Weekly Voice Insights #79-Before You Lead Others 

Noticing the Moment Between Perception and Tone

Between perception and tone, there is a brief interval. Most of leadership happens there.

In a recent article, Anna Rosdahl writes about Stoic discipline in leadership and includes a simple instruction:

“When something triggers you: take a breath, count to three, and ask yourself which response aligns with your values.”

You can read her full article, How a Stoic Mindset Can Strengthen Leadership in a Complex World, here: https://www.mannaz.com/en/articles/leaders-teams/how-a-stoic-mindset-can-strengthen-leadership-in-a-complex-world/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

It is practical guidance. Pause before responding.

I would like to extend that idea into the body, specifically into the transition from breath to tone.

Recently, I was walking on a winter path that I use regularly. I walk to a certain point, turn around, and return along the same route. As I approached another person, I noticed that just before I reached them, they turned completely away from me. Immediately after I passed, they turned back.

That is the observable sequence.

What followed happened internally. Without deciding to, I took a sharp intake of air. The body reacted before language formed. No words were spoken, but the system prepared as if they might be.

And then the narrative began.

Was that intentional?
Did they see me?
Was that avoidance?

I carried that line of thinking for a significant portion of the return walk.

When I encountered the same person again on my way back, I said hello. They said hello in return. There was no sign of hostility. The interpretation I had constructed did not match the interaction that followed.

The first reaction occurred before analysis. The sharp inhale came immediately after the visual stimulus. Emotional stimulus often produces a quick intake of air and a readiness for speech. Even when no words are spoken, the vocal system mobilizes as breath adjusts and pressure begins to build in preparation for sound.

There is usually a small interval between perception and phonation. That interval may feel shorter than it actually is.

In German, the word for “moment” is augenblick, literally “the blink of an eye.” I have sung that word in countless poems. It always carries the sense of something fleeting, gone as soon as it appears.

By the time speech begins, tone has already been influenced by the breath that prepared it.

The inhale was not chosen. The story that followed was.

What I had influence over was not the initial breath response, but the duration of the interpretation that followed. I could not know what the other person intended. I could observe my own reaction and decide whether to continue reinforcing it.

Epictetus reminds us that we are disturbed not by events themselves, but by the judgments we form about them. The event on that path was straightforward. A person turned away. The disturbance arose in the interpretation that followed.

At that point, I remembered the framework I often describe with the acronym STOIC: Stop. Take three breaths. Observe without judgment. Interpret the story you are telling yourself. Choose how to act. The steps are not complicated. The difficulty lies in recalling them when the body has already begun reacting.

In professional settings, similar sequences unfold more quickly and with greater consequence. A brief perception registers, the body prepares, and tone follows. The interpretation may be subtle, but it travels through the interaction that follows.

In many professional communities, people know their material well and prepare their content thoroughly. They refine slides, arguments, and frameworks. What is less frequently examined is the physical state from which that content is delivered. Experienced professionals often trust their expertise, and that trust is appropriate. At the same time, the breath, pace, and vowel onset that carry that expertise are rarely observed with the same care.

Rosdahl’s suggestion to take a breath is not simply about slowing down. It involves interrupting the physiological cascade that begins with reaction and ends in tone. When you notice the sharp inhale, you have identified the earliest marker of response. Allowing the breath to complete and the exhale to release before speaking creates space for discernment.

When a line falters on stage, the silence that follows may measure only seconds. Internally, it can feel much longer. A similar distortion occurs during moments of irritation or perceived slight. The interval feels urgent. In reality, there is space to let the breath settle.

Leadership discipline begins at that threshold. It begins before phonation, in the breath that prepares it. By noticing the breath before tone, you reduce the likelihood that a passing interpretation will become an enduring vocal signal.

The interval is brief. The consequence is not.

Weekly Voice Insights #78 - Répétition

Rehearsal, Direction, and the Early Stages of Work

When newness feels uncertain, rehearse.

Epictetus writes:

If you want to make progress, be willing to look foolish in the eyes of others.

I hear that less as a statement about courage and more as a description of rehearsal. Real work begins before things are polished, before choices feel settled, and before we know whether what we’re trying will hold. In other words, progress often starts in repetition—when the outcome is still unclear and the only task is to stay with the work long enough to learn from it.

That came into focus for me while preparing for an upcoming Valentine’s Day concert. A friend and colleague—someone I’ve performed with before and deeply respect—helped connect us with these performances and suggested that we include a few duets. It was genuinely lovely to be asked. She proposed Something Stupid, the Frank and Nancy Sinatra song.

Of course I knew the piece. Its familiarity wasn’t the issue. What surfaced instead was something more subtle: that quick, internal commentary that arrives before the work has even begun. A kind of mental chatter that evaluates capability before any evidence is gathered. It’s fast, persuasive, and often mistaken.

Rather than taking that first response as fact, I turned toward the song itself. I looked closely at the text. I checked the range. I paid attention to what the piece was actually asking for—how conversational it is, how much restraint it requires, how lightly it needs to sit when it’s allowed to be what it is.

As that examination continued, something shifted. Not dramatically. I didn’t talk myself into confidence. Instead, the initial noise lost relevance. The work began supplying clearer information than the early judgments ever could. Through contact with the material, I could make grounded choices about what fit and what didn’t.

This is where rehearsal matters. In French, the word for rehearsal is répétition. It’s a direct reminder of what rehearsal actually is: repetition. Not a demand for correctness on the first pass, but permission to go through something again, notice what happens, make adjustments, and try again. Rehearsal is not the place for perfection. It’s the place where information accumulates.

When something is new, the uncertainty isn’t only about execution. It’s about direction. Repetition provides orientation. With each pass, the path becomes clearer.

And yet, it’s easy to forget that. The mind is quick to focus on what feels wrong—what didn’t line up, what slipped, what could have been better—especially when learning a piece. That’s one reason listening back to rehearsal recordings can be so useful. When you’re no longer actively in the moment, you can hear more clearly. You can notice what actually happened rather than what you feared was happening. You begin to distinguish between what needs attention and what simply needs another repetition.

From the inside, this can feel almost unremarkable. There’s no moment of arrival, no sense of having crossed a threshold. Just a quiet transition—from reacting to the idea of the work to engaging with the work itself.

Epictetus doesn’t promise ease. He points instead to willingness: the willingness to enter before polish appears, before judgment quiets down. In practice, that willingness looks very ordinary. You study the text. You listen. You repeat.

And you allow the work to stand long enough to teach you something.

Weekly Voice Insights #77 – Ethos, Pathos, Logos as Audible Conditions

Judgment, breath, and coherence in real time.

Ethos, pathos, and logos are heard before they’re analyzed.

“Stop frightening yourself with wild thoughts; examine them calmly.” 

— Epictetus, Discourses (based on 2.1.11–14) 

Words matter—but not on their own. 

They gain force through timing, sound, and intention. In practice, most communication problems are not word problems. They’re coordination problems. Thought, emotion, and structure are all present the moment we speak, and the voice is where that coordination either holds or breaks down.

Classical rhetoric gives names to these components: ethos, pathos, and logos.

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos as Audible Conditions

They’re often introduced as tools of persuasion, but in lived communication they function more simply—and more honestly—as audible conditions. You can hear them before you analyze them.

Ethos shows up first.

The Greek word is ἦθος (êthos). It means a habitual dwelling—a customary way of being. It names the state a person regularly returns to, especially under pressure. In voice, that return is audible as steadiness. When a speaker understands what they are saying, breath flow remains consistent across the phrase rather than reacting mid‑sentence. Speech rate follows the thought instead of correcting it, and breath no longer rushes to catch up with the sentence. Listeners hear coherence before they evaluate content. When instability shows up in the voice, it is rarely about lack of knowledge alone; it more often reflects uncertainty at the level of judgment.

Pathos is next, though it is never absent.

The Greek word is πάθος (pathos). It refers to what is undergone—what happens to a person rather than what they decide. It names the way experience moves through the body and leaves an impression. In the voice, pathos is heard as proportion. Emotion is always present in the voice, whether acknowledged or not. Tone, inflection, and pacing reveal how a speaker relates to their own words. When emotion outruns intention, the voice pulls ahead of the thought. When emotion is suppressed, the sound thins or flattens. Neither feels convincing, even when the words are right.

Logos is not argument structure on the page.

The Greek word is λόγος (logos). At its root, it means gathering, ordering, or laying something out so it can be followed. It refers not only to words, but to the way thought is arranged. In the voice, logos is heard as structure. Clear beginnings, connected phrases, and intentional pauses allow a listener to follow a line of thought in real time. When structure is missing, even sincere emotion becomes difficult to track. The listener works harder than the speaker, and attention slips.

These three are not steps. They operate at once. When one weakens, the others try to compensate. A speaker with strong feeling but weak structure often speeds up. A speaker with structure but little emotional engagement can sound mechanical. A speaker with strong content but unstable judgment sounds scattered, even when technically correct.

Judgment, Voice, and Stoic Practice

This is where voice work becomes inseparable from Stoic practice.

Epictetus returns again and again to the alignment of judgment, response, and action. Impressions arrive on their own, but disturbance grows when response precedes examination. He is not concerned with persuasion. He is concerned with coherence—saying what you mean, responding in proportion to the moment, and resisting the urge to adjust after the fact.

That discipline shows up immediately in the voice. Here, judgment refers to the moment when meaning has already been decided before speech begins. When judgment has settled in this way, breath supports the sentence without reacting mid‑phrase. Pauses occur where meaning completes rather than where hesitation intrudes. Sound carries without force, and the voice no longer needs to correct itself while speaking.

Listening for Alignment

This is something I hear constantly in teaching and rehearsal. A singer or speaker may articulate clearly and still not land. Another may feel deeply invested and still sound rushed. In both cases, the issue isn’t effort. It’s alignment. The voice is revealing what has not yet settled internally.

Ethos collapses when judgment wobbles. Pathos overwhelms when breath outruns thought. Logos disappears when pacing and pauses vanish. None of this is abstract. You can hear it in the first sentence.

This is why attention to words alone rarely solves communication problems. Clarity does not arrive at the mouth. It begins earlier—before breath, before sound—at the level of intention and judgment. The voice simply reports what it has been given.

Ethos, pathos, and logos are not rhetorical ornaments. They are audible conditions. When they support one another, communication feels natural rather than forced. The voice does less work and communicates more.

The next time you speak—whether in a meeting, a rehearsal, or a difficult conversation—notice what arrives first. When thought begins to accelerate, breath is usually the first place it shows. It may stop supporting the sentence and start reacting ahead of it. Pauses shorten or disappear, and the sentence begins adjusting itself mid-phrase. The voice also reveals the story that has already been accepted, often before you’re aware of it. The voice doesn’t invent these conditions. It reports them.

Related Posts:

Weekly Voice Insights #31 – The Power of Pauses: Punctuation in Speech
https://dyavwithelias.blogspot.com/2025/03/weekly-insight-31-power-of-pauses.html

Weekly Voice Insights #25 – The Listener’s Perspective: Hearing Yourself Objectively
https://dyavwithelias.blogspot.com/2025/02/weekly-insight-25-listeners-perspective.html

Weekly Voice Insights #22 – The Thoughtful Power of Your Voice
https://dyavwithelias.blogspot.com/2025/01/weekly-insight-22-thoughtful-power-of.html

Further Resource:

Aristotle’s Rhetorical Appeals: Ethos, Logos, and Pathos
https://pressbooks.pub/openrhetoric/chapter/aristotles-rhetorical-appeals/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Weekly Voice Insights #76 – The Shortcut Offering 

Shortcuts, Attribution, and Learning

A friend recently sent me an ad for a small breathing device being marketed to singers. It was presented as a science-driven innovation, something that could change the way singers train, make high notes easier, reduce fatigue, and simplify voice work overall.

On the surface, none of that is misleading. The device does something real. It creates airflow resistance. It slows the breath. It reduces excess pressure. Used briefly, it can interrupt habits that get singers into trouble.

The question isn’t whether it works, but what the singer thinks just happened.

What Changed—and Why It Felt Better

When someone says, “I was struggling with my high notes, I used this for a couple of days, and I was better,” that improvement is usually genuine. But the improvement often gets credited to the object instead of the behavior that changed.

Breath, Onset, and Range

In practice, what shifted was likely very simple. The breath became more deliberate. Less air was taken in because less air was needed. The singer adjusted airflow earlier, before sound began, rather than reacting at the moment of the pitch itself.

This timing matters more than most people realize, especially as pitch demand increases.

Before reaching a higher pitch, the breath demand changes first. If that adjustment doesn’t happen early enough, other muscles step in to compensate. Those muscles are not designed for efficiency in this task, but they will try to help anyway. What follows often feels like instability, effort, or loss of control.

That experience is psychological, but it’s caused by vagueness rather than fear. The singer doesn’t know what needs to change or when it needs to change, so the body fills in the gaps.

This is where terms like onset are often used imprecisely, so it’s worth slowing down. Onset literally means beginning, but in voice work I use it more specifically to describe the start of the vowel—where the core of the sound lives and where much of what we hear as emotion and intention is communicated. It isn’t something you soften or harden as a goal; it reflects whether breath and sound are coordinated appropriately before the vowel is released.

Range plays into this as well. When I talk about low, medium, and high register, I’m not referring to abstract zones or vocal labels. I’m talking about proximity to a person’s natural speaking range—their tessitura.

If it helps, think of range the way you would a set of numbers: the highest and lowest values define the range, but the average tells you where things usually sit.

The area where someone speaks most of the time functions as their medium register. Slightly below that sits a lower register. Slightly above it sits a higher register. As the voice moves away from its habitual speaking range, the breath needs to be recalibrated. That adjustment happens before sound, not during it.

If the singer doesn’t know this, the transition between these areas can feel unpredictable. That unpredictability is often described as panic, but it’s more accurately a lack of information.

This is where devices like the one advertised can feel helpful. By adding resistance, they slow everything down. They make airflow changes easier to sense. They interrupt the habit of waiting too long to adjust the breath.

A quick sense of relief is why the device can feel effective almost immediately.

Attribution, Placebo, and Learning

There’s also a placebo element at work, in the technical sense of the word. When someone believes a tool will help them, the nervous system often settles. The body behaves differently. The singer stops forcing without realizing they’ve stopped forcing. Something real changes, but it happens without conscious attention, and the change gets credited to the tool rather than the behavior.

Placebo doesn’t mean nothing happened. It means the right thing happened without awareness.

Possibly this is where confusion begins—not with the device itself, but with how the change gets attributed.

Learning depends on language. If you don’t have a way to name what changed—when the breath adjusted, how the onset began, or what shifted as you moved out of your speaking range—then the experience can’t consolidate into something repeatable. Without shared or usable language, improvement remains an isolated event rather than a skill you can return to. If the singer believes the object fixed their voice, then the learning lives outside the body. The improvement feels borrowed. Confidence depends on having the tool nearby.

A crutch isn’t something that causes harm. It’s something you rely on because you don’t yet trust your own balance.

Breath work has always been about two questions: how are you taking in the breath, and what are you doing with it once you have it. Exercises like the Farinelli were never designed to build strength or force coordination. For a fuller explanation of how this kind of breath work is practiced and why it’s structured this way, see Weekly Voice Insights #11 and #17: Building Your 12‑Minute Practice Plan—Start with Breath. They exist to slow the system down enough for awareness to emerge. Once that awareness is there, the exercise becomes unnecessary.

A difference between interruption and skill.

A tool can interrupt a bad habit. Only attention turns that interruption into something repeatable.

None of this is an argument against tools. Some tools are useful. Some are clarifying. But no device changes the way singers train unless it teaches them to notice what they’re doing without it.

Learning shows up when the singer can recreate the result without the tool. If the improvement disappears when the object disappears, the experience never became something the singer could count on as their own.

The work has always been internal, even when a shortcut makes it feel faster.

Shortcuts trade on speed and immediate results. They move the experience forward quickly, but they don’t shorten the learning itself. If the singer doesn’t understand what the tool helped alter—how the breath changed, when the adjustment happened, what demand shifted—then the time gained early often shows up later as inconsistency.

What was skipped early in the learning process eventually has to be addressed. When conditions change, when pressure increases, or when something unexpected happens, the singer has fewer reliable options for adjusting breath and coordination.

A shortcut doesn’t eliminate the work. It produces results without teaching the user how to reproduce them without the tool.

Weekly Voice Insights #75- Euthymia: Stoic Insight and the Practice of Voice

Between Seneca and Epictetus sits a question of use, judgment, and voice.

Euthymia in the Stoic Tradition

Seneca uses the Greek word euthymia to describe a stable condition of mind in which judgment, emotional response, and action remain proportioned to one another over time. The word refers to an inner coherence that allows a person to stay oriented as circumstances shift, without becoming internally fragmented or expending unnecessary effort.

In Seneca’s writing, euthymia appears as a condition worth preserving. It reflects a life governed by discernment, where desire is shaped by self-knowledge and action remains consistent with what can reasonably be sustained. A person living in this condition continues to encounter difficulty and disappointment, but their response remains organized. Over time, what becomes visible is a reduction in wasted effort and a clearer continuity between intention and behavior.

“A man’s mind ought to be superior to all external circumstances.”
— Seneca, Letters to Lucilius

Within the Stoic tradition, euthymia names a regulated state marked by proportion and continuity. Judgment holds its course, emotional response remains usable, and action proceeds without internal conflict. The person is guided by clarity about what lies within their responsibility and what does not, allowing energy to be directed where it can actually be effective.

Use and Orientation in Epictetus

Epictetus approaches this same condition from a different angle. Rather than naming inner states, he concentrates on the mechanics that produce them. His teaching repeatedly returns to judgment, attention, and the disciplined use of what lies within one’s control. Through careful examination of where assent is given and how responses are shaped, Epictetus trains the reader toward an inner organization that is earned through practice.

Although Epictetus rarely uses the term euthymia explicitly, the condition itself is clearly present in his work. As judgment becomes more consistent, emotional response becomes more proportioned to the situation at hand. As response becomes more proportioned, the individual remains coherent even as external conditions change. Euthymia appears here as the outcome of sustained attentiveness rather than a feeling to be cultivated.

“In every situation, remember to turn back to yourself and ask what power you have for making proper use of it.”
— Epictetus, Discourses

Euthymia as Vocal Regulation

These two philosophical approaches meet naturally in my work with voice.

Developing Your Authentic Voice (DYAV) is a methodology that examines how intention, breath, tone, and connection function together in lived communication. Rather than treating the voice as a tool for expression alone, the work attends to how vocal behavior reflects judgment, effort, and relational orientation in real time. The aim is not to produce a particular sound or emotional effect, but to increase awareness of how the voice responds under demand.

In this framework, regulation refers to how effort is distributed and how response aligns with what the situation actually calls for.

This kind of regulation is audible.

A regulated voice uses an amount of sound and effort that matches the moment. Speech neither accelerates to secure response nor expands to hold attention unnecessarily. Listeners often experience such voices as clear and reliable, sensing that the speaker is oriented to the exchange rather than managing it.

The DYAV path offers a practical way to observe how this regulation unfolds.

Intention refers to orientation. When intention is clear, the speaker’s voice organizes itself around purpose rather than compensation. Speech carries direction, and effort remains proportional to task.

Breath is approached as availability. As vocal demand increases, airflow remains continuous and responsive, supporting speech without interruption or excess pressure. This continuity allows the voice to adapt as circumstances change without loss of function.

Tone reflects proportional use of energy. It adjusts to context, signaling how much effort the speaker is applying and how firmly they are holding their line. Tone communicates reliability through consistency rather than emphasis.

Connection develops through participation in the exchange itself. The speaker remains responsive to the listener, allowing the interaction to inform timing, pacing, and emphasis, without being pulled off course by the need for approval or control. The relationship becomes a source of orientation rather than strain.

Across these layers, a recognizable pattern emerges—one that Seneca would recognize and Epictetus would affirm. The speaker remains expressive and engaged, while their response stays proportioned to the situation. Inner organization supports outward clarity.

Seen this way, euthymia is not a state to aim for directly. It emerges as awareness deepens. As attention turns toward effort, bodily response, and vocal demand, coherence develops without force.

That coherence, once audible, changes how communication is received. It influences how authority is perceived, how boundaries are held, and how meaning is conveyed. What remains is a voice aligned with reality, and a speaker able to remain intact while speaking into it.

Weekly Voice Insights #74- Knowing When My Part Was Done

A note on preparation and restraint

Surrounded by voices, documents, and legends—my work was to listen carefully, speak only when needed, and know when the record was complete.

There is a particular moment that comes after the work has stopped, when there is nothing left to prepare for and nothing left to manage.

During rehearsal and performance, attention naturally narrows. You respond to what is in front of you, adjust as needed, and keep moving. Reflection does not disappear, but it remains secondary to responsiveness. Whatever understanding might eventually surface has to wait until the work no longer depends on immediacy.

I was aware of my attention throughout the work, but it wasn’t until things slowed that I had any distance from it.

People with experience often sense instability early, recognizing when something needs to be held more carefully.

In those situations, the instinct is often to stay oriented rather than intervene. You remain available, adjust quietly, and keep the work moving without drawing attention to yourself. That kind of steadiness doesn’t call for recognition while it’s happening, and it is rarely visible from the inside.

With some distance, I could see where that orientation had mattered most. It wasn’t a matter of standing out, but of remaining reliable across changing conditions.

In the final scene, I was working with a younger actor who met the exchange fully. The scene found its balance through listening and timing rather than activity. My task was straightforward: stay present, listen closely, and respond when the moment actually asked for it. The scene held without me needing to add anything beyond listening and timing.

Listening, in this context, organized the space. It clarified when response was needed and when it wasn’t, and it allowed trust to develop without being forced.

Judgment, choice, and completion

Epictetus returns again here, less as instruction than as orientation. He reminds us that while events themselves are beyond our control, our judgments about what we experience and the use we make of those judgments remain ours.

I did not have control over the structure of the process or how things unfolded. What I did have control over was how much authority I granted to the impressions that followed, and how carefully I chose to respond to them.

It was clear to me how much of that choice depended on preparation. The work had been practiced, reviewed, and carried far enough in advance that I wasn’t solving basic problems in real time. That preparation kept my attention free to listen and adjust as needed. Flexibility, in that sense, wasn’t spontaneous—it was made possible by having already done what was in my control.

This way of working assumes a certain responsibility. Internal reactions still register, and experience brings an awareness that how one carries themselves affects the room. The discipline lies in noticing those reactions without letting them dictate response, allowing choice to remain intact even when moments are charged.

After the final reading, there was a clear sense that the work had reached a place where it was complete. The attention I had been bringing was no longer sharpening anything; it could release without diminishing the work.

Another line from Epictetus came to mind then:

“Be mostly silent, or speak only what is necessary, and in few words.”

The value, in that moment, was not in further expression, but in allowing what had already been established to stand on its own.

Afterward

Preparation made steadiness possible. Listening kept the focus on the task rather than on reaction. Not every impulse needed to be answered, and not every moment needed to be taken personally.

Staying oriented to the work allowed energy to be used where it mattered and released when it no longer did. There comes a point when adding more is not only unnecessary, but counterproductive.

Related Posts:

Weekly Voice Insights #61 – Listening Before Leading: The Discipline of Perception   This piece explores how listening and orientation establish steadiness before action is taken. It focuses on perceiving what a situation requires rather than intervening prematurely. https://dyavwithelias.blogspot.com/2025/10/weekly-voice-insight-61-listening.html

Weekly Voice Insights #62 – Resetting the Breath When Frustration Rises -An examination of how breath creates space between impulse and response. The post looks at how physical awareness supports judgment and restraint when conditions are charged. https://dyavwithelias.blogspot.com/2025/10/weekly-voice-insight-62-resetting.html

Weekly Voice Insights #72 – An Intention, Lived and Practiced- A reflection on sustaining intention through preparation and follow-through. It considers how clarity established early carries forward without needing reinforcement later. https://dyavwithelias.blogspot.com/2025/12/weekly-voice-insights-72-intention.html

Further Resource:

Atul Gawande – Personal Best (The New Yorker)
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/10/03/personal-best

Weekly Voice Insights #73 -Master More.        Speak Less.

Breath, listening, and working inside an unfinished process

Me as Samuel Ireland — keeper of relics, believer in words, and father caught in a very human story.

I’m in rehearsals this week for a new musical workshop, The Willing, a piece inspired by the historical episode surrounding the Shakespeare forgeries attributed to William Henry Ireland and the role his father, Samuel Ireland, played in that story. I’m portraying Samuel, which is one of the reasons I was drawn to the project. There’s something compelling about stepping into a real historical figure, especially one caught between belief, reputation, and the desire for something to be true.

The work itself is still forming. The music is changing. Text is being adjusted. Decisions are happening in real time, often while we’re on our feet.

That kind of process is genuinely exciting. It’s also very different from most of my professional life in opera, where the music has been settled for centuries. In those rooms, the ground is already solid when you arrive. Your task is interpretation, not construction.

Here, adaptability matters just as much as preparation. The question that keeps circling for me is how to stay steady while things are still changing, and how not to let that sense of unfinishedness take over the body.

That question keeps bringing me back to breath.

In everyday speech, most of us take enough air to get through what we need to say. But when the situation asks for more clarity, more projection, or more weight, the breath we rely on often reflects something else entirely. It reflects whatever intention is present just before we speak, whether we’re aware of it or not.

If the unspoken thought before an entrance is something like, “I’m not quite sure what’s coming next,” the breath often mirrors that uncertainty. It narrows. It arrives cautiously. It carries exactly the amount of energy that intention has already supplied.

This is where Stoic practice and voice work begin to overlap for me.

I recently came across a Stoic sequence summarized by the acronym STOIC, and I’ve found myself thinking about it during this rehearsal process, especially because of how early breath appears in the sequence:

S — Stop. Pause the impulse.
T — Take three breaths.
O — Observe what’s happening without judging it.
I — Interpret the story you may be telling yourself.
C — Choose how to respond.

What interests me here is the placement of breath. It appears before explanation, before correction, and before action. It’s the point where restraint becomes something physical rather than theoretical.

In my own work, this same logic lives inside what I call Developing Your Authentic Voice, which follows a simple path: Intention, Breath, Tone, and Connection. I use these as practical tools for understanding how sound becomes individualized, through physical, observable choices that one person makes differently from another.

Working in a room where the material is still evolving has made that sequence feel especially relevant. When the music isn’t settled yet, it’s easy to feel pulled outward, to narrate what’s happening, or to comment on what might need to change. What has been more useful for me is returning to something quieter and more disciplined.

I’ve been reminding myself of a short phrase I use as a self check-in, especially when I feel the urge to verbalize every thought that comes into my head:

Master more. Speak less.

For me, that isn’t about withholding sound or participation. It’s a reminder to stay with what I’ve been given to do, to focus on mastering the task at hand, and to listen. “Speak less” already carries that implication. Listening is part of the discipline.

Not every reaction needs commentary. Not every thought needs to be voiced. In a room where work is still forming, there’s value in letting the work speak first.

I see a related pattern often in voice work. It’s easy to demonstrate a supported sound and have someone reproduce it successfully in the moment. They can imitate the volume, the energy, even the shape of the sound. But unless they become aware of what shifted in their body—how the breath behaved, where effort released—that sound doesn’t become dependable. It remains something borrowed.

The same thing happens in rehearsal and in speaking situations. If the physical act of delivery hasn’t been practiced without emotional charge, then whatever emotion is present in the moment will take the lead. Sometimes that emotion is excitement. Sometimes it’s uncertainty. Either way, the breath reflects it long before the voice does.

What’s been most helpful for me this week is returning again and again to the sequence itself. Intention first. Breath next. Tone follows. Connection comes last. When that order is respected, even briefly, the ground feels steadier, regardless of how much around me is still taking shape.

Working on a piece that’s still forming has clarified that for me. The music may not be settled yet, but the body can be. The breath can be. That steadiness doesn’t come from reassurance or external confirmation. It comes from familiarity with the physical act of delivery before emotion rushes in to fill the gaps.

This week’s rehearsals lead directly into public readings of The Willing, happening over coming weekend. The piece will be presented as a workshop reading, with the material still in motion and the audience invited into that process.

Reading dates:
Saturday, January 10 at 7:00 PM
Sunday, January 11 at 2:00 PM
Monday, January 12 at 7:00 PM

Location:
Depot Theater
506 W. Michigan Street

The readings are pay what you will, and open to anyone curious about new work being built in real time.

I’ve included the flyer below for details on how to reserve seats.