The once and future Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, is a plain-speaking Kansan with more than a quarter-century in the CIA to his credit.  What effect has that had on his public speaking? 

We can still hear his Kansas roots in his nasal voice, that flat Midwestern twang that manages to be nasal and growly at the same time, because he’s busy speaking at the low end of his vocal register in an effort, no doubt, to out-John-Wayne the other alpha males in the room. 

It’s too bad, because with some breathing and placement exercises, Gates could actually have a pleasant voice.  But of all things we dislike the nasal tone.  The only positive side to it is that it perhaps kept his nomination hearings short, since the Senators would have been more than usually anxious to hear themselves speak rather than the nominee.

A fascinating study was undertaken a few years back on the vocal tones that people emit that are below the range of human hearing.  It’s not clear why we emit these tones, but we do, and the really interesting thing about them is that we synchronize them with each other.  And we do that in very specific ways.  We line our low-frequency tones up with the tones of the most authoritative person in the room, and we do this within the first several minutes.  It’s as if, when we meet, we immediately use unconscious means to sort out the hierarchy of the pack, by (inaudible) growling. 

That makes me wonder if people like Gates tend to force their voices lower (unconsciously) in an effort to win this low-frequency battle and be the dominant player in the room. 

In any case, Gates is subjecting his vocal chords to long-term damage with this verbal treatment.  And it’s a shame, because lurking behind all those growls is a pleasance baritone or even tenor voice.  He should take voice lessons and learn to sing.  Maybe once he's wound down the Iraq war?