Sometimes its quite a process discovering the natural inclination of the voice of an individual. Allison is a music major at the local university as an instrumentalist (cello) with an early music focus. She has been coming to me for voice lessons since last spring. Allison's sense of self expresses vocally in a dark, husky speaking voice. Imagine both our surprise when we began to discover that her voice is happiest up in the high (coloratura) range! Now, her process is as much a personal journey as a vocal one; she has to re-think her sense of self to one that includes a higher voice.
So often, our speaking voice color that we choose is a part of the "persona" that we adopt in order to deal with the world: lower, darker speaking voice connotes authority or "don't mess with me"; higher, lighter speaking voice connotes gentleness or vulnerability. A low voiced speaker will raise the pitch of their voice to speak to animals and children; a high voiced speaker will drop their voice when issuing a command. If the speaking voice color choice is at odds with the natural instrument and is sustained over a period of time, the result is fatigue and a "husky" or "crackly" quality.
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