Content is king, reigns supreme, wears the crown--whatever metaphor works for you--and speaking or delivery style is a needed partner.
You've crafted a 6 sentence story about your hero, the crisis he's facing, the obstacles he has to overcome, the actions he takes to overcome them, and the satisfying results. You've chosen textured language that evokes images in the listeners' minds and the arc of the story carries the audience along. You can now add a few vocal style elements to put more punch into the story for greater impact:
1) Speed or pace: Begin the story speaking at your normal rate of speed. Look for moments when slowing down or speeding up adds impact to the words. Perhaps the moment the hero recognizes the huge obstacle he's up against. Wouldn't you slow down to take it in? Slow your rate of speaking down a bit to add to the words. Go back to normal when the moment is passed.
2) Volume: Raising or lowering the volume of your voice adds impact to the words. You might raise your voice when you're talking about something surprising or lower the volume when you're talking about a serious or challenging step the hero takes.
3) Pauses: Choose moments to pause a bit longer than your normal silent pause. The break in sound will cause the audience to renew their attention --what's happening?--and allows you to highlight an especially important moment in your story. The hero has taken steps to overcome the obstacles but isn't sure if they will lead him to the outcome. The long, deliberate pause reflects that moment of suspense.
These vocal effects are the single most important style elements of any speech or presentation. They add power to the great content you've crafted. They serve as partners to the words.
Notice how I've connected the vocal effects to the content. If you had poor or boring content, adding vocal variety would be meaningless. When you have great content and then add vocal variety to it you've made your whole speech better.
Content is king and vocal variety in your delivery is a perfect consort.
Share your experiences using vocal variety through our comment box.
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