Friday, November 2, 2012
Managing Voice
I want to go over how to manage our voices. I feel that it is very easy when we are nervous to speak to fast, to quit, stutter, or forget what we are talking about. That is why it is important to make sure we focus on our voice. We must speak loud enough. Not to loud where we are yelling or to quite where no one can here us, but at a happy medium. We must pay attention to out rate which is the speed of our voice, so not to fast or to slow. Pitch is another factor that we must take into consideration. It is important that we do not use a monotone voice where our pitch is never changes through the speech. If we practice vocal variety we will be successful in using changes in volume, rate, and our pitch that changes the meaning of the words we are speaking. It is important to avoid pauses that use filler words like "ah", "um", or "you know". Make sure to articulate words which is the "physical process of producing specific speech sounds to make language intelligible" and also we must focus on pronunciation. Overall managing our voices can be tough with nervousness, but I am hoping that if we all focus on these factors that our speeches will come off more prepared and be more entertaining to listen to.
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I know the secret of making the sound, my wife is a singer and she told me how to make a good sound of your voice. The Voice that Captivates.
ReplyDeleteBreathing: The First Step toward a Powerful and Captivating Voice
You can speak only as well as you breathe. Control your breath, and you begin to control your speaking voice. Also, better breathing reduces tension in the neck and shoulders that can inhibit your best natural voice. The voice is a wind instrument. Try the following exercises to get yours in tune!
Get ready. Stand with your feet not quite shoulder width apart, your weight forward, more on the balls of the feet than the heels. Relax your hands by your sides. Start to pay attention to your breathing. As you exhale, release your shoulders, relax your neck, unclench your teeth, and see if you can't manage a yawn and maybe even a smile.
Diaphragmatic breathing. This is breathing from your belly. It fuels your voice and releases tension from your upper body. It's also called belly breathing because as you inhale, your belly expands (and your chest and shoulders don't move). This is the opposite of what you might do on the beach where many people suck in their bellies and puff out their chests.
Place one hand over your belly button. Slowly inhale one long breath through your mouth while silently counting "one... two... three... four." Your stomach should expand, pushing your hand forward (your shoulders and chest should not move.) Feel your hand move out as you pull the breath deep into your lungs. Now, hold that breath and count silently, "one... two... three... four." Next, exhale the breath through your mouth while counting silently, "one... two... three... four."
Do this until you are comfortable and breathing easily. Now, you are ready to make sound.
Ha... You are going to make a gentle "Ha" sound, using up an entire breath on just that one sound. Take in a full belly breath, and as you exhale say a very gentle and quiet sustained Haaaaaa... until you run out of air. Do it again, being certain to really open your mouth as you softly sustain the Ha.
The main thing that effects my voice management is the time constraint! I think in most aspects of voice management I can do a pretty good job. The problem is that the time constraint makes me want to talk a lot faster so that I don't go over the time limit (even though I STILL end up going over in time lol). If I was giving a speech that didn't have such strict times I know that I would do things a bit differently. I would speak more slowly (although not too slow) and deliberate, so that everyone could easily keep up with what I'm saying and retain more information. However, I'm so nervous about the timing and I have so much information to go over in such a brief period of time that I end up speaking much faster than I would like. I'm sure this is probably an issue with many of the people in class. I'm interested to see how differently we would present our speeches if we did not have to worry about adhering to the allotted time. I'm sure many of us would feel much more comfortable and confident, and could deliver a better speech. However, because we are giving these speeches in only a three hour period with more than 20 students, I understand the need for time limits.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you mentioned this, something that could instantly topple your speech. When half the time you don't even realize it. When I was at my Phi Theta Kappa induction ceremony, several of the officers gave speeches. Of these, I only remember one. It wasn't moving, in fact I don't remember any of the speech's content. I do remember the speaker. She was the cutest thing ever giving her speech, because she seemed like a lost puppy. She gave the speech so fast, light looked at her and said "Slow down, I can't keep up.". It would have been better for her to run out of time, and cut parts of her speech out, than to go that fast. What is worse is that she didn't notice all of us queuing her to slow down. It is something that if you weren't double checking yourself, you could miss in a haze of nervousness. It doesn't even have to take the form of speed talking, it could be mumbling or anything else.
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good topic. It is not talked about very often, but it is really important. Voice is an important part of giving a speech. I find it extremely hard to listen to a speech if the speaker's voice is very quiet, or if they speak in a monotone. Speaking really fast is also another speech killer. The audience does not want to have to work hard to understand the speech, instead, they will just stop listening. It is best to speak slowly, project your voice, and enunciate your words. That way, it will be easy for the audience to understand what you are saying.
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