With seasonal colds and flu affecting 15 million people each year in the UK* there is approximately a one in four chance that you will catch one at some point over the next 12 months. As we all know, a simple cold can make you feel completely different from your usual sprightly self and apparently you’re not the only one that thinks so!


Vocal coach Sally Hague explains how we all have our own unique sound and vocal identity and how a cold can strongly affect this. “Your voice is you. It is a product of lots of your muscles, your posture, your skeleton and your breath. We all have basically the same equipment, but we all use it very differently to create our own individual sound – and the effects of a cold on the throat can compromise this.”

It’s not what you say it’s the way you say it!
A cold, often accompanied by a sore throat can change the way you sound to others and therefore affect the way people perceive you. Sally Hague comments “You can tell a lot about how someone is feeling by listening to their voice, whether they are relaxed and happy or feeling upset and tense. Often we don’t think about what we are hearing on a conscious level but we interpret far more from the way people speak than from the actual words they say.”

Quality of voice
The quality of a voice is something else we pick up on. Lower pitched voices are also frequently referred to as being sexier than higher pitched voices. However, the creaky voice that you use first thing in the morning or when suffering from a cold, called a ‘vocal fry’ can make someone sound laid back. It’s not the sort of quality that you would use if you had to project your voice outdoors in a large space or wanted to portray confidence in a business meeting.

The ‘Intellect’ – Mariella Frostrup
Mariella has the perfect voice for radio - deep, resonant and husky. Men find it attractive and women wish they could sound like her. The low pitch reveals a self-assured wisdom and an intelligent personality.

Pace of speech
People who are confident, even in quite formal or difficult situations tend to speak more slowly. They don’t rush because they assume others will want to hear what they have to say. Rushing over words can make them indistinct and make a person sound more tentative. Because the words themselves have lost their clarity, we feel the speaker has lost confidence in them and by extension what they are talking about.

The ‘Authoritarian’ – Simon Cowell
Simon has a steady-paced, calm voice which means he comes across as very confident. He’s the voice-of-reason (even if what he says is sometimes controversial) on the X Factor and asserts his opinion over the other judges.

Accent
We have a wonderfully rich and varied dialect landscape in the United Kingdom that is constantly changing and adapting to new influences. Our taste and our attitude towards regional dialects has changed over time. Today regional differences are celebrated and enjoyed. Newcastle accents have a wonderful jaunty rhythm and Welsh accents have terrific energy and tune. Our reactions to them are personal and have a strong effect on one’s identity.

The ‘Confidante’ – Joanna Page
Actress Joanna is from Wales and the vibrant tone and quick pace of her accent instantly tell you she is warm, fun and friendly – and you can’t help but like her.

Sally Hague Comments, “Given how important our voices are in reflecting who we are, what we feel and how we want to be perceived, it’s important that we use our voices effectively. Speech is a physical activity and actors will warm their voices up before a performance in the same way that athletes prepare for a race or sporting event. If your breathing mechanism is working, your voice will have power and energy because breath is the voice’s fuel for speech. Having an awareness of what muscles you are using and how you are using them is essential in learning how to look after your voice.”

Top Tips for a voice that’s all yours
o Celebrate what makes your voice different and don’t hide it
o Try varying the tone and pitch of your voice, experiment with talking more slowly or more animated to reflect other people’s voices – this can sometimes help to put others at ease and benefit communication, especially in the workplace
o Use your voice in as many ways as you can – read aloud, sing in the shower, laugh – all will help keep the vocal muscles agile and healthy
o Try to avoid smoking and smoky environments as these can cause long-term damage to the delicate vocal chords
o At the first sign of a sore, painful throat, take immediate action to protect it from further damage. Use medicated throat sprays, which go straight to the source of the pain for fast, targeted relief. Ultra Chloraseptic® Anaesthetic Throat Sprays contain a local anaesthetic to numb the throat.

Ultra Chloraseptic® Anaesthetic Throat Sprays are available in two great tasting, sugar-free flavours – Cherry and Original Menthol, both in pocket-friendly capped bottles for ease of use ‘on the go’, allowing you to tackle your sore throat whenever it strikes.

Ultra Chloraseptic® Anaesthetic Throat Sprays are available in most leading supermarkets and from pharmacies. Available in a Cherry and in an Original Menthol flavour. Ultra Chloraseptic costs £4.99 with each bottle containing approximately 30 adult doses/100 sprays. Contains Benzocaine. Always read the label.