Breathing: The Seductive Key to Unlocking Your

Vocal Variety
by Kate Peters

Updated: Aug 29th, 2013

Everyone breathes. Its one of the most natural

things we do.
However, if you ask singers to name the most important part of vocal technique, 9 out of 10
will say breathing.
So, is there some special way to breathe that makes your voice better? Yes!
In this article, we explore breathing as it relates to vocal variety as a speaker. Ill
provide you an easy to follow technique, as well as tips to improve your voice through better
use of air.
The results of applying these tips will be more Power, better Pacing, more interesting
Pitch and more effective Pauses in your speaking.

Contents

Lose Your Breath, Lose Your Voice

Overview of Breathing

Breathing 101
Breathing and Vocal Variety

Pace

Pitch

Pause

Power
Practical Advice for Daily Life

Lose Your Breath, Lose Your Voice

In Edgar Allen Poes short story, Loss of Breath, the narrator loses his breath as he is
about to berate his wife. Except for some frog-like utterances, his voice also stops with his
breath. Shocked by this, he agonizes, philosophizes, and tries to hide his condition, all to no
avail. Eventually, he finds his voice when he finds his breath. (Did I mention that someone
stole it? This is Poe, after all!) Although the story is a bit macabre, it underlines the fact
that if you lose your breath, you lose your voice and its never a good idea to berate your
wife.

Overview of Breathing
So how does one breathe for better speaking and singing? Well, watch a baby breathe. Youll
see that she seems to breath from her stomach, but she is really using her abdominal
muscles. Its breathing 101 so easy a baby can do it. Heres how its done:

Breathing 101
Read the following instructions out loud carefully, and then try them. (An audio file of these
instructions can be heard by clicking here.)
1.

Sit forward in a chair and let your stomach muscles relax.

2.

Breathe in through your nose and imagine that you are a vessel filling up with air
as you would pour water into a vase. Fill up your abdomen first, then your lower ribs
(you should feel them expand) and then all the way up to your chin.

3.

Hold this breath for a count of ten.

4.

Now exhale slowly. As you exhale, keep your ribs expanded and tighten your
abdomen as you would if you were doing a crunchthat is, the lower abdominal
muscles should come in first as though you were rolling up a tube of toothpaste. (Since
you are not a tube of toothpaste, keep your chest up as you exhale.)

5.

Repeat. Once you have mastered the exercise sitting down, practice incorporating
it into your speaking and singing. You may need to do it slowly at first until you can
coordinate all the actions smoothly.

The key thing to remember is that breathing should be low and expansive.

The key thing to remember is that breathing should be low and expansive. If you do the
exercise correctly, your stomach will go in while your chest stays out and expands.
Practicing this technique will provide many benefits, including:

Awareness of your breathing will enable you to breathe more effectively.

Proper posture for breathing creates a confident, strong appearance. Deeper

breathing makes you feel more confident and strong as well. Andrew Weil, MD writes,
You cannot always center yourself emotionally by an act of will, but you can use your
voluntary nerves to make your breathing slow, deep, quiet, and regular, and the rest
will follow.
Deep breathing decreases tension and helps to focus intellectual activity. Charles

Kirk describes how proper breathing technique helps him to remain calm on the trading
floor.

Breathing and Vocal Variety

An earlier Six Minutes article advised you to use your voice to complement your message.
This is what I refer to as vocal image: how you are perceived by the sound of your voice.
Ideally, you want your content to align with your delivery method and both to align with the
sound of your voice. Vocal variety is all about the sound of the voice and, in this case, that
vocal image is created through several aspects of your sound, including pace, pitch, pause,
and power.

Pace
Pace is the speed of your delivery. In general, for vocal variety you are encouraged to vary
your pace by speeding up and slowing down appropriately for the message you are
delivering. However, some people have trouble with pacing due to poor breathing. If you
speak too quickly, or if your speaking is labored or too slow, consider the following:

Vary your pace by speeding up and slowing down appropriately for the message
you are delivering.

Speaking too fast is often the result of not stopping to breathe often enough.
Solution: To slow down your speaking with the breath, consciously take a breath
before you begin. Remember to stop and breathe between ideas. The next time you
practice a presentation, take time to inhale and exhale deeply five times before you

start to speak. Then take one more deep breath and exhale vigorously into your first
words.
Speaking too slowly can also be caused by not taking in and using enough air.

Solution: Not using enough air can cause a person to sound dull and lifeless. This may
also be caused by poor posture. Practice the breathing technique above, paying special
attention to posture. Be sure you move that air with the abdominal muscles as you
speak. Overdo the latter when you practice so you really feel the breath in the sound.
By breathing deeper and then using all the air in your sound, you create a more
energetic sound and you feel more energized, too.

Pitch

Pitch is determined by the notes we use when we speak. Yes,

we use notes when speaking just as we do for singing. Speaking notes, however, are
random, informally ordered, and usually of shorter duration than notes we sing. To create
vocal variety, one uses different pitches to make their sound more interesting. Sometimes
problems with creating variety in pitch can be the result of poor breathing technique. Here
are two such problems, their likely causes, and some ways to fix them:

A voice that is too high-pitched and thin can be the result of shallow breathing
(without abdominal expansion and support).
Solution: The solution to shallow breathing is to relax the abdomen and drop the air in
lower. This also relaxes the larynx so it doesnt ride so high. A high larynx can create a
higher, thinner sound.

If your voice sounds squeezed or strained, or too low, you may not be using all
the air you take in.
Lisa Braithwaite comments rightly that speaking too low can do vocal damage.
Another lesson from Poes prose is that you can produce a sound without breath. He
writes:
I discovered that had I, at that interesting crisis, dropped my voice to a singularly deep
guttural, I might still have continued this pitch of voice (the guttural) depending, I find,

not upon the current of the breath, but upon a certain spasmodic action of the muscles of
the throat.
If you dont want to be limited to a guttural growl, air should flow freely in your voice. You
can improve a strained sound by practicing a breathy sound and then gradually adding more
and more vocal sound to it. I call this energizing the voice. It also has the effect of making
pitch variety much easier to achieve because the voice becomes free to move and create
more pitches. If you do this correctly, you will definitely feel the freedom in your voice!

Pause
Awareness of breathing makes for natural pauses.
When speaking, pauses are the golden silences that allow your listeners to take in what you
are saying. They are the beats an actor uses between phrases; they are that special
something that leads to comedic timing. Importantly, pauses also give us time to breathe.
Heres how to apply breathing to your pauses:

Breathe before speaking your first words.

Taking that first breath allows you to align everything physically, mentally, and
emotionally. It also allows your larynx to be stimulated but relaxed. And finally, it gets
the oxygen flowing so that you can think more clearly and look your best.

Be aware of your breathing.

It is amazing to see how many people simply forget to breathe when they are in front
of an audience. As you may have experienced, nerves can play a big part in forgetting
to breathe and feeling out of breath. So the short term solution to this, as blogger
Denise Graveline mentions, is to pause and breathe! The long-term solution, however,
is to practice being aware of your breathing all day long. Awareness of breathing makes
for natural pauses. The more you practice, the more likely it is youll remember to
breathe when youre speaking in public.

Power
A common misconception about Power is that it is the same thing as volume. The truth is
that vocal power is so much more than how loud you are. Vocal power is all about the
impact your sound has on others. Your personal vocal power may be found in the tone of
your sound or in how you phrase a thought. Many people are surprised to learn that power
can be heightened or lessened by how they breathe and how they use their breath.

Sound moves on air, so you need to have air to get a powerful sound. You
can speak loudly, but if you arent incorporating that air into your sound, you will be
shouting. Your impact on others may be quite different than you intended! In addition,
keeping the air moving with the sound allows for wonderful control of your voice so that
you can use all of your vocal variety techniques more effectively.

A powerful speaker is one who is relaxed and comfortable. A powerful voice

is relaxed and comfortable. Breathing deeply relaxes the larynx so the voice can settle
into a comfortable, natural sound rather than one that is contrived or forced.

Practical Advice for Daily Life

Try to practice good breathing technique several times a day and soon you will naturally
incorporate it into your everyday speaking. Here are a few tips for practicing breathing:

Practice breathing while driving. Your hands are raised as you drive which
makes it easier to keep your chest high. And practicing breathing can also ease road
rage significantly!

Practice breathing while sitting at your desk when you would normally be
slumped over in your chair. Sit on the edge of your chair and take 10 practice breaths
three times a day.

Practice breathing when you are about to go to sleep or lying down on the
floor at the end of a workout session. When you are lying down, it is easier to isolate
the abdominal muscles and strengthen them for proper breathing. (You can even put a
book on your abdomen to exaggerate the way you use those muscles for even better
awareness of how to do this correctly. Watch the book go up and down as you breathe
with your stomach.)
The final and real test, of course, will come in how well you incorporate good breathing into
your presentations. On the day of your big presentation, remember to consciously practice
using the air you take in. Take time to inhale and exhale deeply five times before you start
to speak, then take one more deep breath and breathe into your first words. Dont forget to
slow down and breathe from time to time during the course of a talk in front of an audience.

As they say, practice makes perfect. So practice and it wont be long before you are able to
make your learned breathing as natural as the breathing you are using now, and the
benefits will be enormous.

Breathing: The Seductive Key to Unlocking Your

Vocal Variety
by Kate Peters

Updated: Aug 29th, 2013

Everyone breathes. Its one of the most natural

things we do.
However, if you ask singers to name the most important part of vocal technique, 9 out of 10
will say breathing.
So, is there some special way to breathe that makes your voice better? Yes!
In this article, we explore breathing as it relates to vocal variety as a speaker. Ill
provide you an easy to follow technique, as well as tips to improve your voice through better
use of air.
The results of applying these tips will be more Power, better Pacing, more interesting
Pitch and more effective Pauses in your speaking.

Contents

Lose Your Breath, Lose Your Voice

Overview of Breathing

Breathing 101
Breathing and Vocal Variety

Pace

Pitch

Pause

Power
Practical Advice for Daily Life

Lose Your Breath, Lose Your Voice

In Edgar Allen Poes short story, Loss of Breath, the narrator loses his breath as he is
about to berate his wife. Except for some frog-like utterances, his voice also stops with his
breath. Shocked by this, he agonizes, philosophizes, and tries to hide his condition, all to no
avail. Eventually, he finds his voice when he finds his breath. (Did I mention that someone
stole it? This is Poe, after all!) Although the story is a bit macabre, it underlines the fact
that if you lose your breath, you lose your voice and its never a good idea to berate your
wife.

Overview of Breathing
So how does one breathe for better speaking and singing? Well, watch a baby breathe. Youll
see that she seems to breath from her stomach, but she is really using her abdominal
muscles. Its breathing 101 so easy a baby can do it. Heres how its done:

Breathing 101
Read the following instructions out loud carefully, and then try them. (An audio file of these
instructions can be heard by clicking here.)
1.

Sit forward in a chair and let your stomach muscles relax.

2.

Breathe in through your nose and imagine that you are a vessel filling up with air
as you would pour water into a vase. Fill up your abdomen first, then your lower ribs
(you should feel them expand) and then all the way up to your chin.

3.

Hold this breath for a count of ten.

4.

Now exhale slowly. As you exhale, keep your ribs expanded and tighten your
abdomen as you would if you were doing a crunchthat is, the lower abdominal
muscles should come in first as though you were rolling up a tube of toothpaste. (Since
you are not a tube of toothpaste, keep your chest up as you exhale.)

5.

Repeat. Once you have mastered the exercise sitting down, practice incorporating
it into your speaking and singing. You may need to do it slowly at first until you can
coordinate all the actions smoothly.

The key thing to remember is that breathing should be low and expansive.
The key thing to remember is that breathing should be low and expansive. If you do the
exercise correctly, your stomach will go in while your chest stays out and expands.
Practicing this technique will provide many benefits, including:

Awareness of your breathing will enable you to breathe more effectively.

Proper posture for breathing creates a confident, strong appearance. Deeper

breathing makes you feel more confident and strong as well. Andrew Weil, MD writes,
You cannot always center yourself emotionally by an act of will, but you can use your
voluntary nerves to make your breathing slow, deep, quiet, and regular, and the rest
will follow.
Deep breathing decreases tension and helps to focus intellectual activity. Charles

Kirk describes how proper breathing technique helps him to remain calm on the trading
floor.

Breathing and Vocal Variety

An earlier Six Minutes article advised you to use your voice to complement your message.
This is what I refer to as vocal image: how you are perceived by the sound of your voice.
Ideally, you want your content to align with your delivery method and both to align with the
sound of your voice. Vocal variety is all about the sound of the voice and, in this case, that
vocal image is created through several aspects of your sound, including pace, pitch, pause,
and power.

Pace
Pace is the speed of your delivery. In general, for vocal variety you are encouraged to vary
your pace by speeding up and slowing down appropriately for the message you are
delivering. However, some people have trouble with pacing due to poor breathing. If you
speak too quickly, or if your speaking is labored or too slow, consider the following:

Vary your pace by speeding up and slowing down appropriately for the message
you are delivering.

Speaking too fast is often the result of not stopping to breathe often enough.

Solution: To slow down your speaking with the breath, consciously take a breath
before you begin. Remember to stop and breathe between ideas. The next time you
practice a presentation, take time to inhale and exhale deeply five times before you
start to speak. Then take one more deep breath and exhale vigorously into your first
words.
Speaking too slowly can also be caused by not taking in and using enough air.

Solution: Not using enough air can cause a person to sound dull and lifeless. This may
also be caused by poor posture. Practice the breathing technique above, paying special
attention to posture. Be sure you move that air with the abdominal muscles as you
speak. Overdo the latter when you practice so you really feel the breath in the sound.
By breathing deeper and then using all the air in your sound, you create a more
energetic sound and you feel more energized, too.

Pitch

Pitch is determined by the notes we use when we speak. Yes,

we use notes when speaking just as we do for singing. Speaking notes, however, are
random, informally ordered, and usually of shorter duration than notes we sing. To create
vocal variety, one uses different pitches to make their sound more interesting. Sometimes
problems with creating variety in pitch can be the result of poor breathing technique. Here
are two such problems, their likely causes, and some ways to fix them:

A voice that is too high-pitched and thin can be the result of shallow breathing
(without abdominal expansion and support).
Solution: The solution to shallow breathing is to relax the abdomen and drop the air in
lower. This also relaxes the larynx so it doesnt ride so high. A high larynx can create a
higher, thinner sound.

If your voice sounds squeezed or strained, or too low, you may not be using all
the air you take in.
Lisa Braithwaite comments rightly that speaking too low can do vocal damage.

Another lesson from Poes prose is that you can produce a sound without breath. He
writes:
I discovered that had I, at that interesting crisis, dropped my voice to a singularly deep
guttural, I might still have continued this pitch of voice (the guttural) depending, I find,
not upon the current of the breath, but upon a certain spasmodic action of the muscles of
the throat.
If you dont want to be limited to a guttural growl, air should flow freely in your voice. You
can improve a strained sound by practicing a breathy sound and then gradually adding more
and more vocal sound to it. I call this energizing the voice. It also has the effect of making
pitch variety much easier to achieve because the voice becomes free to move and create
more pitches. If you do this correctly, you will definitely feel the freedom in your voice!

Pause
Awareness of breathing makes for natural pauses.
When speaking, pauses are the golden silences that allow your listeners to take in what you
are saying. They are the beats an actor uses between phrases; they are that special
something that leads to comedic timing. Importantly, pauses also give us time to breathe.
Heres how to apply breathing to your pauses:

Breathe before speaking your first words.

Taking that first breath allows you to align everything physically, mentally, and
emotionally. It also allows your larynx to be stimulated but relaxed. And finally, it gets
the oxygen flowing so that you can think more clearly and look your best.

Be aware of your breathing.

It is amazing to see how many people simply forget to breathe when they are in front
of an audience. As you may have experienced, nerves can play a big part in forgetting
to breathe and feeling out of breath. So the short term solution to this, as blogger
Denise Graveline mentions, is to pause and breathe! The long-term solution, however,
is to practice being aware of your breathing all day long. Awareness of breathing makes
for natural pauses. The more you practice, the more likely it is youll remember to
breathe when youre speaking in public.

Power

A common misconception about Power is that it is the same thing as volume. The truth is
that vocal power is so much more than how loud you are. Vocal power is all about the
impact your sound has on others. Your personal vocal power may be found in the tone of
your sound or in how you phrase a thought. Many people are surprised to learn that power
can be heightened or lessened by how they breathe and how they use their breath.

Sound moves on air, so you need to have air to get a powerful sound. You
can speak loudly, but if you arent incorporating that air into your sound, you will be
shouting. Your impact on others may be quite different than you intended! In addition,
keeping the air moving with the sound allows for wonderful control of your voice so that
you can use all of your vocal variety techniques more effectively.

A powerful speaker is one who is relaxed and comfortable. A powerful voice

is relaxed and comfortable. Breathing deeply relaxes the larynx so the voice can settle
into a comfortable, natural sound rather than one that is contrived or forced.

Practical Advice for Daily Life

Try to practice good breathing technique several times a day and soon you will naturally
incorporate it into your everyday speaking. Here are a few tips for practicing breathing:

Practice breathing while driving. Your hands are raised as you drive which
makes it easier to keep your chest high. And practicing breathing can also ease road
rage significantly!

Practice breathing while sitting at your desk when you would normally be
slumped over in your chair. Sit on the edge of your chair and take 10 practice breaths
three times a day.

Practice breathing when you are about to go to sleep or lying down on the
floor at the end of a workout session. When you are lying down, it is easier to isolate
the abdominal muscles and strengthen them for proper breathing. (You can even put a
book on your abdomen to exaggerate the way you use those muscles for even better
awareness of how to do this correctly. Watch the book go up and down as you breathe
with your stomach.)
The final and real test, of course, will come in how well you incorporate good breathing into
your presentations. On the day of your big presentation, remember to consciously practice

using the air you take in. Take time to inhale and exhale deeply five times before you start
to speak, then take one more deep breath and breathe into your first words. Dont forget to
slow down and breathe from time to time during the course of a talk in front of an audience.
As they say, practice makes perfect. So practice and it wont be long before you are able to
make your learned breathing as natural as the breathing you are using now, and the
benefits will be enormous.

http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/vocal-variety-speech-breathing/

Vocal variety refers to the way we use our voice. It is a combination of

elements: pitch, tone, volume and rate.

Pitch
To understand pitch, think of music. It has high and low notes as do
people's voices. Everyone's voice has a natural pitch. Women's tend to be
higher than men's, and everybody has a pitch range: the number of notes
habitually used. When that range is very small, the effect is monotonous.

Tone
Tone refers to the emotional content carried by our voices. It is not the
words themselves, but 'how' we say them. To speak expressively, is to fill or
energize our words appropriately.
For example: a person who puts very little energy into their speech, no
matter what they are saying, is often described as being 'flat'. By contrast
someone who fills their speech to overflowing with energy is described as
being 'exuberant' or 'enthusiastic'.
If you think of a word as a basket carrying its meaning or intent along, you'll
get the idea. Some people put very little in their word baskets. Others stuff
them so full they almost burst.

Volume

How loudly or quietly you speak is called volume. Some people are
habitually loud and others quiet, regardless of their speech content. The tips
and exercises below will help you consciously play with your volume control.

Rate
The term 'rate' refers to speaking pace.
How fast or slow do you speak? Can you vary the rate? Do you know the
effect of slowing or speeding up deliberately?
Speaking rate matters because how fast or how slow you speak alters the
listener's perception of your topic.

Click here for speaking rate exercises and banish mono-speed forever.
Return to Top

The goal of the speaker

Every would-be competent speaker's ultimate goal is:

to find the most appropriate expression to meet the audience's needs.

to match those needs with the content of their speech.

to have a range of vocal varieties in their skill set to select the most
appropriate from. This gives you vocal flexibility.
Return to Top

Quick, easy effective tips for vocal variety

Have fun with these. The more you can relax and enjoy the exercises the
more you'll get out of them.
If you have a recorder, use it. Often what we think we're doing with our
voices is very different from the reality. A recorder helps you hear where you
need to put in the work.

Exercises for PITCH

One Note Charlie:

Take a deep breath in and begin speaking on whatever topic you
choose until you run out of breath. It could be what is front of you in the
room, or out the window, what you had for breakfast...anything. Remain on
the SAME note all the time.

When you have finished, choose another note. It could be higher or lower
and repeat.

Pay careful attention to the effect it has on you! Notice the difference when
you pitch your voice higher and then lower. You should feel a physical
difference as well as an emotional one.

See-Saw, Up-down:

Practice swinging between your upper and lower range. Using any piece of
text from a newspaper, magazine, or book, read aloud.

The first sentence is up, the next is down. Continue see-sawing for at least a
minute.

Now make the see-saw work faster. Read the same passage but this time it
is three words up and three words down. Continue to play with variations!
(It will sound ridiculous but it doesn't matter. You're not going for meaning.
This is flexibility practice for range!)

Pitch Experimentation:
Say the sentences below in your high, middle and low pitch range. Note
what happens to the intensity and the way you perceive the emotional
content of the sentences. There will be a distinct variation between each.
1.

Her Grandmother died yesterday.

2.

I want a new car.

3.

This dinner is delicious.

4.

People should love their neighbors as themselves.

Return to Top

Exercises for TONE

The Ham Sandwich Exercise:

Repeat the words 'Ham Sandwich' in as many varying ways as you can.
For example say it angrily, happily, sadly, lovingly, despairingly, laughingly,
importantly, slyly, snidely, shyly ...

This is a fantastic exercise to share with a partner. Take turn about giving
each other the way to say the phrase. Repeat until you run out of variations
and remember to listen for emotional truth or believability!

Extension Ham Sandwich:

Use the phrase to 'converse'. Take an emotional state and build a whole
conversation around the phrase 'Ham Sandwich'.
For example:
Imagine you've just seen the most exciting thing. You want to share that
experience with a friend. You ring to tell them. The catch is you must use the
words 'Ham Sandwich' to convey your feeling and NO others.
Try consoling using 'Ham Sandwich' or congratulating. Experiment with as
many different ways as you can.

And yet Another Ham Sandwich:

This time take two opposite emotions, for example: happy - sad or angry contented...
Start with one emotion and gradually switch to the other. Make sure
you gradethe switch. Unless we're very, very excitable emotionally, we
seldom alter suddenly from one to the other.
Don't worry if you feel silly ie. several sandwiches short of a picnic! Let go
and have fun.

Telephone Book Readings:

Open the telephone book at any page. Select a style* or emotion and read
aloud whatever is there. Sustain each feeling state for at least a minute. This
gives you time to get into it. Listen to yourself to make sure you are filling
those words with the appropriate emotion.
* Style?
For fun and variation read your page in the style of a newsreader, a race
commentator, a preacher, Marilyn Munroe ...

Reading Children's Stories:

Take a familiar story and read aloud. As you do make sure your voice carries
the meaning of the words. If a scary voice is asked for, use one. If somebody
isbossy, sound bossy. If someone is teasing, put a teasing tone in your
voice. If there's a beat to the words, go with it. Find and emphasize it.
Children's stories are often written to be read aloud. The way to
communicate their message fully is to live into them.
This a great exercise to record. When you listen to yourself, be alert for
areas to improve. Record it again with the changes.
And remember to try out your new improved reading skills with a child. Their
feedback is direct and honest. You'll soon know whether they enjoy the story
or not!

Click for more specific information on using characterization techniques.

You'll find exercises to help you improve your expression, particularly if you
are telling stories as part of a speech.

Watch & Listen to Recordings of Famous Speeches:

For example: Be inspired by Martin Luther King's 1963 speech, 'I Have a
Dream'.

Listen to Recordings of Novels, Short Stories,

Autobiographies ...
Many of these are read by highly skilled actors. Apart from enjoying the
story, you will learn a great deal about expression. Here's a superb article
fromdigitaltrends.com with links to 16 sources of free audio books.
Return to Top

Exercises for VOLUME

Use the following exercises if you decide not to use a microphone and want
toproject your voice naturally.
The skill involved with getting louder (or softer) is to maintain tone and pitch
while altering the sound level. Many people lose them both, particularly
when they get louder.
Shouting may guarantee you get heard but it doesn't usually mean heard
with pleasure. And the other down-side to shouting is straining your voice.
Good breath control is fundamental to raising the volume while maintaining
tone and pitch. Begin with the first exercise before moving on to the others.

Practice Breathing Using your Diaphragm:

Stand in front of a mirror.
Make sure your feet are a comfortable shoulder width apart.
Pull yourself up straight and let your head sit square on your neck.
Place one hand on your stomach.
Breathe in through your nose.

You should feel your stomach rising and then breathe out. This time your
stomach falls.
Watch your shoulders. If they rise and fall noticeably you are most likely
breathing off the top of your lungs! Try until you can feel a definite rise and
fall of your stomach while keeping relaxed.

Click this link for more breathing exercises. These will help with any anxiety
issues you may have too.

Distancing Technique for Projection:

Maintain the breathing technique outlined above while adding voice.
While watching yourself to check for tension, (tightening of muscles),
practicegreeting yourself at ever increasing distances from a mirror.
If your room is small, do the exercise outside and imagine the mirror! It
remains in the same place all the time. 'Hello Bob', is right up close. Take
two steps back and repeat. Now take more steps back and so on.
If you feel any tension in your throat or chest from forcing the
sound, stop.Breathe and begin again.
It helps to imagine the sound arcing through the air, in a concentrated
focused stream to reach its target. The further away you get, the more
control you need to have over the outflow of air carrying your words.
When you think you have a neutral 'Hello Bob' mastered, add emotional
color. Say 'Hello Bob', nastily, lovingly, sweetly ... while keeping relaxed.

Laugh Out-loud:
Stand in front of your mirror breathing easily. On your out breath begin a
series of Ha-ha-ha-ha's until all your breath is used.

Take an in breath and start again. Vary your laughter. Make it louder, make it
quiet and then build it up again. Repeat until you are laughing loudly and
easily without any strain.

Read Out-loud:
Make sure your stance and breathing is good. Pin point a place at the far
end of your room to talk to. For example, I used a painting on the back wall
of the rehearsal hall.
Read aloud from your text, making sure you maintain your relaxed state
while using as much vocal variety as you can.
A good way to test you're working as you should is to do this exercise with a
partner. Have them stand at the far end of the room you're practicing in.
Give instructions to give you feedback on clarity, variety and pitch.
If you find yourself rising in pitch, check your breathing. When we tense, we
strain the throat and when that happens our vocal chords are restricted. The
result is we force the pitch up and limit the range or color we can put into
our words.
If you haven't got a partner available, be very aware of the changes in your
body as you tighten. You will feel the strain in your upper chest and throat.
In addition your shoulders will lift and you will run yourself out of breath
easily.
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That's it!
Have fun practicing your Quick Easy Effective Tips for Vocal Variety.
Aim for control over one or two aspects at a time. Remember it's not so
much the length of time you practice but the regularity. Ten minutes once a
day over several weeks is more effective than an intense hour long session
once in a blue moon.
http://www.write-out-loud.com/quickeasyeffectivetipsforvocalvariety.html#variety

SlideRocket Presentation Tip 10 Ways To Stop

Boring Your Listeners (How to use Vocal Variety)
By Nat Robinson on February 18, 2010

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This post was contributed by Susan Dugdale of Write-Out-Loud. Thanks Susan!

Heres the problem and its remedy is vocal variety.
You are giving a speech or presentation and, although the content is excellent and matches your
audiences expectation and needs, nobody is listening.

Vocal variety can cure your bored audience.

Instead you are looking at blank, disinterested faces. Someone is checking their watch, another is
doodling, and that person in the front row is struggling to stay awake.
Your voice is turning ears off. To put it bluntly, it is boring.
The cure for deaf by monotone, (mono-speed, mono-pitch or any other one way or no way), is vocal
variety. You need it if you want to be actively heard.
Vocal variety is achieved through varying your voice pitch, tone, volume and speaking rate.
Its the combination of these elements that gives a voice its vocal signature. Lack of variety in any
one of them can make you boring to listen to.
To understand pitch think of music. It has high and low notes as do peoples voices. Everyones
voice has a natural pitch and a womens voice is generally higher than a mans. In addition,
everyone has a pitch range, the number of notes they habitually use. When that range is very small
the effect is monotonous to listen to.
Tone refers to the emotional content carried by our voices. It is not the words themselves but how we
say them. To speak expressively is to fill or energise our words appropriately. For example, a person
who puts very little energy into their speech no matter what they are talking about is often described
as being flat. By contrast someone who fills their speech to overflowing with energy is described
as exuberant, enthusiastic orpassionate. If you think of a word as a basket to carry its meaning,
youll get the idea. Some people put very little in their word baskets. Others stuff them to overflowing.
Volume is how loudly or quietly you speak. If you are either habitually loud or quiet, you need to
learn how to consciously turn down or up the volume.
Speaking rate refers to the rate words come out of your mouth: how fast or slow you speak.
Your goal as a speaker is to have people listen. To achieve that you need to use the most
appropriate expression or vocal delivery, matching both your content and your audiences needs.
Banish boring monotony with these 10 vocal variety tips.

1. Try this experiment for Pitch

Say the sentences below in your high, middle and low pitch range. Note what happens to the
intensity and the way you perceive their emotional content when you alter the pitch. There will be a
distinct variation between each.
Her Grandmother died yesterday.
I want a new car.
This dinner is delicious.
People should love their neighbors as themselves.
2. The Tone Ham Sandwich Exercise:
Repeat the words Ham Sandwich in as many varying ways as you can. For example say it angrily,
happily, sadly, lovingly, despairingly, laughingly, importantly, slyly, snidely, shyly This is a fantastic
exercise to share with a partner. Take turn about giving each other the way to say the phrase.
Repeat until you run out of variations. NB. Listen for emotional truth or believability!
3. Telephone Book Readings for Improving Tone:
Open the telephone book at any page. Select a style* or emotion and read aloud whatever is there.
Sustain each feeling state for at least a minute. This gives you time to get into it. Listen to yourself to
make sure you are filling those words with the appropriate emotion.
*Style? For fun and variation read your page in the style of a newsreader, a race commentator, a
preacher, Marilyn Munroe
4. Reading Childrens Stories:
Take a familiar story and read it aloud. As you do make sure your voice carries the meaning of the
words. If a scary voice is asked for, use one. If somebody is bossy, sound bossy. If someone is
teasing, put a teasing tone in your voice. If theres a beat to the words, go with it. Find and
emphasize it.
This a great exercise to record. When you listen to yourself, be alert for areas to improve. Record it
again with the changes. And remember to try out your new improved reading skills with a child. Their
feedback is direct and honest. Youll soon know whether they enjoy the story or not!
5. Listen to Recordings of Novels,Short Stories, Autobiographies
Many of these are read by highly skilled actors. Apart from enjoying the story, you will learn a great
deal about expression. You can find audio tapes or CDs at your local library or download them from
the net. Many are free!

6. For Volume:
Use the following exercises to learn to project your voice naturally.
The skill involved with getting louder (or softer) is to maintain tone and pitch while altering the sound
level. Many people lose them both, particularly when they get louder. Shouting may guarantee you
get heard but it doesnt usually mean heard with pleasure. And the other down-side to shouting is
straining your voice. Good breath control is one of major keys to upping the volume while
maintaining tone and pitch.
Practice Breathing Using your Diaphragm:
Stand in front of a mirror. Make sure your feet are a comfortable shoulder width apart. Pull yourself
up straight and let your head sit square on your neck. Place one hand on your stomach. Breathe in.
You should feel your stomach rising and then breathe out. This time your stomach falls. Watch your
shoulders. If they rise and fall noticeably you are most likely breathing off the top of your lungs. Try
until you can see and feel a definite rise and fall of your stomach while staying relaxed.
7. Distancing Technique for Volume Projection
Maintain the breathing technique outlined above and add voice. While watching yourself in the mirror
to check for tension, (tightening of muscles), practice greeting yourself at ever increasing distances
from the mirror. The first Hello Susan, Bob (insert your name) is right up close. Then take two
steps back and repeat. Now step back another two steps and greet yourself again.
(If your room is small, do the exercise outside and imagine the mirror! It remains in the same place
all the time.)
If you feel any tension in your throat or chest from forcing the sound, stop. Breathe and begin again.
It helps to imagine the sound arcing through the air, in a concentrated focused stream to reach its
target. The further away you get the more control you need to have over the outflow of air carrying
your words.
8, When you think you have a neutral Hello Bob mastered, add emotional color. Say Hello Bob
nastily, lovingly, sweetly etc. while remaining relaxed.
9. Laugh Out-loud
Stand in front of your mirror breathing easily. On your out breath begin a series of Ha-ha-ha-has
until all your breath is used. Take an in breath and start again. Vary your laughter. Make it louder,
make it quiet and then build it up again. Repeat until you are laughing loudly and easily without any
strain.
10. Read Out-loud

Make sure your stance and breathing is good. Pin point a place at the far end of your room to talk to
and now read aloud from a book, making sure you maintain your relaxed state while using as much
vocal variety as you can.
A good way to test youre working as you should is to do this exercise with a partner. Have them
stand at the far end of the room youre practicing in. Give instructions to give you feedback on clarity,
variety and pitch.
If you find yourself rising in pitch, check your breathing. When we tense, we strain the throat and
when that happens our vocal chords are restricted. The result is we force the pitch up and limit the
range or color we can put into our words. If you are straining will feel it in your upper chest and
throat. In addition your shoulders will lift and you will run yourself out of breath easily.
To color and control your voice the way you want to, practice and then practice some more. Play.
Experiment. Exaggerate, have fun and you will make them listen.

Have you got the power of the pause? Silence in the right place speaks louder than any
word can ever do. How is your articulation and pronunciation? Is it clear? Can people
understand you? Are you a motor-mouth? If so, can you put the brakes on? Youll find
more vocal delivery help tips and exercises at write-out-loud.com
http://www.sliderocket.com/blog/2010/02/sliderocket-presentation-tip-10-ways-tostop-boring-your-listeners-how-to-use-vocal-variety/