The impact of the voice

Have you ever ended a phone call with someone you had never met and then thought: ‘I like this person, I would like to meet them in person…’?

Because our society is flooded with visual stimuli, we are often unaware of how noises, sounds or indeed voices affect us. But as soon as we have to do without our eyesight, it becomes obvious all at once.

Do we not all picture what the person at the other end of the line might look like? And in most cases our mental image is not that far off.

Timbre

The human voice is an instrument, and its sound box is our body as a whole. Women have thinner vocal cords on average, which makes the voice higher. Men, by contrast, have thicker ones because of testosterone, which is why more bass is audible. Women usually speak more dynamically in pitch and volume, which also allows them to convey emotion better. Men tend to speak more monotonously and in a lower register, which makes them appear more matter-of-fact and competent. The timbre of our voice comes not only from our different vocal cords, though, but also from the anatomical cavities between throat and lips. These differ from person to person — almost like a fingerprint. Another important factor is posture and, with it, tension.

Character and message

What is fascinating is that from the tone, or rather the way the other person tells something, we learn a good deal about their state of mind, their situation and the intention behind the conversation. If the other person is not feeling well or is unsure, this shows in the voice as a thinner, more monotonous sound and as a falling melody towards the end of the sentences. If someone is convinced by what they are saying, they speak with more volume, stress important words and speak with more dynamics in order to place a clear message.

In most formats a professional voice over artist has to convince with correctly stressed and dynamically read texts, of course. In advertising in particular, that is the order of the day. But as soon as the voice over artist is asked to take on a role, the full range of variations in our voice opens up. All sorts of facets are called for, just as with an actor.

The ARD programme ‘Die Macht der Stimme’ embedded below shows the various aspects of the voice and how it is perceived in an impressive way. I can particularly recommend the first part, which is about the impact of the voice. To my mind, a brilliant programme from the public broadcaster.