{"id":235740,"date":"2012-08-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-08-17T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/full-speech-ahead-vocal-variety-part-1\/"},"modified":"2012-08-17T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-08-17T07:00:00","slug":"full-speech-ahead-vocal-variety-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/full-speech-ahead-vocal-variety-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Speech Ahead: Vocal Variety, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Milo Shapiro | Downtown News Guest Columnist<\/strong><\/p>\n

Q:\u00a0 I’ve been told that I ought to use more vocal variety, but this doesn\u2019t come natural to me.\u00a0 What can I do? \u00a0? W.L., Tierrasanta, Calif.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Having good vocal variety and using it in the right places in your presentation can make all the difference between being big news and being a big snooze!<\/p>\n

\"Full<\/a>
Milo Shapiro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I\u2019m coaching, I encourage the use of what I call the Seven Variants of Vocal Variety.\u00a0 These are simple things that one can work on varying to make a moment in your presentation different from the one it follows.\u00a0 Some might be incorporated into the same sentence, while others a whole section might be done a certain way, especially if you\u2019re creating a character to differentiate individual speakers in a story.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at the seven points, starting from the simplest, to those requiring more practice:<\/p>\n

1)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Volume.<\/strong>\u00a0 It may sound simple but some people don\u2019t vary this factor.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want you screaming at your audience or making them strain to hear you, but boosting volume can point out passion for a word or phrase vs. lowering volume to convey softness and ease on a topic.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Pitch.<\/strong>\u00a0 Singing is not the only place that pitch is important – and luckily with speaking – you don\u2019t even have to be \u201con pitch.\u201d\u00a0 You just have to vary it.\u00a0 Whether you tend to have a high- or low-pitched voice, you are capable of going higher and lower than you typically do.\u00a0 Try saying the following phrase all in the same pitch and then again saying the italicized words at a somewhat higher pitch:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t sell like that and I can\u2019t imagine<\/em> why we\u2019d want to!\u201d<\/p>\n

See how that sentence sounds livelier that way?\u00a0 I bet you increased your volume a bit as well, which is great, too (unless you\u2019re reading this column in a cubicle \u2026 )<\/p>\n

3)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Speed.<\/strong>\u00a0 Some of us naturally speak faster than others and that\u2019s okay, so long as you\u2019re not losing the audience members who might not be able to keep up. Yet, speak too slow \u2026 and some attendees, especially younger ones, will lose interest. The key again? Variety.<\/p>\n

4) \u00a0 Let\u2019s try saying this example all at one speed and then again while picking up the pace of the italicized portion, and then finally by finishing the phrase extra slowly:<\/p>\n

\u201cA key to customer loyalty ? and this is especially true with women <\/em>? is to show you\u2019re really listening.\u201d<\/p>\n

If your pitch went up in the middle too, good for you! Why is this effective? Because the return to the slow-down for that last phrase now makes it seem more significant.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much to say on vocal variety that I’ll save the other four points for our next column.<\/p>\n

These are simple things that one can work on varying to make a moment in your presentation different from the one it follows.<\/p>\n

Milo Shapiro is a San Diego-based<\/em> interactive motivational speaker,\u00a0<\/em>speaking coach is the author of<\/em> \u201cPublic Speaking: Get A\u2019s, Not Zzzzzz\u2019s!\u201d<\/em> Learn more <\/em>on his coaching & training at <\/em>www.PublicDynamics.com<\/em><\/a> ?and as a speaker\/teambuilder at <\/em>www.IMPROVentures.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Milo Shapiro | Downtown News Guest Columnist Q:\u00a0 I’ve been told that I ought to use more vocal variety, but this doesn\u2019t come natural to me.\u00a0 What can I do? \u00a0? W.L., Tierrasanta, Calif. Having good vocal variety and using it in the right places in your presentation can make all the difference between […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1192,"featured_media":235668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Full Speech Ahead: Vocal Variety, Part 1","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1192"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235740"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235740\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}