I listened to a recording of my voice the other day and was horrified! I sounding exactly like my aunt! I was all carefully spoken and quite high pitched, and my laugh was awful. This is not what I thought I sounded like!
I'm hoping that a recording distorts the voice a bit. I thought my voice was lower, and if it isn't I am going to have to practice speaking in to my chest a bit more. The voice I heard was rather poncey, and sounded more like a young child than someone of my age. My laugh was quite low though, not the fabulous peal of sound I thought it was. My illusion of myself has been shattered quite dramatically.
At work we have to make tanoy announcements sometimes, and I really must try to lower my voice a bit. When you make the call you can actually hear yourself in the background. It's rather disconcerting, and sort of makes an echo as you speak in to the telephone microphone. The first time I heard myself I thought 'who the hell is that'. Then my next thought was 'oh my gosh it's me. Do I really sound like that?'
I wonder if other people hear your voice like you do yourself? How would you find out? I think I sound rather pretentious actually, and that is not how I want to come across. You know, that 'little miss know it all' that you want to shove in a separate room so you can't hear her. Don't deny it. We all know someone like that! I listen to my colleagues at work and their voices sound more measured than mine. On the recordings I've surreptitiously made of my parents they sound just like I hear them anyway. Maybe my mother's accent is a little more pronounced, but apart from that they sound just as I expect. It's their voices that I love and want to keep alive. My brother sounds the same on the recording, and so does his laugh. The only conclusion I can come to is that I do actually sound like a slightly nasal ten year old girl! How horrific!
In desperation I've returned to good old Google to type in the search bar 'does a recording of your voice sound like you'. Sad isn't it? Still the initial answer was what I wanted -
...........when you hear your voice on a recording, it usually sounds higher and weaker than you think it should. Don't worry if your voice sounds funny to you on a recording. Everyone experiences the same thing. Just because it sounds funny and different to you doesn't mean other people hear it that way.
Phew. That's okay then. But hang on, maybe not. Maybe I do actually sound like a recording, because the next information on google said this -
The good news: There's evidence that suggests that while you may prefer the sound of your voice as it sounds in your head, the people around you probably prefer the sound of your voice as it exists in the real world. The mere-exposure effect, after all, works both ways.
Oh dear. I really do sound like the recording. Apparently it's all to do with our bones in our head. That's why our voices sound deeper than other people hear. But how does that work when I can hear other people around me with deeper voices than I have? Gosh I really don't like my voice now! wonder if I can practice speaker deeper. Right now as I write this I am actually speaking out loud in a deep voice! It sound weird but maybe I will try it on a recording, ha ha? Watch this space...….
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