hoarseness, or even long-term damage if not cared for properly.

The Importance of Vocal Health

Prioritising vocal health is as essential as maintaining overall physical well-being. By understanding how to care for and use your teaching voice effectively, you can:

1. Prevent Vocal Strain: Consistently using your voice in ways that strain it can lead to chronic issues. Proper vocal techniques can keep your voice strong and resilient over time.

2. Enhance Communication: A clear, well-supported voice fosters engagement and understanding in your students, creating a better learning environment.

3. Boost Your Confidence: When you feel secure in your vocal abilities, you can focus on delivering impactful lessons without worrying about your voice giving out.

Teaching is a demanding profession, but vocal health is often overlooked. By incorporating vocal care into your routine, you can ensure that your teaching voice remains a strong and reliable tool throughout your career.

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How to Train Vocal Confidence as a Teacher

Building confidence in your teaching voice takes awareness, practice, and a willingness to experiment. A confident teaching voice is one that feels natural, projects clearly, and aligns with your teaching style. Here’s how to get started:

1. Understand Your Voice

The first step to developing confidence in your teaching voice requires understanding how your voice mechanically works.  Get to know how your voice functions and what techniques will help you use it in a way that is healthy and sustainable for you.

This includes learning to project your voice without straining it and finding a tone that feels comfortable for extended periods of speaking. Prioritise training techniques that teach you to:

  • Breathe efficiently to support your voice.
  • Project without shouting or straining.
  • Find a vocal pitch and tone that feels comfortable for long periods.

2. Adapt to Different Scenarios

Your teaching voice needs to be flexible, adapting to different classroom settings and student needs. After gaining a solid understanding of your voice, you can begin experimenting with modifications.

You might want to use a softer, slower voice for some moments in class, when you wish to bring the group energy down into a calmer, focused space. Whilst conversely, there will be other times when you need to express and embody a more direct, present and clear tone.

The key is to make these adjustments in a way that feels authentic to you and aligns with the energy of the class. For example:

  • A softer, slower voice can foster calm and focus during quiet reading sessions or discussions.
  • A more energetic, dynamic tone can motivate and engage students during active lessons or group activities.

5 Tips to Cultivate Your Teaching Voice

To find and develop your teaching voice, it’s important to experiment with different vocal qualities and become more aware of how your voice sounds to your students. Here are five tips to help you develop a confident and effective teaching voice:

1. Change Your Rhythm: The pace of your speech can dramatically influence how your message is received. Try changing things up and observe how your students react to you. For example:

  • For complex topics, slow down to give students time to absorb the information.
  • For interactive or energetic sessions, pick up the pace to maintain engagement.

2. Use Pauses Effectively: Pauses can emphasise key points and give students time to process what you’re saying. Don’t be afraid to embrace silence—it’s a powerful tool for clarity and impact.

3. Experiment with Pitch: Varying the pitch of your teaching voice adds texture and keeps your delivery engaging. A monotone delivery can make even the most exciting topic feel dull, so play with higher or lower tones to emphasise important ideas.

4. Adjust Volume Strategically: Changes in volume can add dynamic range to your teaching voice and the way your students perceive you. A louder voice can express enthusiasm and energy, while a softer tone can evoke a sense of calm. Don’t be afraid to play with volume as a way of expressing the different energies in your class. Try:

  • Speaking softly to draw attention and create intimacy.
  • Using a louder tone to project authority or to generate excitement or anticipation.

5. Refine Your Intonation: Intonation, or the melody of your voice, affects how your instructions are perceived. Try raising your pitch slightly before a pause and lowering it at the end of a sentence to make your cues easier to follow. Recording yourself and reflecting on how your intonation feels can help you fine-tune this aspect of your voice. For example:

  • A slight rise in pitch can signal a question or encourage curiosity.
  • A steady drop in tone can convey certainty and finality.
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Embodying Your Teaching Voice

Once you’ve developed a strong foundation, the next step is to embody your teaching voice authentically. This means using your voice in a way that feels true to who you are and aligns with your teaching style.

1. Get Creative: Think of your voice as an instrument and experiment with how you use it.

Pace for Presence: Slow down to encourage mindfulness or speed up to energise the room.

Volume for Impact: Use changes in volume to add variety and keep students attentive.

Pausing for Reflection: Strategic pauses can create moments of stillness and allow ideas to resonate.

2. Stay True to Yourself: Authenticity is key to building trust and connection with your students. Let your unique personality shine through your voice, and don’t be afraid to adapt your tone and energy to suit the mood of the class.

Owning Your Teaching Voice

Your voice is a powerful tool that has the ability to shape the experience of your class and create lasting connections with your students. By focusing on vocal health, developing vocal confidence, and embodying your voice in an authentic way, you can elevate your teaching and create classes that are both impactful and memorable. Remember, your students aren’t just coming to class for the sequence—they’re coming for you. Don’t hesitate to let your true voice shine through. When you use your voice with intention, care, and creativity, you can create a truly transformative experience for your students, one that keeps them coming back for more.

Steps to Activate Your Body Before Teaching

I recommend doing these short alignments and stretches just before doing the voice exercises below, to maximise your receptivity:

Stretch Your Body: I know you may not have a lot of time. That you may have just driven across town after your last class finished and are rushing through your sequence to prep before your next class… The thing is though, time isn’t borrowed, it’s created. So when you can, make a little time before your voice exercises to roll out your mat and do a few slow flows or sun salutations to warm up and activate your body consciousness. I recommend adding in a few side-stretches to engage your intercostal muscles as well as a few heart openers like camel to open up the chest area. 

Stretch Your Neck & Shoulders: To prepare for the voice exercises, stretch your neck by rolling your head forward in slow semi-circles from your left ear to your right ear and back again. I go through a much more detailed process on this in my online voice course. 

Correct Your Posture: Finally, before beginning the simple voice exercises below, sit for a moment in meditation position and focus on your alignment. Our voice is within us so correct posture is crucial to be able to use our voices correctly whilst teaching. Check that your spine is straight, your belly is soft, your shoulders are relaxed and gentle roll down your back, your throat is open, your head lifts and both your jaw and tongue are relaxed. 

Start the Free Voice Course Now!

Unlock your most authentic voice and use it with confidence, power & impact in any situation.

Start Now!

Voice Exercises for Teachers

This is a 10-minute routine I encourage all the teachers who train their voices with me to do before teaching a class:

1. Align with your Breath: Place one hand on your heart and the other on your belly. Slowly breathe in and out. As you do, lengthen both your inhalation and exhalation. Imagine they are the waves of the ocean, gently rising and falling. Feel yourself relax and mindfully connect to your intention for your class. Imagine the sequences you will take your students through, visualize the energy of the room and how they will feel. Visualise how you will use your teaching voice to consciously guide the space, and feel how this feels. 

2. Activate your Breath: Sit in a comfortable position and begin to deepen and lengthen your breath. Breathe into your pelvis and as you breathe out, allow your body to soften any tension that you may be holding.

3. Activate your Voice: Warm up your voice using “brr” and “nn” trills. Vocalise each up and down the length of your vocal range. If you haven’t made a “brr” sound before, imagine the sound you make when you’re very cold. 

4. Position your voice: Speaking involves resonance. When we resonate with ease, our speech comes out easily. We have projection power without needing force. One of the best exercises for resonance is to hum. Sound out a “hmm” on a comfortable tone for you within your speaking range. Imagine your vocal energy shines like a halo above and through the top of your head. Imagine it vibrating on your forehead and up through your skull. If you’d like to see me guide you through this and the other exercises I’ve shared here, take a look at my free Online Voice Course where I explain all of this in a lot more detail 🙂

5. Practice a Tongue-Twister: Try saying Chaturanga Dandasana a number of times over. Focus on how you articulate the phrase and imagine it rolling with ease off of your tongue. 

6. Visualise the Outcome: Whilst reconnecting to your intention for the class and the vision of how you would like to sound and how you would like your students to feel, practice saying some of your teaching instructions.

7. Drink Beforehand: Have something to drink just before you begin teaching to lubricate your mouth. If your voice feels dry or tired, have some hot water nearby. Inhaling the steam is the most direct way to quickly hydrate your vocal cords. 

8. Be genuinely yourself! When you understand how to use your voice correctly, take the time to warm up your voice before teaching and align with a clear intention for your class, your voice will flow.

Never be afraid to share your authentic self with your students. That is what makes you unique and what makes your teaching style unique. Nobody wants a robot! You are unique, your teaching voice is unique, and the world needs to hear what you have to say!

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