🎙️ Weekly Insight #48 -Trained Perception vs. Untrained Intuition

What Epictetus understood about voice—and why it still matters

Learning to hear quarter-tones... and to taste the difference between baguettes. Paris taught me both. So did Epictetus. 🎶🥖☕  

We don’t assume we can play piano without lessons. We don’t pretend to know geometry if we’ve never studied it. But when it comes to voice, many people believe they should already know how to use it.

That belief isn’t entirely wrong. There is something intuitive about how we speak. But intuition alone won’t carry you very far—not if the goal is clarity, impact, or connection.

This is where Epictetus offers something useful. He reminds us that perception can be trained—and that refinement matters.

📘 From the Discourses

In Discourses 2.11.1, Epictetus makes a clear observation. We’re born with a general sense of things like right-angled triangles, half-tones, and even quarter-tones. But we don’t understand them precisely until we’ve studied them.
“We come into the world with an innate conception of a right-angled triangle, a half-tone, or a quarter-tone. But it takes instruction to know what they actually are.” — paraphrased from the original Greek, Discourses 2.11.1

People who haven’t studied geometry don’t pretend to be geometers. People who haven’t studied music don’t usually fake it. But when it comes to communication—especially voice—many assume they already know what they’re doing.

That assumption keeps people from noticing what’s missing. Not because they aren’t capable, but because they haven’t been asked to look more closely.
🎵 Why the Quarter-Tone Example Matters

A quarter-tone isn’t part of standard Western tuning. It’s too small to register for most ears trained on pianos, choirs, or familiar scales. But it’s real—and clearly defined in other musical systems, especially in parts of the Middle East and Asia.

That makes it a useful example. If you haven’t been trained to hear quarter-tones, you’ll miss them—even if you have a good ear.

It’s like taste. When I first moved to Paris, every baguette seemed perfect. They were all fresh, all delicious. But after a while, I started to notice the differences—some were lighter, others had more crackle to the crust, or a deeper flavor inside.

I remember a Parisian friend insisting, “No, I only go to the one by Place Monge. It’s the best in the city.” At the time, I couldn’t tell why. But after a few months, I started to get it. What had seemed identical now had character. I could tell one from another. And I began to know what I liked.

Nothing had changed about the bread. What changed was my ability to discern.

Voice works the same way. You may be expressive. You may be articulate. But without experience and reflection, you’ll likely miss certain details in how you’re speaking—how your breath supports the sound, how tone varies across a sentence, or how phrasing affects clarity and connection.

Epictetus chose a subtle interval on purpose. He’s showing that some things are real, but not obvious. You won’t notice them unless someone points them out. And even then, it takes practice to hear clearly.

🎙️ What This Means for Voice Work

Most people don’t spend time analyzing their own voice. They speak the way they’ve always spoken. And unless something goes wrong, they don’t question it.

Even when they notice discomfort or disconnect, they often can’t explain what caused it. They might say the message didn’t land, or that the moment felt flat. But they’re not used to describing things like breath pressure, tone, or pacing in themselves.

That doesn’t mean they’re not perceptive. In fact, when they listen to others, they often pick up subtle vocal cues without needing to think about it. But with their own voice, that same awareness stays vague.

This is the difference Epictetus is pointing to. There’s a kind of perception that comes from training—where you know what to listen for, and how to name it. Without that, the experience stays intuitive but imprecise.

🔎 DYAV and the Role of Training

Four elements sit at the heart of the Developing Your Authentic Voice framework:

Intention – What are you trying to communicate?
Breath – Is your air supporting the message?
Tone – What’s the emotional contour of the sound?
Connection – Does the voice land where you want it to?


Each of these is like a musical interval. You can get through without much thought. But it won’t hold up under pressure. Skill comes from repetition and attention—not from hoping it works.

🧭Final Thoughts

Epictetus isn’t dismissing intuition. He’s pointing out that our first impressions—what the Stoics called prolēpseis—aren’t enough on their own. They give us a starting point, not a finished skill.

That applies directly to voice. We all speak. We all have some instinct for tone, rhythm, and connection. But most of us haven’t learned to observe those patterns in ourselves.

Refinement doesn’t replace intuition. It gives it structure. It makes the intuitive visible. And once we can see it, we can adjust it—deliberately, not just reactively.

That kind of perception doesn’t come from scripts or memorized techniques. It comes from practice. It comes from listening. That’s what voice work makes possible.

#DevelopingYourAuthenticVoice #VoiceMatters #Clarity #EmotionalIntelligence #LeadershipCommunication #TrainedPerception #StoicInsights #Epictetus #DeliberatePractice #VoiceAwareness

Elias Mokole

Keynote Speaker, BA & Beyond 2025 | Voice Presence & Change |

Founder, Developing Your Authentic Voice Newsletter

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