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A calm, confident, pleasant voice is a huge advantage both in personal life and at work. Voice abilities are given to us from birth, but each of us can improve them. Actors, radio journalists, television people are taught to control their voice. A few simple tricks from their arsenal.
For starters, an inspiring example of American actress Meryl Streep. On one of the TV shows, she was asked to read the most boring short texts with different intonations. The actress made the recipe sound sexy, read the road report from the point of view of a woman who went into labor, and the Wikipedia article from the voice of a bored teenager.
Voice control
Voice characteristics are the strength of the voice, tempo, pitch, timbre, articulation. They depend on all elements of the vocal apparatus and influence each other. The psychological basis of a strong voice is self-confidence.
1. Inhale quickly and smoothly and pull “a-a-a” at a height acceptable to you, slowly and evenly pushing the air out for 10 seconds. Listen to the sound, make sure that it is stable to the end. Repeat the exercise for five minutes twice a day, increasing the time, if possible, without straining the larynx to 20-30 seconds. Save your breath, leave a sufficient supply of air.
2. Pull “ah-ah-ah”, but this time change the volume. Start quietly and gradually increase the volume of the sound to the limits of good audibility, and then reduce it to complete fading. Do this for several minutes daily until the sound becomes stable and obedient.
3. Read aloud excerpts from literary works. Watch your breath. Can you complete sentences? Is there enough air for this? Engage in reading aloud until you achieve sufficient airflow pressure when pronouncing the most expressive words.
We hold attention
Too fast speech betrays the inner tension and nervousness of the speaker and can cause discomfort to the listener. You need to give the listener time to understand what you are saying. Too slow and sluggish speech, on the contrary, leads to a loss of attention of the interlocutor. The following two exercises will help you adjust the pace of your speech.
1. Read aloud passages of text to your partner at a different pace: as fast as possible, as slowly as possible, at an average pace – vary the voice tempo from maximum to minimum. Ask your partner to give feedback: how your voice is perceived in this or that case. Choose the most perceptually successful voice patterns and read the text for 10 minutes a day, varying the pace. Record your speech on a voice recorder and check your perception with that of your partner.
Deep emotions always require a less jerky and smoother change of intonation.
2. Speak a speech or text, varying the placement and length of the pauses. The partner evaluates the effect of the spoken speech and helps to correct it in accordance with the tasks that you have defined for yourself.
Information and intonation
The pitch of the voice, its intonation carry much more information than the content of the speech.
1. Speak in a register from highest to lowest. The partner gives feedback and helps to develop the most pleasant pitch of the voice.
2. If your voice is too high, read aloud daily, relaxing the muscles in your larynx, until you have developed a lower voice and become accustomed to using it.
But the most important speech characteristic that unites all voice features is intonation. It is she who carries more than half of the auditory information. Say a phrase aloud, for example, “Once upon a cold winter time,” and learn to convey a state of curiosity, interest, indifference, peace, anger, disgust, anxiety with the help of intonation.
Use a voice recorder or a partner for self-control. Please note that the finality and immutability of the judgment is characterized by a rapid increase or decrease in intonation. The more sharply the intonation falls, the more categorical. Slowly rising and shallow intonations express uncertainty, bewilderment, doubt. Deep emotions always require a less jerky and smoother change of intonation. Suspicion, anxiety, threat can be expressed by lowering the voice.
Book on the topic
“First impression. Do you know how others perceive you? Anne Demarais and Valerie White
The authors argue that the ability to “submit” oneself at the first meeting (at a job interview, a friendly party, a date) depends on how we will be treated in the future. Explaining the principles on the basis of which we form opinions about each other, Ann Desmarais and Valerie White show how others perceive us, what they pay attention to first of all. And how can we create our own style of communication and make a favorable impression on the interlocutor, win him over.
Source: M. Kuznetsov and Igor Tsykunov “How to let others do it your way” (Prior, 2001).