HOW TO SOUND CLEAR, CONFIDENT & CREDIBLE

Transcription

1 HOW TO SOUND CLEAR, CONFIDENT & CREDIBLE

2 HOW TO SOUND CLEAR, CONFIDENT & CREDIBLE Whether you are speaking to an audience of one hundred people or ordering your lunch at your local café, your voice is a key part of your ability to communicate effectively within both business and social environments. If you have a speech or presentation to make, even if it is online, it is vitally important that your voice is warmed up so that it is clear, confident, flexible, dynamic and expressive from the moment you begin. Try the following warm up and practice exercises to develop and prepare your voice before your next speech and notice the difference in the quality of your sound. PREPARATION To gently warm up and stimulate the muscles involved in producing sound: 1. Start by standing tall so that you have an imaginary straight line running from your ear down your body to your shoulder, hip and ankle. Give your body a very gentle shake to release any tension you may be feeling and keep your knees slightly flexed. 2. Gently circle your shoulders forward 5 times and then backwards 5 times. 3. Turn your head gently to the left, then to the right, then tilt it upwards and then forwards in a slow nodding action. Take your left ear gently towards your left shoulder and then reverse it by taking your right ear towards your right shoulder to feel a gentle stretch along the side of your neck. 4. Using your fingertips, gently massage your face paying attention to your jaw joint just below your temples to loosen it up. Softly tap your face, head and neck with your fingertips. 5. Open your mouth as wide as possible (imagine you are trying to swallow your head!) and then squish it up as small as possible. Now try an exaggerated chewing action; then a huge smile. 6. Circle your tongue around inside of mouth a few times along the front of your upper and lower teeth, then poke it out and move it up and down and side to side. 7. Keeping your lips softly together, breathe out so that they vibrate (like a horse!) BREATHING AND SOUND Deep breathing is important for relaxing and managing nerves as well as for supporting your voice: 1. Breathe deeply through your nose into your diaphragm (imagine your stomach filling with air), to a count of 5 and hold for a moment; then slowly breathe out through your mouth to a count of 5 2. Breathe in again and as you breathe out keep your lips together and hum to a count of 5 3. Breathe in again and as you breathe out move your hum to an open maaahhh sound

3 4. Use your out breaths to sound each of the vowels in turn A (aaaa as in are ) E (eeee as in easy ) I (iiiiii as in eye ), O (oooo as in oh ) U (uuuuu as in do ) 5. Try some gentle humming up and down the scale (it doesn t matter if you re not in tune!) 6. Using an ng sound, slide your voice up and down the scale like a siren 7. Sing some of your favourite tunes being careful to stay relaxed with no vocal strain PACE AND PAUSE Pauses are incredibly powerful in speech and are a key component in sounding clear, confident and credible. Effective pausing allows you to punctuate your sentences, highlight your main points and gives your audience a chance to process what they have just heard. However, too many pauses can be frustrating for your audience and make you sound less credible. The pace of your speech will impact how people hear your message. If you speak too quickly, which can often happen if you re nervous, it can make you sound anxious, uncertain or insensitive to whether people understand you. Too slow can be boring, monotonous and make you sound unprepared or less articulate. You need a steady pace that is natural for you and incorporate lots of vocal variety to engage your audience. Try practicing pace and pause by reading any piece of text out loud. Record yourself and listen back to it to check how it sounds. TONE The tone of your voice can have a huge impact on the meaning of your words. See how many different meanings you can suggest by changing your tone and inflection when saying the following words: HELLO GOODBYE YES WHAT STRESS Emphasising certain words can enhance their impact and even change the meaning of a sentence depending on which word is emphasised. Try saying the following sentence 7 times just stressing a different word each time and see how many meanings this sentence has: I never said he loved his wife

4 PITCH Varying your pitch when speaking will keep your audience engaged. However, beware that a higher pitched voice sounds less authoritative; extremely low pitched voices can be difficult to hear. Try saying each of the following phrases using the pitch indicated in brackets: It s a wonderful day It s a lovely day It s a nice day It s a miserable day It s a horrid day (high pitch) (middle pitch with emphasis) (middle pitch) (lower pitch) (even lower pitch) Intonation is a good indicator of how you feel about what you re saying. Notice how your voice tends to rise when you make a positive point and fall when you make a negative one. We re doing well in Europe, but not in the Middle East Turnover is down, but productivity is up and for the second year running ** Note: Be careful not to give an upward inflection like a question when making a statement as this can make you sound uncertain and kill your credibility. VOLUME It is important to be heard when you re speaking so be aware of the audience and the environment you re speaking in to ensure that you use the correct volume. Too loud can sound arrogant and overbearing, too soft can sound weak and insecure. Varying your volume during a speech will add interest and make your speaking more dynamic. Practice projecting your voice and varying your volume by reading a piece of text out loud. VARIETY Try reading some text or saying some phrases with as much vocal variety as possible. Remember to vary volume, pitch, pace, pause, rhythm and tone. Here s a great quote (not true!) from the actor Geogre Jessel to try: The human brain starts working the moment you are born, and doesn t stop until you stand up to speak in public

5 CLARITY To really get your articulators working and your speech crisp and clear, say each of these tongue twisters out loud 3-4 times. There s one for every week of the year! 1. Where and when will wonderful Wendy wed? 2. I want a proper cup of coffee in a proper copper coffee pot 3. You know New York, you need New York, you know you need unique New York, New York s unique 4. Round and round the rugged rock the ragged rascal ran 5. A cheery tune for a choosey tuna 6. She sells sea shells by the sea shore; the sea shells she sells are sea shore sea shells 7. Red leather, yellow leather, red leather, yellow leather 8. The Leith Police dismisseth us 9. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers; if Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where s the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked? 10. She is a thistle sifter and she has a sieve of sifted thistles, and a sieve of unsifted thistles because she is a thistle sifter 11. Betty Botter bought a bit of butter, but she said This butter s bitter. If I put it in my batter it will make my batter bitter. So she bought a bit of butter, better than the bitter butter, and it made her bitter batter better! 12. Irish wristwatch, Irish wristwatch, Irish wristwatch 13. I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop; where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits 14. Send toast to ten tense stout saints ten tall tents 15. Peggy Babcock, Peggy Babcock, Peggy Babcock 16. Soldier shoulder solder, soldier shoulder solder, soldier shoulder solder 17. Quick kiss, quicker kiss, quickest kiss. 18. Possessive pronoun, possessive pronoun, possessive pronoun 19. Kitty caught the kitten in the kitchen 20. Plaid pleated pants, plaid pleated pants, plaid pleated pants 21. Ghosts get gobbled by ginormous gorillas 22. Dennis dropped Derek s digeridoo 23. Pickle people pick particular pickles, they prefer their pickles perfectly picked precisely so their pickles stick 24. A chip shop in space sells spaceship-shaped chips 25. Douglas Dougie s dog Doug dug deep holes 26. The winkle ship sank and the shrimp ship swam 27. Can you can a can as a canner can can a can? 28. The peppy puppy the prince presented the princess produced piles of poop in the palace

6 29. Black bug s blood, black bug s blood, black bug s blood 30. Lips, teeth, tip of the tongue, lips, teeth, tip of the tongue, lips, teeth, tip of the tongue 31. A big black bug bit a big black bear, and made the big black bear bleed blood 32. Red lorry yellow lorry, red lorry yellow lorry, red lorry yellow lorry 33. Fred fed Ted bread, and Ted fed Fred bread 34. Stupid superstition, stupid superstition, stupid superstition. 35. A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk. 36. Please pre-freeze the peas 37. Nixon knits Nick s knickers 38. Freshly fried flying fish 39. If Stu chews shoes, would Stu choose the shoes he chews? 40. Shep Schwab shopped at Scott s Schnapps shop; one shot of Scott s Schnapps stopped Schwab s watch 41. A big black bug bit a bold bald bear and the bold bald bear bled blood badly 42. Toy boat. Toy boat. Toy boat. 43. Pad kid poured curd pulled cold 44. The sixth sick sheik s sixth sheep s sick 45. Mixed biscuits. Mixed biscuits. Mixed biscuits. 46. Rubber baby buggy bumpers 47. The roof of the mouth, the tip of the tongue, the lips and the teeth 48. Six sick hicks nick six slick bricks with picks and sticks 49. Truly rural, truly rural, truly rural 50. Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches? 51. Many mini mice make nice merry music 52. Busy buzzing bumble bees 53. Six sticky skeletons stepping and skipping 54. Green glass gas globe 55. Supposed to be pistachio, supposed to be pistachio, supposed to be pistachio 56. Real weird rear wheels 57. Silly sheep weep and sleep 58. He threw three free throws 59. Sheena leads, Sheila needs, Sheena leads, Sheila needs 60. Santa s short suit shrunk If you have any questions or would like further assistance with developing your public speaking skills, please get in touch with Mel Sherwood via