19

Vocal Variety: Using the Voice Channel

“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.”

– Mary Angelou

Your voice dictates who you are. People associate a lot of significance with your voice. People judge you by your voice. They come to conclusions about your confidence level, your well-being, your energy levels and your sincerity by just judging your voice. In fact, whenever we are asked to act according to our conscience, we are told ‘to listen to the inner voice’! In this chapter, we will explore the various facets of voice—or more specifically what is called vocal variety. We explore the various components of voice and see how they all blend together for engaging, persuasive, enthralling and captivating communication.

19.1 Components of Vocal Variety

Our voice is a powerful instrument in communication that can make the delivered message more convincing and more appealing for the audience and could display your passion in what you are communicating. A good voice (or a vocal channel) can mean the vital difference between engaging your audience in the communication and lulling them to sleep; between a compelling, persuasive presentation and a mere ritualistic one; between achieving the objectives of communication and failing in your objectives.

What do we mean by ‘good vocal channel’? Is it that we should all possess a wonderful musical voice or be doomed forever in communication? Is it just the voice? If we are not born with such a voice, can’t we ever cultivate it? All these are indeed very relevant questions.

The good news is that a musical voice is not really an essential criterion for a ‘good vocal channel’. Even better news is that you can develop a good voice by cultivating certain practices and habits. In fact, voice is just one aspectof‘good vocal channel’. There are certain important constituents of a good voice channel. These are:

• Pronunciation and Articulation
• Emphasis
• Pace
• Pitch
• Volume
• Pause

Let us look into each of these in some more detail.

19.1.1 Pronunciation and Articulation

Pronunciation refers to your ability to utter the words in the same way as is considered standard. This is admittedly a vague and inaccurate definition. The reason is that the meaning of the phrase ‘standard way’ is itself non-standard! What is standard in one place is non-standard in another place. For example, consider the words like ‘can’t’ and ‘fast’. While the phonetics of these words is standard, the way these words are pronounced by Americans and Indians are quite different. (Americans will pronounce the ‘a’ in these words like the ‘a’ in the word ‘fat’, while Indians would pronounce the ‘a’ as the ‘a’ in ‘art’). Pronunciation depends on accent, which may override the ‘standard’ way of pronouncing a word. Also, pronunciation applies at a word level.

Articulation refers to coherence of the words and phrases in a talk. When a person is articulate, the message would be easier to understand for the audience. Articulation stems from proper pronunciation but is more than mere pronunciation. You may pronounce each word correctly, but when you combine the words and phrases together, they may wiggle into one another, thereby causing the entire sentence to be incoherent. Lack of Articulation could arise from several sources:

• Excessive speed while talking: When you speak too fast, it may indicate you are thinking even faster. Before you complete one word, your mind has gone on ten words ahead and your spoken words are trying to catch up. As a result, either some words get missed out or the ending of one word gets eaten up by the beginning of the next word.
• Not using your natural or mother tongue: This stems from a cause that is opposite to the first cause discussed above. Normally, we tend to think in our natural or mother tongue first and then translate to the language in which we speak. During this translation process, we may lose some words, use inappropriate words or say the words with the wrong emphasis or pronunciation. This results in loss of articulation.
• Inability to utter certain special letters or sounds: For example, in certain East Asian cultures, ‘r’ is pronounced as ‘l’. In some regions in India we tend to pronounce ‘r’ as ‘d’. This is not a pronunciation issue per se, but a cultural issue that results in what could be perceived as poor articulation.

Being conscious of some of the barriers to pronunciation and articulation could help you work on them and improve upon them. Clearly articulating every word and phrase in every sentence makes your speech more coherent and understandable. You will gain more confidence and will also gain credibility with the audience. They will begin to understand what you are saying, and this can leave you in a better chance of persuading them to see your point of view.

19.1.2 Emphasis

When you are speaking, not everyone in the audience tunes in to your speech the way you think they should. Each one would latch on to some specific word or phrase that he catches and then get stuck with it and this may lead to an interpretation of your message that is totally different from what you intended. The various techniques and components we have been discussing so far try to reduce the gap between what you intended to convey and how the audience interpreted it. Emphasis of Words is another important tool in this direction.

When you have a sentence, not every word in the sentence is equally important. By emphasizing certain words, you can get the correct meaning across. If you utter all the words with the same stress, it becomes monotonous and each audience member could potentially walk away with totally different interpretations of your message. By emphasizing different parts of a sentence, very different meanings can be conveyed (see Snapshot 19.1 below).

For best effect, you should combine emphasis of words with volume and tonal variation and supplement it with appropriate body language like movement.

19.1.3 Pace

Pace refers to how fast you speak. In general, in many cases, higher the pace of speech, the more persuasive it is. Higher pace gives an aura of confidence for the speaker but also gives less opportunity for the audience to intervene (see Snapshot 19.2). The pace with which you speak is decided by several factors.

Your passion in the subject: In general, more your passion in the subject matter of communication, higher your pace is likely to be. When you are passionate about what you speak, your internal energy levels tend to be higher and these invariably show up in the pace of the presentation.

Speed at which you think: This is a corollary to the first point. You are generally passionate about subjects on which you have command. And, when you possess that command and depth, you tend to think fast. Your speed of speech tries to catch up with your speed of thought. But it is never going to be really possible, as in general we tend to think 2 to 3 times faster than we speak. Just like peripherals cannot fully catch up with the CPU speed of a computer, one can never fully match the speed of talking with the speed of thinking.

Physical energy you possess: Speaking fast requires more energy than speaking at a slower pace. Some people possess indefatigable energy and can speak really fast for hours. There may be parts of a talk that would require you to talk fast (and loudly) to indicate emphasis. Make sure you know your energy reserves and allocate sufficient energy for such parts without expending all of it.

Your empathy towards the audience: While you may be a whiz kid in your subject matter, you should realize your audience may not be so. Similarly, the audience may not share your levels of enthusiasm on the subject matter. In communication, it is always good to empathize with the audience and accordingly pace your communication.

Cultural background: Some cultures and languages naturally favour a higher (or lower) pace of talking. For example, people from South India have a tendency to speak English faster than native English speakers like the British and the Americans.

19.1.4 Pitch

Pitch refers to how shrill your voice is – the baseline frequency of your voice. The pitch of your voice is dictated by the thickness and length of your vocal chords. Each of Our voices has some limits within which we can ‘stretch’ them. Too much of stretching will be physically painful for the speaker and may be jarring for the listener. On the other hand, if we don’t stretch our voices at all, it would become monotonous.

When we are under stress, our voice generally becomes shriller. That does not mean we should try to fake confidence by using a low pitched voice. What is important is for each of us to recognize our natural boundaries and provide variation within these boundaries, sufficient enough to be interesting, but not excessive enough to cause strain.

Sometimes the use of an extremely unnatural pitch, combined with high volume can produce good emphasis. Suppose you are showing the effect of electric shock in a presentation. You may display this by extending your index finger like the ET and shouting ‘yikes’ in high pitch and volume.

19.1.5 Volume

Volume refers to the loudness with which you speak. Some people habitually speak so loud that you wish you had a remote control button for controlling their volume! At the other extreme are people who talk so softly that they can barely be heard even when you sit close to them. To be effective you need to strike a balance (see Box 19.1).

Volume goes in tandem with other parameters like speed, pitch, and articulation. When you speak with high speed, you will generally tend to speak in a louder volume. Talking in high pitch and high volume may drain your resources fast. When you don’t articulate well (like words blending into one another), it lowers the volume.

Volume can be varied to emphasize key points and to show gradation. For example, when you want to compare three different items, you can say, ‘The first one is small, the second is bigger and the third is the biggest.’ (The bigger fonts indicating louder volume). You can further combine this with synchronized body language to gain better effect.

19.1.6 Pauses and Fillers

A good presentation should not be a continuous outpouring of words without any gaps. Periodic pauses during a presentation are essential. These enable you to recover your breath and also enable the audience to reflect on what you have said. The old adage ‘silence speaks louder than words’ is indeed quite true!

A pause can bring in a certain element of suspense and anticipation. If you remember seeing the results of the final round of any reality TV show the announcer would say ‘the second runner up is…’, then there would be a pause, some suspenseful music would be played (of course, in the real world, you cannot always have accompanying music!) and then ta da… the name would be announced. And when the first runner up (and hence, the winner) are to be announced, the pause is even longer! A pause in this case increases anticipation.

A pause can also be used for emphasis and better comprehension. You can say, ‘I will present to you some important reasons for success of a business—you need sufficient finances, a strong management team and a talented workforce. But above all this, there is a very important success factor and that is (pause)… a great and high quality product’. The pause emphasizes that what is following (viz. The product) is the most important part. You can further highlight the effect of the pause by uttering the phrase in a higher volume and on a higher pitch.

A pause can also be used to separate out distinct parts of a presentation and to indicate that you are changing directions. For example, after presenting the technical details of a product, you can pause (may be sip some water), and then continue by saying, ‘okay, we have finished with the technical details of the product, let us now look at the pricing options available.’

A pause can also give an opportunity for the audience to reflect on what you said and ask questions. This will engage the audience more, instead of making them hear (not listen to) a monologue from you.

A pause can also be used by you, the speaker, to regain your self-composure and thoughts in the event you are rattled by some questions from the audience. You can use this opportunity to collect your thoughts, sip some water, restore your energy and get back into action. And finally, a pause is the right opportunity for you (and the audience) to catch your breath, physically relax a bit and change one’s posture.

But too much of pause can also be dangerous. This may be construed as the lack of confidence or lack of knowledge on the part of the speaker and that you are faltering. Some people try to cover up such long pauses with what are called fillers—the ‘ah’s, or ‘umm’s. Some even use words like ‘and’, ‘of course’ ‘you know’ and so on as fillers. When there are too many fillers in a presentation, it not only wastes time, but also distracts the audience.

 

Fig. 19.1

19.2 How Do I Improve the Effectiveness of the Vocal Channel

Can we really improve our voice? Isn’t voice a God-given gift that you either have or don’t have? While we cannot change our voice per se (just like we cannot change the way we look), it is certainly possible to make the best use of what we have got, and what is even more important, improve the effectiveness of how we use our voice to get the message across.

We believe that vocal variety, like unadulterated innocence, is something that we are all born with as children and somehow lose gradually as we grow older. Do you remember how you said ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep, Have You Any Wool….’? Did you say this in a monotone or did you go up and down like a sinusoidal curve? One of the best ways to cultivate good vocal variety is to awaken the child in you; spend some time and try to read a nursery rhyme or a kid’s story book introducing a lot of vocal variety to show emphasis, emotion and variation. And, if you do it with your children, you may enjoy it even more! This may get you out of any inhibitions you may have to harness your vocal variety.

Speaking—especially with varying volumes, pitch, and so on—requires a lot of physical energy and good coordination between your speaking and breathing organs—lungs, vocal chords, jaws, etc. Doing some breathing exercises ahead of a speech would be worthwhile. Also, staying fit by avoiding not-so-healthy food (at least the day before a presentation and on the day of a presentation) would be useful.

Your throat may dry up during a speech. It would be useful to take periodic sips of water during your speech. You can integrate such mini-breaks with intentional pauses after asking the audience some question so that you can also use this to create an air of suspense.

19.3 In Summary

All the above can be summarized by the following.

Effective use of vocal variety requires a lot of practice. One way is to record your speech and listen to it again and again. In the old days, we would use tape recorders. With the ubiquitous cell phones mostly coming with features like voice recorders and video recording, the recording is a lot more high fidelity. Since vocal variety has to integrate with body language and other facets of communication, you can go one step further and video-record your presentation and see it. (In the old days when we had to see how we looked making a presentation, we used to stand in front of a mirror and practice.) All this can be summarized as:

The previous step was about self feedback. You can also get feedback from your friends. If they have the time and willingness and are prepared to listen to you and give you feedback on how they feel about your voice, it would help you immensely. It is one thing for you to believe your vocal variety is good, but it is even better if someone else can give you constructive feedback.

As in other aspects of communications, variety is the key to effectiveness. You have to deploy variety in volume, pitch, pauses, emphasis and articulation. The variety should be within a reasonable range that your physical system can withstand naturally and should not become too predictable for the audience.

Finally, the different aspects of vocal variety we considered in this chapter should work in unison with and synchronize with the other elements of communication like body language (discussed in the previous chapter) and visual aids (to be discussed in the next chapter). All these should work together in a harmonious way much like the different players of an orchestra jive together in a symphony. Remember, you are not merely making a presentation or a formal communication—you are performing!

 

Fig. 19.2