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I’ve been getting Hillary Clinton’s campaign emails since last spring, and there’s something that’s really struck me about them… when the primaries concluded and it was clear that our candidates were Hillary and Donald, all of Hillary’s emails were versions of a very particular message: we can’t let Donald Trump be our next President.

Now do I agree? Yes I do, 100%. But I found it odd and disconcerting that the emails were so focused on what Hillary...

Yesterday morning when I woke up the world felt incredibly quiet. I, my family, my friends, so many of us, were in shock. I truly didn’t think we lived in a country where we would elect Donald Trump.

I’ve been thinking a lot about something I studied during my sophomore year of high school in European History class. At the beginning of that year we learned about these two enlightenment philosophers, John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Here’s a breakdown on their theories:

John...

Growing up I took hundreds of hours of voice lessons and choir classes. In all that time not one of my teachers ever showed me a picture of my vocal cords. None of them fully explained the mechanics of why air flow was the thing that set them into vibration. Instead my voice was this mysterious magical entity that could only be altered by being coaxed, tamed, and drawn out through imagery and metaphors.

Now I have nothing against metaphors… in fact I LOVE them. My students will attest...

It’s officially fall! The weather is getting cooler, the leaves are turning, and we can buy ourselves a pumpkin spice latte.

When you consider the weather change and the cold season that usually accompanies it, plus add in the fact that this is the busiest time of year for many people, it’s clear to see that it’s also a really important time to take care of your vocal health. So in honor of the season change and to kick off the fall round of my online course How Your...

Let’s talk about Hillary’s voice.

We’ve heard individuals and the media alike commenting negatively on it. People call her shrill. People call her strident. They say they they can’t handle her shouting.

As a voice coach, I’ll be the first to admit that Hillary is employing some less than ideal tactics at times for placing emphasis on her message. But as a woman, I cannot ignore the fact that these critiques on Hillary’s voice feel like a broader...

Ever ever ever ever ever. I would have put more ‘ever’s in the title of this blog, but I didn’t want the link to run off the end of your browser window.

It’s special and personal to be writing about this. I don’t speak about my meditation practice that frequently, because I don’t want to be that person going around telling everyone they should meditate. Quite frankly, it’s not very nice to say to someone: “You know, you should really meditate....

Well it’s hard to explain. It was epic. It was dusty. It was joyful. It was all the things. I tried my darnedest to write about it, but whoa that would have been an epically long blog. So instead I did my favorite thing: I went live on facebook for a very special Friday Lesson with Elissa. Here’s the lesson…

When you make space, the stuff happens.

Check it my facebook live here  (And join me every Friday at 1pm EST on the Voice Body Connection...

I’m gonna say something crazy: If you’re a vocalist you should be exercising.

Actually let me expand the scope of that…

If you’re anyone who wants to have a stronger, healthier voice you should be exercising.

Now this may not sound very controversial to you (you’re sitting over there going “Uh huh Elissa, thanks, DUH!”) but the voice-fitness connection is actually a fairly new area of research. Until recently there were a lot of people who...

You’ve heard that thing about the tree falling in the forest, right? It goes like this:

“If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”

Commence deep philosophical conversation.

I want to apply this same question to communication:

“If a person speaks and no one is there to receive it, is it communication?”

I want to make the argument that it’s not. Communication is a two way street… there’s gotta be a...

Last week on the blog, I introduced an idea I call “actor voice.” Actor voice is when a performer or speaker doesn’t sound authentic because they are stuck in a vocal pattern. I named a handful of different vocal patterns that are possible to get stuck in, and today I want to elaborate further on a specific one I mentioned called “emotional pressure.” Here’s what it is:

Emotional pressure is when you let the idea of the emotion you’re...