Customer Reviews

The Voice Book: Caring For, Protecting, and Improving Your Voice

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For a long time, I have been attracted to a strong, low and clear voice. I like especially the feelings of energy and confidence coming from the person with that voice. The Voice Book by Kate DeVore and Starr Cookman is a well-written book that helped me understand how to get the voice. There are a good amount of easy and simple exercises in the book that make you feel a quality change in your voice. The book mainly educates us about details such as body alignment, low breathing, opening up a vocal tract and forward resonance (vibration ). A few chapters are also spent on methods and tips on how to protect and maintain voice. In addition, I particularly like that fact that the authors do not forget to mention psychological factors such as confidence and approachability. These factors could influence your relaxation of your body, which in turn facilitates the physical quality.

While I was reading this book, I came to understand that a great quality of voice should be produced in a healthy and relaxed way. Some of us mistakenly try to take on a low tone by forcefully lowering your voice. This is a mistake. It could make your voice sound fake or, in a worse case, injure your throat. A great voice, on contrary, can be achieved by "freeing your natural voice" with a little effort. This book shows how to do just that.

I picked up this book to learn to become better in communication. Having a greater sense of control over my voice allows me to communicate more delicately nuanced subtleties in social and business situations. "The Voice Book" was of great help for my specific purpose. But it will be as helpful for any other purpose since the book is written for anyone who cares about voice.

Finally, the book is accompanied by a CD. Just listening to the authors' voices, I was amazed by their powerful, beautiful and very clear voices. It just sounds as if there were a high quality stereo inside of their bodies. The moment I heard the voices, I just simply felt I got right people to rely on.

As a singing voice teacher of primarily classical musicians, I am thrilled to have such a unique book! I have had the pleasure of working with both Kate and Starr and find their professional knowledge and ebullient personalities bring a much-needed exuberance to an often complex and dry subject. In other words, with sections like "Free Your Neck and the Rest Will Follow", "True or False Vocal Folds?" and "You've Got the Moves", the authors have created a fun, easy-to-read text that is useful to all users of voice.

The wonderful exercises in the book, many of which I used with Kate in both speaking and singing voice coaching, are clearly explained, both in reading and via the accompanying CD, and when used as directed, will definitely improve one's vocal quality.

As a "voice nerd", I'm particularly pleased with the final chapter that gives additional details on technical information regarding vocal production. This chapter also covers a bit on the role of the voice teacher as a part of a voice care team; an essential part of a successful university vocal program.

I highly recommend this book for all professional voice users regardless of profession. I will be using this text in my undergraduate vocal pedagogy course next year in order to prepare our voice students to be better teachers and voice users.

As a speech language pathologist for over thirty years, I have read and used many voice books and manuals. This little book is a gold mine for professional voice users (singers, actors, teachers, attorneys, pastors, etc.)and for those who treat them. I heavily encourage my voice clients to buy it as an adjunct to - not as a substitute for - direct voice therapy. I bought it for local ENTs and one is recommending it to many of his patients. The book is quite user friendly and the CD is worth many times the cost of the book. The authors designed the CD quite effectively and present the exercies in such a light hearted way that they are not intimidating and are really enjoyable to complete. All for a little over $10.00!!!!

As it turns out "The Voice Book" is the book I've always been looking for, but never knew it. Since much of my career involves public speaking, I can't tell you how often a dry scratchy throat has made me want to pack it in early. If I had access to Kate DeVore and Starr Cookman's advice I could have saved myself many hours of hoarseness.

With commonsense, expertise and even humor, DeVore and Cookman cover every aspect of voice care, from tips on vocal strengthening to the science of why our vocal cords behave the way they do. There's more truly usable stuff here than in any other source I've come across. Included are numerous illustrations, exercises and (my favorite) comprehensive FAQ's. The audio CD included is the perfect supplement to the text.

"The Voice Book" definitely follows through on its subtitle, "Easy exercises and advice for anyone who speaks or sings for a living." I'm already noticing a difference.

I'm a salesman of scientific materials so I can spend hours day on the phone and give 2-5 presentations a week. This activity plus a history of seasonal allergies means my voice is often fatigued and ragged.

The book offers practical advice on how to improve your voice. It can be read from page one as a comprehensive guide, or use for reference to address specific issues.

I have recommended this book to several friends including other salesmen, two pastors, and several teachers.

When buying this book, be sure it comes with the CD. A friend purchased a used book that came without the CD, greatly reducing it's value.

I really appreciate the format of this book, which is easy to reference and makes a great addition to my library. I teach movement and physical theatre, and even though I have been doing this work for many years, I felt this book gave me a lot of clarity about voice and the body. I found it easy to incorporate this material into the material that I teach. I recently lead a workshop for dancers who wanted to improve their stage voices and this book was a valuable resource for me.

Interestingly, I choose the book for a teaching reference, but it has had a great influence on me personally. I am noticing that the author's approach to voice is helping me to be a better teacher... I am speaking more clearly to my students, and I am feeling a better and more confident embodied presence when I am speaking to a large group. This is not something that comes easily to me so I have enjoyed the insight and experience these author's have shared here. Highly recommended.

I teach voice & speech on the university level and with private students in all walks of life, and this is a great book for both! I appreciate how accessible the information is for some of my private clients (everything from actors to lawyers to teachers). One of the issues I have with most of the voice books out there is that they're so dry or technical that it feels like I'm punishing my clients/students to recommend a text. This one is a very easy and enjoyable read.

The great balance, though, is that it's very thorough with the basic ideas that voice users need to know, but I LOVE the extra chapter at the end: "Extra Technical Information." They made it all very usable, and then end it with all of the technical stuff that my students can get into if they want it.

I'm also blown away by how cheap it is with the CD included... This is a great book for people to start with.

I ordered every voice book that amazon sells. No I don't want to be a singer I just wanted to improve the sound of what I had because I have to become a teacher and will be a fully licenced on soon. I bought all the others and this is the one I liked best. It helped me the best out of all the others.
I spent hundreds and hundreds on the other books sold here and the cds.
This book gives confidence to people with naturally bad voices like me. It tells us how to make our naturally lacking resonance or shrill nasally voices as strong as can be. Teaching us to take what we got and make it work the best for us.
This book is the best product out there if you are a "close talker" or have a naturally quiet voice.
It helped me get through the ordeal of student-teaching.
It is of the highest quality compared to the others.
These ladys who wrote it did an excellent job compared to the others.
They tell you what you have and how to use it best.
Top of the line. They're the best.

This book saved my singing voice. a few months ago I lost my voice due to a cold, after the cold had gotten better about a week later my singing voice had returned so I started singing again. About a week later I lost my voice again. I didn't think that was normal and thought I may have had a voice disorder so rather than going to a voice specialist (I wanted to use it as a last resort.) I looked up books on voice disorders and found this one. I ordered it, read it and used the CD and now I'm able to sing like I had never lost my voice in the first place. What a voice saver.

This book has been really useful. Now I know why they do neck rolls in the theatre. It's all clearly explained with diagrams, lucid writing and a great CD for further explanation and practice. I've bought 4 books on this subject over the past year and this is by far the best.

The warm up/ cool down routines are instantly effective and over a period of weeks I have noticed that my voice has become mellower sounding; I feel much more confident as a result. I have had none of the incipient tensions associated with the exercises in other books, probably also because the tone is not stuffy and they speak my language...