The Hoarse Sound of Defeat

Photo credits: Business Insider

We could of course consider Biden’s vocal failure as an isolated incident: after all, he does not usually sound that hoarse.
However, whatever caused his voice to sound the way it did simply compounded the consequences of his preexisting voice habits: a complete lack of head resonance and an over-reliance on air and muscular activity as the main “fuel” for his voice. Old age also plays a role, but not necessarily such a huge one: Biden is not 95 and his voice displays signs of fatigue that are not age-related. For the sake of comparison, Donald Trump is only 3 years younger, but does not absolutely sound “too old to continue working”.

What made a very negative impression on viewers last week was Biden’s struggling timbre. The timbre is more or less the texture a voice, the fabric it consists of. It is the qualitative dimension of a voice, the one that tells listeners who and what the speaker is on the inside (literally, not metaphorically). As I explain in this video clip, timbre is the real body language of the inner body and it has a far more significant impact on communication than gestures, facial expressions, smiles, choice of words, etc.

The President of the United States surely has access to the most renowned consultants, including public speaking and voice coaches. According to various press reports, Biden spent six entire days preparing for the debate in Camp David with a team of advisors and consultants. The problem is that the mainstream approach public speaking usually devotes very little attention to the “voice quality” factor (timbre), and tends to focus either on acting skills and other visual aspects (outer body language, facial expressions, posture, etc), linguistic aspects (intonation, pace, pauses, accent, choice of words) and story-telling. When your timbre is poor however, there is not much that proper management of your posture, gestures, smiles etc. and refined story-telling can do to help you come across as credible. In a paper published on Science Communication in 2018, Eryn J. Newman and Norbert Schwarz came to a very similar conclusion by studying the perceived credibility of scientists who presented their research outcomes to an audience of peers with a degraded voice timbre.

As recent research indicates and in-depth voice development practice confirms, the unconscious mind of your viewers is far less interested in outer body language and much more reliant on information provided by mirror neurons than conventional communication theory would have it. The minute your speaker’s voice conveys poor inner-body “tone” and “posture” and heavy inner-body “pressure” (to make up for the lack of proper “tone”), your non-cognitive nervous systems immediately experiences their stress and responds by switching to its “fight or flight” mode. There is a powerful direct channel of communication between different nervous systems (speaker, listeners) that bypasses the cognitive and emotional brain almost completely.

The current approach to public speaking is however still heavily dependent on Albert Merhabian’s theory of communication, which is somewhat mechanistic, mainly focuses on visual aspects and “body language” and was first proposed in 1971.

Strategies and procedures derived from Merhabian’s research have become so mainstream in the corporate sector that even the specialized press has entrusted the analysis of Biden’s performance to consultants whose main focus are the “outer”, visual aspects of communication. In this article, a senior public speaking coach (and a former FBI agent) hired by Politico devotes around 90% of his analysis to the way Biden walked and stood during the debate, to his gestures, eyelids, lips and smile. Even when the expert discusses neurophysiological aspects, he only does so in relation to facial expressions, posture and way of walking, without realizing that the same cranial nerves and mechanoreceptors he is mentioning play an even more crucial role in the way the vocal cords, the vocal tract and the breathing system behave during voice generation. Biden’s voice is very briefly discussed under the heading of “verbal communication” (voice is sadly viewed as mere words, “speech” not as sound) and the problem is simply assumed to have been caused by a cold or some vocal malady. The approach of President Biden’s public speaking consultants is probably not different.

Albert Merhabian’s theories are still very on trend in the world of corporate voice coaching and public speaking. They have often been applied superficially and in ways Albert Merhabian himself found questionable. I have pointed out their limitations and inability to grasp the auditory, voice-related aspects of communication in this video clip.

Although Biden’s vocal performance was arguably affected by some external factor (a cold, medication, tiredness), signs of voice fatigue and strain can be found in most of his previous public appearances throughout the years. Head voice components are completely suppressed in his voice, which deprives it of a vital source of energy and forces him to overcompensate with air and effort. As a result of this, his voice sounds old and weak and that is one of the reasons why he is perceived as “too old” for the job.

Yet age is not necessarily a problem in politics. Many powerful political leaders worldwide are over 70 and beyond. Since the beginning of human civilization, “old” has also meant “wise” and a political leader’s ability to incarnate the “Wise Old Man” archetype can definitely become a huge asset, especially if your main opponent activates the “Trickster” archetype and is perceived by many voters as “unstable” and “dangerous”. Depth psychology experts however agree that archetypes usually require a certain degree of “energy” to be activated.

In fiction, folklore and myth, the “Wise Old Man” character is hardly ever portrayed as someone with a weak and faltering voice. The Wise Old Man typically speaks in a deep voice and is a bringer of calm and well-rooted energy, yet there was no energy in Joe Biden’s voice as he was trying to counter Trump’s claims and accusations. There was no Wise Old Man to hold the Trickster in check.

By contrast, former President Trump could make use of his voice, his inner inner body language in a way that was perfectly suited to his character and “archetype”. Although his vocal performance was not necessarily outstanding, his voice managed to stay energetic throughout the debate, and retained access to some degree of head resonance and intrinsic muscular tone. I am insisting on head resonance and head voice components because they are key to developing “depth” in timbre. Depth is what gives a voice credibility, but in mainstream voice coaching and popular culture depth is usually mistaken for “speaking in a lower pitch”. This is the main reason is why many people (both women and men) stifle head resonance components in their voices in an attempt to artificially “lower” their pitch so they can sound more authoritative. A more refined understanding of voice physiology and function however shows that “depth” can (and should) be achieved in timbre regardless of pitch/register by harnessing the very high-frequency components generated by mucous membranes and head resonance. While these components are the main source of energy in the voices of young children, they are usually less present (if not completely repressed) in adults. Reviving and cultivating these components (metaphorically reactivating the “inner child” in the voice) can yield remarkable results even in the sound of an ageing voice. The presence of these components does not make your voice sound higher-pitched or falsetto-like, but rather fuller, more resonant and vibrant regardless of your pitch and register, as if your voice had a magic halo of its own that is not generated by your objectives, story-telling, choice of words, intonation and accent. An audible and well-integrated “inner child” in your voice can transform your timbre and engage both the nervous system and the psyche of your listeners below their usual level of consciousness, where their real decision-making processes take place. On a psychological level, this would be where archetypes dwell. Whether we like it or not, human communication entails a huge and powerful unconscious dimension the hidden dynamics of which appear to be shaped by archetypes.

A lot of research into what archetypes are and how they work, interact with each other and energize one another has been conducted by psychiatrists and psychologists like Carl Gustav Jung, Marie Luise Von Franz and James Hillman. An oversimplified version of archetypal models has also become popular with modern marketing and corporate communication consultants. Given their unconscious nature, archetypes are elusive, defy precise definitions and should not be categorized in mechanistic terms. I will therefore not attempt to pin down a specific voice quality to a precise archetype, but rather content myself with drawing evocative parallels between the physiological and psychological/archetypal level.

What I am arguing here is that both on a physiological (somatic) and symbolical (psychological) level, Trump probably succeeded in harnessing the “childish” components of his voice (the Puer archetype) to energize and activate the Trickster archetype that fascinates so many of his supporters and scares to death many of his detractors. His voice did not sound too old even when he ventured into Hero archetype territory (it takes a hero to make America great again, or perhaps an immature, “eternal” child: the Puer Aeternus).

At the same time, Joe Biden was (and usually is) unable to tap into the energy of the Puer (Child) archetype in his voice (here: the head components and mucous membranes), the one the Senex (Wise Old Man) usually needs to balance itself and achieve its full potential. On a symbolical level, the Child archetype usually completes the Wise Old Man and provides it with energy and a sense of renewal and perspective. Without a connection the Puer, the New, the Senex is just senile: an old man with no wisdom, no future and no use.

(Biden trying to counter Trump's claims that his presidency had the best environmental track record during the debate: YouTube link)

With head resonance components buried deep under many layers of acquired habits, his chest is constantly under pressure and his voice is particularly exposed to the negative impact of outside stressors (e.g. a cold). During the presidential debate, the King and his voice were stark naked, old and shorn of authority. There is a huge symbolic difference between a majestic old king that will ensure peace and stability to his kingdom and a crippled old man bent under the weight of a crown he can no longer carry and faced with too big a task for his physical condition. Biden found himself trapped in the latter category.

A voice usually becomes “deep” and therefore credible when it sounds three-dimensional, i.e. when different levels and components are activated and begin generating spontaneous structure in the voice’s timbre. During my voice workshops, I devote a significant amount of time to waking up the “inner child” components in the voices of my participants: the mucous membranes and thin layers of fascia in their head and vocal cords. When properly stimulated, these structures have been shown to produce very high-frequency vibration that can be used to reconfigure the way the tiny little muscles in and around the vocal cords operate. When these “head voice” components are governing the way your chest voice is produced and when the two principles start balancing each other, your voice becomes vibrant, round and effortless, with a huge gain in terms of credibility and charisma. “Awakening the inner child” in your voice is much more than a beautiful metaphor. It has a clearly audible impact and a precise physiological meaning.

It’s high time public speaking and voice coaches started to move away from outer body language, acting skills and breathing exercises and discovered the rich treasure timbre has to offer to those who venture into its territory and learn to speak its mysterious language.

Want to improve the way you sound to other people? I can help. Reach out, and let’s get started.


(this article was originally published here on July the 3rd, 2024) © Andrea Caniato, 2024