Tapping King Kong for a Deeper Voice
MOST EVERYONE CAN TALK in a deeper voice on purpose, but it usually sounds a bit forced. So how can a guy control that innate ability? How can you speak in a lower, richer, fuller voice? There’s surgeries for this, it turns out, but I don’t have a seriously high-pitched voice, nor am I a transexual woman looking for a more manly voice — so I’m not letting a doc with a knife slice into my vocal cords.
Still, how do you get there?
A few months ago, I took an elbow to the throat playing basketball, and that made me talk with a deep voice for a few days. Nice, actually. Little gravelly. But damn, it hurt.
Elbows to the throat — effective yet painful, temporary, and potentially deadly. So those are out, too. Can’t recommend it.
If you’ve got a lot of sulphur hexafluoride handy, you can suck that into your lungs, but like helium’s high-pitched effect, sulphur hexafluoride’s effect is short-lived, too.
Better Than a Voice Coach?
In my search for some excellent starting steps, without shelling out for a personal voice coach, either for acting or singing, and without spending more than a few bucks on a book, I found quite a few tips for warming up your voice and getting more control, as well as some ideas on projecting and speaking through your diaphragm instead of your head.
But the most interesting exercise, which seems to be geared just for speaking in a deeper tone, seems so simple, I almost dismissed it. Apparently, it’s an old broadcaster’s technique. Basically, all you do is say “Ding dong, king kong, bing bong” a few times, and boom, you’ll get a deeper voice.
So I thought I’d give it a try. To measure the results, I spoke and recorded the first two sentences of my previous post. I tried to speak as naturally as possible, without thinking about it much. Then I did the exercise. Then I recorded the first two sentences again, trying hard just to speak naturally without trying to talk in a deeper voice.
The second time around my voice seemed deeper and richer, but I wasn’t sure — maybe I just wanted it to work. So I listened to the recorded file with the first, then second recordings.
I about fell out of my chair. It freakin’ worked. Better than I expected, in fact.
Here’s a link to my sample recording — it’s not a high-quality recording, but listen to it. I’m still astounded at the difference:
My Voice Test Before and After the Ding Dong, King Kong, Bing Bong Exercise
Is that crazy? Yeah, that’s crazy. Especially after you read the full exercise, which takes all of three minutes:
Part I
In a slow, clear, and natural voice, say:
“Ding dong, king kong, bing bong”
As you say each world, hold your tone on the “ng” in each word for a bit, and when you come to the last word, bong, hold the “ng” sound for as long as you can.
Do this for JUST 3 REPS, gradually deepening your voice with each rep.
Do the 3 rep exercise for just one week, then move on to part two.
WARNING: Apparently, if you overdo this exercise, you can actually damage your vocal cords. Before you say, “Yeah, right, whatever,” consider this: I’ve done this exercise for just two days in a row, and only the 3 reps. After each session, I could feel my vocal cords — they were a bit sore. I’m not kidding. So yeah, without understanding how this works, exactly, I’m a believer.
Part II
This time, while you recite the “Ding dong, king kong, bing bong” words, tilt your head back and look at the ceiling. Apparently this stretches your vocal cords and your vocal muscle group even more. (I also ran into some similar advice online about tilting your head back and talking in a deep voice; it might work, but I’ll still to this exercise. Besides, damaging your voice is not the goal here.)
For this exercise, do JUST 2 REPS per day for a week.
So what’s next?
I don’t know. It’s unclear if you’ll have a deeper voice after two weeks permanently; if this will teach you to relax your vocal cords or relax them easily, or if you’ll need to do the exercise before you need to tap into your deeper voice. Say, job interviews, dates, podcasts, karaoke night, parent-teacher conferences, Xbox 360 live game play. . . .
I will, of course, report back on my own findings.