Using your voice

Essential skills of a public speaker

A successful and memorable speech brings together many skills. First come the idea and message behind your speech and the words you choose to convey them. Then, there is the way you organise your thoughts and the structure of your speech, something we touched on in our last post. Finally, there are the vocal and physical aspects of how you deliver your speech – how you use your voice and what you do with your body and facial expressions. It all goes into the mix and each individual skill and attribute takes practice.

Let’s take a look at your voice

If you come to one of our meetings, you’ll notice that we talk a lot about voice. That’s because what you do with it, is one of the most important elements of your speech.

To start, of course, you need clarity of articulation. That doesn’t mean BBC English but it does mean taking care that you can be heard and understood. That you pronounce things clearly and accurately. And never more so than in recent months when Zoom has taken centre stage for many of us. Issues with microphones, unstable internet connections and background noise all make clarity of voice your first port of call when thinking of delivering your speech.

But your voice has so much more to give

Your voice is what makes your speech more interesting, driving your point home and captivating your audience.

There’s the pace that you use. You can speed up your voice, slow it down, and most importantly of all, include pauses. Pausing adds emphasis, drama, and effect to a speech. A pause can be momentary or could last for 8 seconds or more. You might have one pause …or multiple pauses. You can pause at the end of a sentence, in between words, or even before you start!

Then there’s the pitch, volume, and tone of your voice. A fun exercise to help you understand and practice this, is to try saying one sentence in different ways. For example, try saying I told you so in an angry voice, a loving voice, a sympathetic voice.  Now say it loudly and softly, in a whisper perhaps. Now try saying it in a deep, baritone voice and then a high squeaky voice. Whilst this may just be a bit of fun, by doing this exercise, you can start to explore what your voice can do.

Finally, think about cadence and rhythm. A good speech should ebb and flow like a river. Good rhythm will make it easier to deliver and to remember. In parts it may be a little staccato (like rapid gunfire) and in other parts, it may gently flow along taking the listener with it.

The best way to find out whether your speech has rhythm is to practice. If you find yourself lurching from one point to another, something has gone wrong. Often, just a few little tweaks will soon have your speech back on track. Think about what connecting sentences you could use to ease the transition from one point to another without being too jerky.

Now mix it up

We often talk about adding shades of light and dark to a speech by use of voice. It’s obvious really. We have all sat through a speech delivered in a dull and monotone voice. And with the best will in the world, it’s hard to stay focused, however interesting the content of the speech may be. Counteract this by using your voice in diverse and interesting ways. This may not come instantly, it may feel awkward at first but prepare, play around, and then practice.

If you’d like some help and somewhere supportive and safe to practice, why not join one of our meetings. At the moment, lots of our clubs are meeting via Zoom, and what’ll you notice is that they provide a friendly, knowledgeable and supportive environment where you’ll receive encouragement and helpful feedback.