Voice and Speaking Skills For Dummies Paperback – 22 Jun. 2012

I was excited by the title and description and the book didn't disappoint. It's such a comprehensive yet accessible guide to using the voice (more) effectively, that practically anyone can benefit from studying this. Personally I have a decent amount of experience using my voice professionally and I bought this book more as a source of teaching tips for my job (teachers will find this book useful). However, I discovered some things about myself that I would never have otherwise considered, concerning self-perception and emotional inhibition. I'd never before considered myself inhibited but Judy Apps talks a lot of sense, while coming across as warm and supportive and not austere or superior in the slightest. It's no exaggeration to say that this book can not only offer the tools to improve your voice but also an extra degree of self-knowledge and inner fulfillment.

An excellent book to assist one in improving correcting accents as well as creating an RP voice for greater social acceptance in the real World of not being stigmatised unfairly.

Covers everything you need to know plus stuff you would never have thought of that will help you achieve more than you ever believed possible. Judy's mind-body approach to voice and speaking skills underlies the theory, which is well written and well explained. Judy's enthusiasm for her subject combined with a great ability to teach and share her knowledge make this a book that everyone should have if they want to improve their personal impact, communication and presentation skills.

Judy is a magician when it comes to voice speaking skills. Having been on Judy's 'Voice of Influence' speaking coures in 2008, I was was able to add a new dimension to my speaking. This brilliant book adds vital insights to the importance of our speaking voice and ways in which we can enhance it.The book makes us realise that our voice is in fact a musical instrument and the quality of the 'music' is affected by physical, mental and emotional factors. These are all factors that we can learn to control.Although this book is for speakers of any ability, as an past President of Oxford Speakers Club, current Club Mentor Master and Distinguished Toastmaster, I will be using Judy's teaching to take both my own and our speaking club members' speaking skills to the 'next level'.If you wish to connect with people, have more influence and get ahead in your both career and private life, this book is a must.

I did enjoy reading it but to be honest, I think it is just a reminder of what we already know. A lot of repetition and signposting to other books, activities, professionals. So I don't feel this book alone would change my vocal skills.That said, perhaps the book I should have read was more about reducing anxiety around public speaking, rather than just concentrating on the vocals.Cheap enough to explore anyhow

What I learned from reading this book was how to improve my voice and how much of a important role your voice plays in everyday life. The books advice is helpfully arranged into relevant sections, that make it easy to focus on the areas that are holding back your voice from being the best it can be. As someone who has had voice and speaking issues for decades, this book has helped me enormously.

Bought via Kindle & the book frequently refers to the accompanying audio recording which obviously doesn't accompany the Kindle version.

Some interesting ideas.