I don’t know about where you are, but I’m sitting in the garden at 24 degrees as I write this. The forecast is for this to continue through the week. Great – except that in the middle of next week I’m supposed to be making another big presentation. I can feel the energy-sapping heat of a packed conference hall in my imagination already……I’m tempted to take to drink……. Water that is.
Almost every other bit voice or presentation skills training you might get will tell you to drink plenty of water before/during your presentation. They’re sort of right, but be careful. Don’t drink it cold.
Yes, I know cold water is refreshing… but it’s also cold – and there-in lies a problem. Your vocal folds are backed by muscles. In fact they’re working at several hundred movements per second when you speak (women at almost twice the rate of men, which is why female voices tend to be higher than male ones). Imagine you’ve just played a hot and sweaty game of squash (or whatever else gets you hot and sweaty): you’d not take a cold shower would you?
No.
Try it and you’ll soon find out how quickly and how painfully muscles can cramp when they’re shocked like that.
Okay, your vocal folds aren’t in direct line between your mouth and your stomach, so that the water doesn’t pass directly over them (if it did, you’re on your way to drowning yourself) but it passes close enough to mean that the shock of the cold water will still hit your vocal folds.
As it does they’ll tighten up and you’ll find the quality of your voice deteriorates. If you’re trying to sound credible and calm – or if you’re trying to be able to speak clearly all day, as at a conference – you’ll find that cramped up vocal folds will severely hamper your style.
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