I've got a quick and easy exercise that is quickly becoming my new favourite for controlling the resonance of your voice! It's called Big Dog Little Dog.

As I've said before, resonance is controlled by the size and shape of your vocal tract. If you have a small vocal tract, you get a brighter sound. If you have a big vocal tract, you get a darker sound. So how can we figure out how to make the shape we want for the resonance that we are seeking?

Enter Big Dog Little Dog!

If you want to brighten your voice, try panting like you're a little dog. Just a tiny little pant - hear how bright that panting is. Try even smaller!

If you want to darken your voice, try panting like you're a big dog. It's darker!

Now, if you want to go all in with this exercise, you can try barking like a little dog or barking like a big dog. Yip yip, woof woof! You'll hear and feel right away that one makes a really small vocal tract and one makes a really large vocal tract.

So, all you have to do is choose your fighter, choose your dog, and then keep that shape when you go to speak. Again, if you're going to brighten, you want the little dog shape (yip yip). If you want to darken, make the big dog shape (woof, woof)! And then keep that shape when you speak.

If you want to hear examples of this watch the video!