Do You Hear What I Hear?

Do you like to hear recordings of yourself speaking? How about singing? If you’re like most people your first reaction to hearing yourself is to say, “That doesn’t sound anything like me!” It’s so different from what you hear that you don’t recognize it as your voice. But, while it’s not the sound you’re accustomed to, it certainly is your voice. It’s how you really sound to other people. “Yikes!” you say.

It takes some time to get used to hearing yourself in a recording but for singers and people who speak in public it’s an invaluable tool. Why? Because it’s important for them to know how they really sound. As one of my musical mentors once said, “You can’t fix it if you can’t hear it.” I’ve taken hundreds of hours of private music lessons in my life. The teachers I learned the most from always asked me to record the lessons and play them back later.

One voice teacher explained the phenomenon that he labeled “auditory self-deception” which simply means we don’t hear ourselves as we actually sound. Since sound travels through solid matter as well as air, we hear ourselves through the bones in our head, in addition to what our ears pick up. That means we hear things differently from the way others hear us. We’re used to this voice so it sounds normal to us. Listening to a recording is jarring because it’s not the sound we are accustomed to hearing.

So if you want to become a better singer or public speaker you have to work with a teacher who will hear your voice from a different perspective and offer guidance you could never give to yourself. What’s true in music is also true in other areas. To make the improvement you want in your business, music, sports, a hobby or any other area where you would like to do better, you have to work with someone who will see your situation, your challenges and opportunities, from a different perspective and offer guidance you could never give to yourself. That’s the value of working with a professional coach. They will see things you’re doing differently and help you approach both challenges and opportunities with a new point of view. That could be the best investment you've made in a long time - an investment in yourself.

See my website for more information about how to invest in yourself. Crossroad Advantage