Posted on 03/30/2010 9:58:08 AM PDT by SilvieWaldorfMD
Okay, I know I'm going to get reprimanded out here by many of you, but does anyone else notice that Sarah Palin's voice is just way too pitchy and high? I enjoy her speeches and such, but sometimes she screeches so high that it drowns out her message, and, in my opinion, she should tone down her voice/vocal levels just a bit.
When she does sit-down interviews, she's much better, although the high-pitch comes and goes there too. I was prepping dinner last night with FNC on, and they showed her at the McCain event. Her voice was so loud and unleveled that I almost cut my pinky finger with my Ginsu knife while cutting a tomato... I got a chill going up my shoulders. It's strange...
Can a voice coach help her through this?
Ping! Post by ME!
;-)
I’ve noticed that too, especially when she doesn’t have a good sound system in place and she’s straining to be heard. I think that all women have this problem to some extent. A vocal coach would probably do wonders.
On her worst day she can’t come close to the screeching of Hillary Clinton.
And she can’t come close to Hillary’s cackle.
Her voice is “pitchy”? What is this American Idol?
Posts like this give vanities a bad name.
My brother, an award-winning film and TV producer/director — has been making the same point for two years. Sarah needs help on this. I hope she is willing to get it. Everything else about her, by the way, is perfect.
The word “pitchy” gives American Idol a bad name among us singer types.
Ditto. Needs to growl more.
I think the unique voice could be a part of her schtick. It may make her more distinct.
I have said several times in the past that she needs a voice coach.
Yeah, I also hope she finds a vocal coach. My husband actually cringes every time she speaks, whether she's at a rally, or in a studio. We both LOVE Sarah, but - yeah - I do wish she'd "moderate" her voice a bit...
The overall effect is not harmonious, though in truth it is nearly as grating as that of Hillary Clinton, who on occasion sounds as though she is reporting an air-raid drill or a five-alarm warehouse blaze.
She isn’t a singer. She is someone from a part of the country where that is the way they speak. Get a grip and find something useful to worry about
she admittedly sounds shrill.....women have it tough, but she can improve, I am sure of it. after all, WHAT she is saying is so perfect.
And of course you can always sooth yourself with the dulcet tones of the One because voice quality is ALL that’s important
I am a vocal coach, a conservative, a Sarah fan, and you are correct.
I could help her. It has to do with vocal “placement”, and takes YEARS or training.
But she has more important things to worry about!LOL!
So the fact that Mrs Thatcher took positive steps to lower the pitch of her voice was a perfectly rational response to a real problem. Under the guidance of the National Theatre, she underwent training that included humming exercises aimed at lowering her previously natural pitch. Comparing recordings of speeches she made before and after tuition reveals a clearly audible difference. When played through a pitch and intensity analyser, the reduction in pitch came out at 46 Hz – a figure that’s almost half the average difference in pitch between male and female voices.
This significant decrease was all the more remarkable because it was achieved after Mrs Thatcher had already passed the age at which the pitch of women's voices tends naturally to rise: generally speaking, it falls up to the age of about forty-five, after which the it gradually starts to rise.
Margaret Thatcher and the evolution of a charismatic woman. Part I: Cultural and vocal challenges
“The word “pitchy” gives American Idol a bad name among us singer types.”
I had never heard the term “pitchy” before watching American Idol, and I wonder if Simon Cowell made this word up. It means that a singer is singing off pitch, so it really doesn’t apply to Sarah Palin, or anyone else, who is speaking in a high-pitched voice.
Very, very intersting!!
The tone of her voice is definitely something the 'Rats and their media allies will use against her. She needs a voice coach to help her tone down that occasional screech: it will show her to be a serious player and not some cartoonish bumpkin that the Left always portrays.
9 out of 10 people posting here disagree with you....
So what? Since when is your opinion the only one of importance?
Truth is you can have the dulcet oratorial tones of Nancy Graham and Barry Obama and the like. The honey coated voice is of no interest to me. You want to be charmed like a snake is charmed by the flute player. Go ahead be charmed. I want authenticity and principled messages
she knows what she sounds like and will work to improve
the event in searchlight had a poor pa system and she had to scream
as long as she is saying the right stuff who cares
I really like Sarah’s natural voice (and I find her accent to be cute). There are not many people, male or female, who sound good yelling at rallies. Women have it especially tougher.
But she sounds great when she gives a speech. Not too shrill at all. Her RNC speech was pitch perfect. Loved it.
My husband says this is the only thing wrong with her & my musician son says the sound systems could be adjusted to help a bit. When we saw her in Cape we didn’t notice it at all! At any rate, I agree it’s probably a problem for many women but the message is crystal clear.
True—but I’d take her squeak over Mitt’s pipes anytime.
She’s a politician, not an American Idol contestant, dawg.
Yes, I do and have been saying so for a long time. It's nothing against her or her views of which I agree totally, but I just cannot get beyond her voice. Sometimes on a one to one, it's fine, but whenever she's giving a speech it's like fingernails across a chalk board.
Granted women, for the most part, have a higher, thinner speaking voice, but hers is particularly annoying IMO. I'm just surprised she hasn't used a voice coach to deepen and soften the pitch.
She needs a voice coach, a boob job, hair extensions, butt lift,tummy tuck, spray on tan and a guest episode on “What Not to Wear” and then maybe she’ll look just like Barbie.
Actually, you are right.
She and other politicians not of gifted voice need speech coaches to tell them how to make use of the audio tools at their disposal.
With amplifiers and other aids you don’t have to scream in a breaking voice. Palin’s measured speech at the Republican Convention was an example of how to do it.
Screaming at an outdoor rally like at Searchlight is the bad example of doing it wrong.
PS - Her message also could have been better. Just throwing out barbs, not a coherent development and explanation of ideas and positions and rebuttals.
Interesting. I didn’t know this. Bookmarked for later.
It may make her unique and distinct, but not very presidential sounding IMO.
Over-coaching is the worst thing that can happen to Sarah Palin. It is her un-coached, real-world persona that has made her who she is.
Her voice is fine.
SnakeDoc
She is really sexy and her words will sound better using your own perfect voice "pitch".
Already has the hair extensions and tanning bed! ;-)
One of those inequalities in life. Many woman have this problem as public speakers. Its why women do not succeed on radio as easily as men. It can be overcome to some degree and the poster was only relating what many of us have noticed. If she simply kept her voice at a normal level when she is making an important point rather than go up in pitch, that would help. What is most unfortunate about having a high pitched voice is the average person with a hearing loss cannot hear it. Very common for a wife with a husband who has a loss to say “He hears his friends OK but not me”. She thinks he is ignoring her but he isn’t. He can’t hear her. He can hear a man’s voice.
She isn’t reaching the audience she could.
I have had a negative reaction to her voice from the beginning. She reminds me of my 4th grade teacher, who was also very nice and very beautiful and everyone loved her. But the voice is nearly unbearable to listen to.
I have some hearing problems and hear best in the middle range, so that may be part of it. I am also Midwestern and while Sarah is, too, as far as accent, I find her accent detracts from the seriousness of her message.
While the men may scream at this, I also think she needs a more business-like hair style. Seeing her lately, I think she has aged beyond the very long hair stage and the hair draws attention to that fact. Something shoulder length would be an improvement, IMO.
I don’t like to give too many mulligans away but it was awful windy in Searchlight and the sound system/microphone was not the best. I think Sarah was straining at times. She is a professional speaker but when you have inferior equipment + bad weather conditions you will not come across at your best.
Having said that I thought it was a great stump speech and appropriate for the occasion.
It’s much easier for me to accept imperfections in her voice than her pimping for McCain.
Well then you must think Romney and Scott Brown are in the same category as well.
Her voice is irritating - more so her inflection I think - not the sound of her actual voice.
I think they must speak like this in Alaska.
Maybe if I hear more Alaskans speak it won’t sound so strange.
Could be worse.
That would be affirmative. The difference is that they are not conservatives.
She could speak like a choir of angels and still she wouldn’t be good enough for some people.
Lets pick on Obama’s annoying delivery. You know the guy that is such a “wonderful” speaker? /s
I love Sara and hope she runs, but I have mentioned to my husband before that I wish her voice was not so shrill when she speaks.....you can’t help your voice but maybe a voice coach would help
more breath control than a voice coach, necessarily - i used to teach aerobics and it was essential to projecting volume without screeching, & after a tracheotomy had to learn breath control to be able to speak again. respiratory therapy would help her a lot.
how do we get the message to her?
100% true. If the sound system is bad, especially outdoors, one tends to change the pitch of voice to accommodate.
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