I’m starting a series of blogs on the public speaking quirks of political figures of the day with that conundrum, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

What is it about Harry Reid that rubs so many people the wrong way?  A study done once of voices found that what we object to most in vocal tone is the nasal voice.  Harry Reid has a nasal voice par excellence.  There are other things going on with Harry, but primarily it is his nasal voice that grates on us so much.

The irony is that he could fix this problem with a relatively simple exercise:  belly, or diaphragmatic, breathing.  To do this properly, you expand your stomach as you breathe in – rather than raising your shoulders, as most people do – and then tense the stomach muscles (as if you were about to be punched in the stomach) to let the air out slowly. 

With practice, you should be able to breathe deeply, and speak normally for up to 45 seconds on one belly full of air.  Try it.  You can probably do about 10 seconds now.  We live in a corrupted age.

Belly breathing increases the resonance of the voice, the opposite of the nasal quality that is so irritating in Mr. Reid.  Senator Reid would need to work on this daily for about 3 weeks, and then he would begin to see some permanent improvement in his vocal quality.  It certainly would make re-election easier.

Ironically, voices also need something called ‘presence’ which is harder to describe, but basically means introducing a little bit of the nasal tone in your voice.  What Harry has way too much of.  Actors call this quality using the ‘mask of the face’, meaning that they bring the voice forward and up into the nasal passages a little.  Why?  Because nasal voices can be heard.  It’s very important for speaking from a stage, for instance. 

But again, you only want a touch of the nasal.  Too much, and you’re back to Senator Reid, and the kind of voice that makes your skin crawl.

What else is up with Harry?  Add to the whiny voice a tendency to squelch emotions, and you’ve got a repressed, nasal voice.  Add to that, gestures that are a little out of synch with the words, and you’ve got an apparently insincere, repressed nasal speaker. 

It doesn’t get much better than that.