Full Voice: The Art and Practice of Vocal Presence (BK Business) [Paperback]

Barbara McAfee (Author), Peter Block (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2011 | Series: BK Business

What is your voice saying about you?

Your voice matters. Based on your tone and expression alone listeners make up their minds about you before they even process the meaning of your words. And if what you say is at odds with how you say it, they can miss your message altogether.

Barbara McAfee offers a fun, tested method to harness the power of your voice to become a more effective and flexible communicator. She identifies five distinct vocal sounds—earth, fire, water, metal, and air—explaining how to cultivate each one. You’ll learn how to use your voice to support the meaning and message you want to convey. Using this book along with her free online practice videos you’ll experience an authentic shift in how you express yourself – and how you listen to others as well. You’ll discover how opening your full voice connects you to sources of untapped potential, power, and aliveness.
 

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Full Voice:

“I’ve worked side by side with Barbara for many years and witnessed the brilliance of her talents—her strong, soaring voice that she so skillfully uses to encourage others to find their voices. I’m so grateful she’s written this book so that many more people may discover the gift of giving voice.”
—Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership and the New Science and Perseverance and coauthor of Walk Out Walk On

“The Tibetans speak of body, mind, and voice, rather than body, mind, and spirit. This book offers wise guidance for opening our voices—and spirits—to their full expression.”
—Eric Utne, founder, Utne Reader

“A practical and inspirational guide to how we can more fully bring our voice into the world. Barbara McAfee offers tangible ways in which we can strengthen and express our authentic voice.”
--Angeles Arrien, Ph.D., cultural anthropologist and author of The Second Half of Life
 

About the Author

Barbara McAfee is a musician, coach and consultant with over twelve years of experience in organizational change. She has brought her music to such clients as Best Buy, The Coca-Cola Company, the YMCA, Wells Fargo as well as to numerous wellness events, colleges, and private functions. She is the songstress for Meg Wheatley’s Women’s Leadership Revival Tour, travels and performs with Peter Block, and is active in the Heartland Circle’s gatherings in Minnesota and California. Barbara has produced 5 CDs as an independent producer working with the finest musicians in the Twin Cities.

Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (October 3, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1605099228
• ISBN-13: 978-1605099224
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #90,330 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #100 in Books > Education & Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Speech

More About the Author

Barbara has firsthand experience with the transformational power of the voice. The paralyzing stage fright and chronic vocal problems that plagued her when she began performing in her 20s have been replaced with ease and joy she could not have imagined possible.

In her twenty years as a voice coach, she's helped a wide variety of people - including leaders, coaches, consultants, physicians, shower singers, and teenagers -- to "find their voice," whatever that means to them. She synthesizes her experience in her book Full Voice: The Art & Practice of Vocal Presence ( Berrett-Koehler Publishers), due out on October 3, 2011.
Barbara studied extensively in the United States, France, and Canada with members of the Roy Hart Centre. She has also pursued vocal studies with other teachers.

Groups all over North America invite her to their conferences, retreats, and workplaces to incite radical aliveness through song and sound. Rooted in 12 years experience as an organizational development consultant, her music explores the rich territory of change, community, vitality and balance.

She was "the band" for The Women's Leadership Revival Tour with Meg Wheatley. She composed and recorded the theme song for the 15-city tour. She also appears with speaker and author Peter Block.

As an independent artist, Barbara has made six recordings of her music. Barbara is also the founder of the Morning Star Singers, a group of volunteers who bring songs of comfort and healing to people in hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes.

A native Minnesotan, she now lives across the street from the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Down-to-earth advice for anyone who speaks for a living October 4, 2011

By Dean Miller

Format:Paperback

I teach.
I speak at conferences.
I do some consulting.
I write, and read my writing.
And I HATE my voice.
I met McAfee at a media conference last month and bought a pre-release copy of the book on the strength of her presentations.
She has magnificent vocal presence herself and she wasn't always that way, which puts a lot of weight behind her technigues. As they say in Texas: It ain't braggin' if ya done it.
Second, the vocal techniques and ideas about voice are clearly expressed, which is usually the mark of a writer who has done a lot of thinking about their material.
If you live by your voice, you'll find this book helpful.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Your Voice Matters September 22, 2011

By Jean E. Leicester

Format:Paperback

I find this book utterly enthralling. The author's depth and breadth of understanding of voice in all its glorious hues and shadings sparks my curiosity and inspires deeper awareness of my own vocal presence and those around me. The book is really an invitation to the adventure of exploring our fullest voices, how they impact others and the world. The book is remarkable in so many ways.

First, it's practical and playful. Within its covers is useful information about how our voices matter on so many levels, personally and professionally. As a long-time educator and teacher educator, I recognized at some level that my voice mattered when it came to being heard, letting students know when I cared, when I meant business, when I was being playful. I used it to give comfort for scraped knees and bruised egos, to inspire, to invite a love of learning. Yet, after finishing this book, I realize the voices I used were just the tip of the iceberg. Her vocal exercises invite us to be playful while exploring latent voices, experiencing amazing "a-has", unearthing ancient longings. I practice them over and over. What fun! And if truth be told, some of our most enduring learning erupts out of pure fun.

Second, this book is poetic and profound. It reads with the clarity and depth of a great poem or a great song. No surprise here. After all, Barbara is a gifted professional singer, songwriter, and poet. Each chapter poses the kinds of questions poets ask of themselves and their readers, the kind that provoke us to think about what makes us feel most alive, most human. Questions that cause seismic shifts in how we relate to the people and the world around us. Poet David Whyte tells us, ". . .anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you...." This book helped me realize that fully inhabiting the art of vocal presence makes us giants.

Third, the wise counsel in this book is liberating. Embracing our fullest voice frees the deepest expression of who we are. As a career academic, I see the value of this book for educators. Yet this book has such broad appeal to other fields. I cannot think of a single endeavor that can't be enhanced by our fullest vocal expression--physical, personal, metaphorical, or spiritual. The exercises in this book convinced the shy voices inside me that it was not only safe but vital to make themselves heard in the world.

A final word. Reading this book stirred memories of myself as a young girl who sang herself to sleep every night with made-up songs telling tales of her place in the world, of being fully alive--songs of imagination, joy, fear, pride in each new accomplishment, sorrows that followed every heartbreak--of being fully present to the world inside me and the one all around me. Now at the other end of my life, I find myself unleashing new songs. "The truth is, your song never leaves you, it's you who leave your song", says the refrain of No One Else Can Sing Your Song, written and recorded by Barbara. (Check it out on her website). Of course, song and vocal presence are synonomous. And the best part is, your song is waiting faithfully for you to return to its fullest expression. It's never too late. This enchanting book will help you make the return trip. Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring September 19, 2011

By L. kinkead

Format:Paperback

I found this book very inspiring and helpful. I have certainly taken my voice for granted. This book helped me understand how I can authentically use my voice to more effectively support what I am trying to communicate. I found the book so accessible and enjoyable to read. The author clearly speaks from the heart and brings whole new dimensions to the often unsung (sorry bad pun)hero that is our voice. Thank you Barbara McAfee for making me much more conscious of this potentially powerful part of me.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn to "inhabit your voice." Buy this book. September 30, 2011

By R. Prieve

Format:Paperback

This is a great book for those of us trying to "reclaim our voice." Its emphasis on vocal presence, not just voice technique specific to speech or singing, really gives depth to the ideas being put forward. The "5 Elements Framework" teaches us to pay attention to the inner landscape of the voice in the same way we pay attention to our external persona--how we present ourselves to the world each day. Barbara's point is that when we integrate these inner and outer aspects, we can have an impact on our world and relationships that we couldn't have imagined.

For those of us who need context in order to make sense of why we are going to try something new, Barbara cites many examples where vocal limitations are problematic and how dramatic and positive it can be when the limitations are overcome with these techniques. The exercises contained within the book (augmented by the online videos!) offer very practical ways to get in touch with and strengthen those aspects of our voice that we may have restricted for a variety of reasons. This increases our palette of choices to use our voice for maximum impact, whether for showing passion, commanding authority, offering comfort.

Well-intentioned self-help books have often put me off because the author's advice giving has a tone of "talking at" rather than talking to or guiding. No problem here. Barbara's greatest strength is her tone of compassionate encouragement--suggesting (often with humor) rather than directing--within a framework of practical exercises to expand and improve the voice.

Highly recommended!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting in touch with your vioce. November 18, 2011

By Andrinamarie

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I was thinking of using my voice. Interesting? I have a soft voice and often times sense that I am not heard. This could be because I'm not audible or I do not communicate with intention. I received an email from Barbara McAffie to let me know that she will be in a city near where I live. This was so exciting for me as I did not know how to begin my journey with my voice - or what will I do with my new skills. Well, Barbara McAffee answered all my questions, skepticism, etc. She has helped in my pursuit of obtaining exactly what I needed and sense this book will help many others: whether it is for singing, presentations, or in the field of stage work and generally in conversation.