Being Heard by Faith Pincus
Author:Faith Pincus
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: American Bar Association
Vocal Dynamics
Knowing what to do with your voice is key to communicating your message. If you have read this far, you have picked up valuable tips on your image and audience connection. But if you can’t be clearly understood, or if you deliver your entire presentation in an unvarying monotone, you’ll be wasting a lot of effort and wondering why your presentations don’t have enough impact. Make your voice and your inflection work for you! Here are a few aspects of your vocal performance you won’t want to miss:
Vary Your Vocals
Ask your average person on the street what they find to be the most annoying vocal habit public speakers fall into and they’ll say the same thing: a monotone. Droning on and on, without any inflection or change in tone, is indeed the surest way to get an audience to tune you out.
This would be a very short section if speaking in a monotone were the only vocal sin that a public speaker can commit, but unfortunately there are many others. Each of these mistakes stems from the same root cause: lack of variety. But an unvaried monotone is the first one people name.
Tune Your Tone
This follows on the heels of the monotone issue. Everyone has a natural tone range that they call upon when speaking. When you get excited, your tone may rise; when calm, it may slip half an octave or so. But generally, as you pass through your day, you rely on the same few notes in your vocal range to express yourself.
When speaking before a group, however, you should take care to modulate and change your vocal range whenever possible. This may happen naturally due to the fact that you are likely trying to project your voice further than you normally do, but if you’re using a microphone, it is very easy to slip into a safe, narrow, and ultimately very boring tonality.
To combat this, and to even know it is an issue, when you practice your speech take the time to audio record yourself on your smartphone or other device and play portions of your speech back for yourself. Most people don’t like the sound of their own voice anyway, but listen for as long as you can, paying particular attention to your range. Is it flat? Do you have natural highs and lows? Do you need to warm up before you begin speaking to open up your lungs and your nasal passages, to get your lips and tongue moving?
Don’t be afraid to be critical of your voice, but not to the point where it causes you to doubt your abilities. Anyone can expand his or her vocal range with practice, and if you already enjoy a wide range of tones, you’ve got a head start.
Moving around and having enthusiasm for your topic and presentation are two of the most natural ways to enhance your vocal variety and avoid a monotone. It’s hard to be monotone if you are excited about your presentation.
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