Originally Posted by Lou_Black:
“I wonder how many people have tried that after reading this post?”
Marilyn stuttered and was taught breathing exercises to help with that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfBJ8HrMZUI
This (copied from Reddit) explains it a bit.
At my university, the Speech and Hearing Clinic offers free services to students, and I was a client there for 3 semesters (clinicians were graduate students studying speech pathology).
I can confidently say that making my voice "breathy", or what we called airflow management, is hands down the most effective tool. Stuttering, in essence, is the stopping and starting of your voice, and when your speech is "blocked" you have to start it again immediately, sometimes over and over, resulting in a "s-s-s-s-sound" like that. Part of the therapy was to make it easier to restart or make it easier to get through certain sounds. But if you think about trying to never stop your voice, to keep the momentum of your voice going (imagine a football running back hitting defenders and pushing through, it's easier with more momentum than starting from a stand still each time). So by keeping your breath going, even when no sound is coming out, it's easier to keep your momentum, therefore less stuttering. It's not that i'm always exhaling or anything, but especially before some words i'll start an exhale (not audible with some practice), which helps immensely and greatly reduces the chance of stuttering. It's very, very cool to see a celebrity, especially one that was active 60 years ago, using the same techniques that I use now that have greatly helped me.
TL;DR - The breathy voice is a technique now taught in therapy, which has helped me immensely in my life.