This is The Public Speaker: Quick and Dirty Tips for Improving Your Communication Skills , with your host, Lisa B. Marshall.
Thanks to our sponsor, GoToMeeting. Do more and travel less. Try GoToMeeting today FREE for 45 days. Just visit GoToMeeting.com/podcasts. That's GoToMeeting.com/podcasts. Today's episode is my response to an anonymous email that was signed “Monotone Voice.” I have this problem when I talk or sing: No matter what I do, my voice sounds monotone. Is there any way to stop being monotone?
When I hear the word monotone, immediately I think of the voice of Ben Stein when he played the boring economics professor in Ferris Bueller's Day Off . “Bueller, Bueller, Bueller.” (If you aren't familiar with this, I put a link in the show notes.) So, why is a monotone voice boring? The hypnotic, repetitious evenness of the voice is what puts us to sleep. The sameness of the sound makes it bland and unemotional. The good news is this problem is fairly easy to fix. You just need to add vocal variety by combining differences in your pitch, rate, and volume. We'll talk about each of these. Pitch Pitch refers to how low or high someone speaks. The average for men is about 120 Hz and for women about 220 Hz. North Americans prefer low-pitched speaking voices, like that of James Earl Jones. His voice is extremely low pitched (averaging 80 Hz). Of course, he's the legendary actor who's the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars and Simba's dad in The Lion King . Research shows that low-pitch voices in general convey authority and credibility. And this applies to both men and women. In addition, high-pitched speakers are perceived as less truthful, less persuasive, weaker, and more nervous (Apple, Streeter, & Krauss, 1979). As an example, think of the voice of Gilbert Gottfried, who in 2001 was voted as having the worst and most annoying voice. (There a link to his voice in the show notes, too.)
So how can you change your pitch? Well, the pitch of your voice is mostly determined by nature, but it's not entirely beyond your control. It's important to be as relaxed as possible, so that you are able to speak at the lower end of your natural pitch. By the way, you can estimate your natural pitch by comfortably saying, “uh-huh.” To make your voice interesting, change the tone for certain sentences, phrases, or even just specific words. When presenting key ideas and summaries, you may want to slightly raise the pitch, because this will convey enthusiasm. An easy way to do that is to smile.
It's the range of variety that communicates emotion and passion. Even small changes to single words can have a big impact. Listen to how the meaning changes in the following sentence: I want to wear the red dress. I WANT to wear the red dress. I want to wear the RED dress.
Rate Another important aspect of your voice that impacts how others perceive you is the rate of your speech. This is how fast you speak. To give you an idea, normal conversation ranges from 125 to 225 words per minute. My rate of speech is generally in the middle of that range, publishers recommend books on tape to be voiced at 150-160 wpm, and auctioneers are generally 250-400 wpm. The Guinness record holder spoke 545 words in a minute.
Research suggests that people view faster-than-average talkers to be more competent; however, if you consistently talk too quickly, listeners may have trouble understanding you, they may get tired, or they may think you're nervous. If you consistently talk more slowly than average, you are likely to be perceived as boring, tired, and less intelligent.
Again, the key is to have variety. Changes in pace draw attention. When you speak more quickly you are communicating urgency, excitement, passion, or raw emotion. A build-up from slow to fast speech can lead the audience to expect that something exciting is going to occur.
When you slow down and pause slightly before speaking, it signals to your audience the importance or seriousness of the coming ideas. It's a signal to your audience to pay attention. This is good to do when you are summarizing.
You can slow down by putting extra space in your pauses and by lengthening the vowel sounds. Here's the same sentence again, using that technique. You can slow down by putting extra space in your pauses and by lengthening the vowel sounds. Of course, you can do the opposite to speed up.
Volume Finally, you'll need to consider your volume. Public speaking requires you to speak slightly more loudly than private speaking. Even if you are using a microphone, in order to have a fully resonant voice, you need to speak up. If you can't be heard, it doesn't matter what you say. Just like pitch and rate, variety is important. Say your main points or key word, either slightly more softly or more loudly. When you combine a change in volume with a change in rate or pitch, you'll definitely add interest and gain attention. Practice However, in order to move from a monotone voice to one with some vibrato, you'll need to practice. At first, it won't sound natural to you. This is the time to trust feedback from others. And here are two practice exercises you can try.
First, before you listen to your next Quick and Dirty Tips podcast, go to the show website and print the transcript. Read it aloud and mark it up for possible changes in pitch, rate, and volume. See if you can come up with at least two very different ways of delivering the material—then record yourself using Utterli or Viddler.
Send your recording to a friend or two and ask them to tell you what they liked about your vocal variety. Finally, as your last step, compare your recording to the production recording of the host. Notice the ways your vocal variety is similar or different from the host's. Another way to help you expand your vocal variety is to practice reading children's books. Pick a familiar story, read it aloud, and record. Even if you don't have small kids, pretend that you are really reading to children. Allow yourself to play with the words, exaggerating the pitch, rate, and volume. Send your recording to your grandkids, your nieces or nephews, or your friend's kids. It will make a unique gift and you are guaranteed to get an honest review from the very young listeners!
Summary So there you have it: some practical tips to enhance your vocal variety. I invite you to send me some practice recordings before and after you try the techniques. The most important thing to remember is to let your natural personality come through in your voice. If you incorporate dynamic changes in your pitch, rate, and volume you won't be monotone anymore. This is Lisa B. Marshall. Passionate about communication; your success is my business.
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Episode Question Who do you think has the best and worst speaking voices in the world? Send me your responses.
