“Alexa, radio off” i croak as i lie in bed unable to suffer anymore news from the middle east. ‘Sorry, I am unable to help you with that’ says Alexa with digital clarity. I cough and spluttering the same instructions, I get the same reply. Clearing my throat i repeat a 3rd time and she responds rather sharply for my liking ‘Goodbye ‘ .
Before the news i had been listening to Laurie Taylor, his regular programme Thinking Aloud
But more than listening to the content of the programme, I found myself listening to the quality of his voice, how he’s got older and his voice is become little less precise, little deeper, little bit blurry. It reminded me of Melvin Bragg who’s just retired from In Our Time, He also lost his clarity of voice and a slight slowness in his words despite the fact that his brain is as good as always .
Michael Rosen is the same and to a lesser extent, Stephen Fry.
Ageing singers are perhaps even more noticeable Rod Stewart and especially Joni Mitchell whose incredibly sparkling high notes are no more .
It makes me think about my own voice which has definitely become slower less defined and blurry. I’d like to think a little bit husky… but it is not sexy, it is just old.
Parkinson’s affects your speech as there’s a slower connection between your brain and your voice. You know in your mind that you’re thinking clearly, you know what you want to say, but it takes time for the words to be coming out of your mouth, consequently you sound a little bit drunk, a little bit slow, a bit incompetent maybe.
It’s strange the way it’s the quality of somebody’s voice on which we make judgments about a person’s abilities and competency, their ability to, to , they just seem to be a bit dim.
I get frustrated with my failing voice. The sound box like other muscles get tight and doesn’t work as well as they should, in the same way that Parkinson’s effects my ability to walk, my limited facial expression
Alexa are you similar? Will age or some digital degenerative virus also affects your voice box? Will another set of electromagnetic muscles be affected by the lack of dopamine algorithm and change your voice?
‘Sorry, I’m unable to help you with that’ she says very precisely.
Stephen Peter Arthur Frean Harrison 