“I learned in school that most people speak in a higher register than normal because of tension. So the trick is to relieve the tension.”
–Morgan Freeman
He’s right, you know. Most people use a much higher and tinnier sound than they were designed to do. It’s because we hold a great deal of physiological tension in our throats. It comes from daily stressors and, unfortunately, builds up over time. Making it worse as you get older.
Morgan Freeman’s cure is to start yawning. “Yawn a lot,” he says.
Want to sound like Morgan Freeman? Use a full, relaxed, resonant voice.
Yawning is one of the techniques that I do with my Speaking Voice students. Yawning is your body’s natural way of eliminating tension from the vocal mechanism. But that’s Morgan Freeman. He’s a cool cat. Most people need a bit more in the relaxation department.
As we progress through our lives, we put ourselves into increasingly challenging situations.
Speaking, in general, is quite complex & challenging–not to mention speaking to higher-ups, giving presentations, dealing with confrontational people, you name it.
And what happens when we are placed in those situations? Our bodies go into fight or flight. One of the characteristics of fight or flight is that your throat closes up. Literally. closes. up. The muscles get tense and your speaking ability is limited.
So if you want to sound like Morgan Freeman you’ll eliminate the tension in your throat.
The best thing to do is take The Voice Spa online video course. It’ll take you through all the relaxation exercises, teach you to have a full, resonant voice, and teach you to be concise & persuasive.
Morgan Freeman hits the nail on the head when he advises relaxation.
- Eliminate tension from your vocal mechanism. You can do this by yawning and doing these relaxation exercises. Yawning is great for an exercise but doesn’t work when you’re in a meeting or job interview.
- Use abdominal breathing. Practice abdominal breathing for increasing increments of time. Abdominal breathing means your stomach goes out when you breathe in, and your stomach goes in when you breathe out.
- Use air for speech. Remember, voice is air molecules that vibrate. Here’s how to use air for speech.
- Don’t speak “in your throat.” Keep your throat open while your voice resonates through it. Keeping your throat open keeps your mind open to conveying your ideas. It’s why when people say they’re “choked up” they can’t speak. This is how to keep your throat open.
We’ve been training people to speak with their best voice for 25 years. Let us help you! Click on the blue box at the bottom of the page for a free consultation and we’ll set you on your personal path to having a voice that drips with poise and presence.
Why You Need to Sound Like Morgan Freeman
Many studies have indicated that speaking with a lower voice correlates directly with a person’s success. Remember that the voice you hear in your head is much lower in pitch than the one that others hear. That’s because you hear your voice through bone conduction, and others hear your voice through air conduction. The molecules in solids are more tightly packed than those in air, so the voice sounds thicker and more resonant.
You don’t necessarily have to have a voice that’s much lower in pitch, but you need to have one that has a fuller resonance. Most people have a hard time distinguishing between the two.
A full, resonant voice is one that comes from a very relaxed vocal mechanism.
Please do not fear that eliminating tension from your vocal mechanism is challenging. It is not! Not only will it merely take about 6 minutes per day, but it will soon make you feel relaxed mentally as well as physically. You’ll get clarity and calmness. Nervousness during public speaking situations will dissipate. You’ll be in control of what comes out of your mouth. The ultimate comeback will be available to you at the moment instead of three days later. 🙂
Being completely relaxed brings you clarity & calmness.
How Not to Sound Like Morgan Freeman
Use a tight, tinny voice. Thin voices don’t travel well, and they don’t get respect.
So we’ve got significant hurdles to overcome when people don’t hear our message easily and can’t automatically label us as authoritative and credible. We have to work much harder to persuade our team to love our ideas.
Tight, thin voices lead to vocal fry, upspeak, and the excessive use of filler words.
How to Sound Like Morgan Freeman
- Eliminate tension from your vocal mechanism. You can do this by yawning and doing relaxation exercises. Here are some other easy relaxation exercises. Tension sits in your throat and causes your voice to sound thin or have glottal fry or upspeak. But you can change that. And the first step is to eliminate the tension. Yawning works but only during the practice phase. You can’t yawn your way through an interview to keep your throat open. So learn these relaxation exercises so you can be habitually relaxed.
- Master the use of abdominal breathing. Practice abdominal breathing for increasing increments of time throughout your life. In meetings, chatting with friends, interviews, etc.
- Speech is air molecules that vibrate. That’s what all sound is, molecules vibrating. You want to master using air for speech in all areas of your life. Here’s an article detailing how to use air for speech.
- Don’t speak “in your throat.” Keep your throat open while your voice resonates through it. Instead, allow the air to reverberate throughout your entire vocal tract–from your lungs to your mouth and beyond.
9 Secret Steps to Influencing Others
Want to be more influential? We all want to communicate our most important messages in a way that encourages others to take action. Whether that action is voting for our candidate or picking up milk from the store, the words we use and how we speak play a huge role in getting the job done.
So yes, if you want to get ahead in this world, you need to improve the way you are perceived. Make it easy for people to consider you an authority when you’re in your wheelhouse. You merely have physiological tension preventing you from using your true voice. Morgan Freeman knows it, and now so do you. 🙂
If you need a little extra help, we’ve got the Voice Spa, a course to help you sound like Morgan Freeman.
How to make a cool, Morgan Freeman voice a habit in your life.
Practice + self-assessment make perfect
People say practice practice practice. I do not. To improve yourself you must practice, self-assess, practice, self-assess. You can’t make it better if you don’t know what’s wrong. Stop being afraid of recording yourself and do it. (Love you!) Then when you listen, be a scientist. Listen for mistakes. Only then can you improve them.
Let us help you by clicking on the blue box below to set up a consult!
Watch this video of Ita Olsen: Why am I Not Automatically an Incredible Speaker
Very simple and concise! I’ll be coming back to this!
Amazing i can’t believe it!!! I’ve been practicing for only 15 minutes, and somehow i ended up narrating an hollywood prison drama..!! Answered the phone and my mom thought i was black!!
5/5 will recommend
Thank you, Bent!
Please do!
Everything I read and watch on the internet about improving my voice is the opposite of this. Why does no one know about this? I mean, except for Morgan Freeman 🙂
I feel the same way, Krista. Yes, almost everything out there essentially teaches people to have a very tight voice. Quite the opposite of Morgan Freeman!
Even as a child, I found Morgan Freeman’s voice mesmerizing. I would love to hear myself speak in a full, resonant voice just like his!
You can! It won’t be just like his 🙂 But it’ll be full & resonant.
Thanks for this write up, I’m going to try these tips but my problem is that I cringe every time I hear my own voice! Oh and thanks for the yawning and relaxation exercises; I need to try that too.
Hi Lola, thanks for your comment. We have so much tension in our lives it’s no wonder our bodies tense up. And no one teaches us how to communicate! (Except me!) So please don’t be hard on yourself!
I wish you good luck and if you need any help, you can set up a consult with me by scrolling to the bottom of any of my blogs and clicking on the blue box 🙂