Have you ever wondered why some people are really amazing at public
speaking?While other people simply put you to sleep the second they open their mouth?
Look the reason may be this... voice modulation! Voice modulation basically means
controlling and adjusting the sound of your voice as you're speaking. Using better voice modulation
means you're able to communicate your message much more effectively.
Without voice modulation you would sound boring and monotonous. In this
video today i'll be sharing with you four easy tricks that famous speakers and radio hosts
use to modulate their voices during their public speaking presentations
[Music]
Hi I'm Elisa James founder of the voice of confidence public speaker training and
I help people from all over the world speak with clarity confidence and competence. Now regardless
of whether you speak english as a second language or you're a native english speaker, if you're not
using effective voice modulation techniques you won't be an effective public speaker at all.
So today we're going to dive into a really simple four-step rule that all radio DJ's
use to keep their audiences captivated it's called, high, low, fast, slow!
Let's start with number one, high. When you change the pitch to a higher pitch when speaking
it sounds much more exciting and engaging than a lower pitch. To show you what I
mean listen to this sentence in a low pitch and then a high pitch.
"I am super excited to be here today" [Crickets]
Let's try a higher pitch "I'm super excited to be here today !"[Applause]
Now you feel and hear the excitement in my voice with the higher pitch. You
can immediately see how powerful the higher pitch becomes with some sentences that require
action, excitement and passion. The sound of passion and excitement can be easily heard
when someone is raising their pitch because that's what we actually do when we are excited
we raise our pitch. So try reading or speaking a sentence out loud
in a lower pitch and then a higher pitch so you can actually hear the difference for yourself.
Number two, low. Many radio and tv presenters especially news readers use a very low
pitch to convey authority and a very serious tone of voice, we as listeners actually expect
people in the media to sound like that because it conveys confidence simply by lowering the pitch.
Here's a sentence spoken in two ways so you can hear the difference
for yourself. Here it is in a high pitched tone. "Now I really want you to pay attention to this,
this is super important" [silence]
And here it is again in a low pitched tone. "Now I really want you to pay attention to this
because it's super important!" [applause]
You can see that the first one sounded a bit too high and flippant and it won't
really grab people's attention so much but the lower version really sounds like I mean
business! This simple trick is so easy to do and people really respond to these lower directives
with respect because you sound like an authority simply by lowering the pitch. Number three,
fast. When you want to create excitement and action in your audience the easiest way is to
speak a sentence or two faster. It sounds exciting and engaging and when done correctly it will be
super clear as well . Now where people go wrong with this is by thinking that speaking their whole
presentation at a fast pace will actually make it more interesting this is not true.
If you speak out something very fast it will be impossible for your audience to keep up,
so instead what I want you to do is this. Choose certain sentences in your speech that could be
ramped up with energy and enthusiasm and speed up that sentence only, then stop. Pause, then the
audience can assimilate the information they just heard if you don't give them that pause they may
not understand what you said at all and they'll spend their time thinking trying to catch up.
Number four, slow. During a speaking presentation using a slower pace for a
really important piece of information will make the message land more powerfully in the ears
of the listener by slowing down certain points of tricky or complicated content
it'll make it much easier for your audience to really grasp the concept that you're
talking about. Here's a sentence spoken far too fast for the message to be clearly understood.
"Business analysts also known as BA's help to define business problems via
in-depth investigation and gathering of technical and non-technical information"
What?!?! Let's try it again slowly.
"Business analysts also known as BA's help to define business problems by in-depth investigation
and gathering of technical and non-technical information"
So you can see how important it is if you're going to speed up, leave a pause some things
need to be slowed down if it's really important. So you can see how very important the high low
fast slow rule is now that you know it you can go home and do some practice for yourself. That's
it today remember the four keys to simple but effective voice modulation is high low fast slow.
If you found this video helpful make sure you hit the bell so you get notified when i release the
next video and don't forget to subscribe to my channel i'll see you next time on the voice of
confidence tv I'm Elisa James [Music]