Audible Levels

Over the years, I have learned a great deal about the use of different audible levels. I'm not just talking about indoor and outdoor voices either. I think there are about six different volume levels that I use.

1. The Backstage Whisper. This is the type of whisper that is so quiet your not quite sure your making noise. I have had entire converstions using this while waiting for cues. Interesting enough most of them were with the same person.

2. The Not Audible to My Dad Whisper
This is the whisper used among me and my sisters on car trips with my father or when he's in the same room with us. We usually wait 'til his back is turned, so he doesn't see us talking. To the average person it doesn't sound much quieter than a normal volume, but my dad, being mostly deaf (due to years of target practice), can't hear a thing.

3. Normal Volume
This is the volume at which you just talk. No worries about being heard or anything else.

4. Speaking Up So My Father Can Hear What I'm Saying
Anyone who's ever delt with partially deaf people knows what this volume level is.

5. The Angry Yell
I don't do this very often and when I do I loose my voice. I am not naturally a loud person.

6. Stage Voice
When it comes to acting on stage, there aren't microphones (unless it's a musical), so you have to be loud. All through out my life I've been told that I'm too quiet. When on stage, I had a nasty habit of still being too quiet. Me and fellow actors in my Drama II class remedied this by saying our lines across the performing arts hallway which happens to have horrible aucoustics.

Those are my levels of volume. An aunt of mine (commonly refered to as MAM) has a completely different volume scale compaired to mine. If you had to decide based on that you'd never figure out that we shared blood.

MAM's Volume Scale

1. Her Normal Talking Level
To anyone else in the area she is shouting, but to her she is just enjoying polite conversation.

2.Her Shouting
This is like listening to a cannon go off. If you get to close, your ears will be ringing for the next couple of days.

3. Her Whisper
This is an incredibly rare phenomena that I have only experienced once. (In fact, I might be the only person that every has.) When she whisper's, she actually whispers. Upon first discovering this, I was in shock for hours. I didn't think it was possible. I had the great fortune of accompanning MAM to the library. When she talked in a whisper, I had the urge to clean out my ears just to make sure I was hearing things correctly.