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114 of 117 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good advice, if you follow it confidently, February 8, 2004
By A Customer
First of all, you do not need to purchase and read all of Dr. Cooper's books. "Change Your Voice, Change Your Life" has the same useful material as "Stop Committing Voice Suicide" or "Winning With Your Voice." I know, since I have read all three. If you want to learn Dr. Cooper's methods for vocal improvement, read any one of them.Dr. Cooper provides encouragement and instruction to anyone who is dissatisfied with his or her voice. He encourages a respect for individuality. He urges us not to fret over whether our voices are "too high" or "too low." The voice that sounds best for you is your own "natural voice," which largely means a voice at your natural pitch. Dr. Cooper teaches you how to find your natural pitch. He also stresses the importance of proper breathing. For him, proper "breath support" is achieved through diaphragmatic breathing, as it is generally termed. A few years ago, when I first read "Change Your Voice, Change Your Life," I did all of the exercises to the best of my understanding. However, I never was sure that I was doing them correctly. I wished that Dr. Cooper was in the room with me, telling me whether I was doing the exercises properly, and correcting me if necessary. Eventually, I consulted with Dr. Cooper at his office in Los Angeles, for a considerable fee. As it turns out, I was doing the exercises correctly, all along. If you try the exercises, do so with confidence that you understand them, and that you are doing them correctly. The books' instructions are simple. Don't imagine that they are more difficult than they are. Here's some advice for men who think their natural pitch is "too high," and who lower the pitch so as to produce a sound they consider more masculine or authoritative. When you artificially speak at a pitch that is lower than your natural pitch, you lose resonance. The result is a voice that is thin or weak, a voice that makes you sound depressed or lifeless. You need to speak at your natural pitch, even if you feel sure that your natural pitch is "too high." By speaking at your natural pitch, you restore resonance to your voice. As a result, you sound more vital and confident. Paradoxically, a listener may mistake this sound for a lower pitch. In reality, the pitch is higher than your affected pitch, but the sound is so much better. Resonance makes all the difference.
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by Morton Cooper
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