Leave Them Speechless
Speak Up - Speak Out - Speak Well
August, 2002 - By: Sharon Danley

You may dress impeccably, have a commanding and open body language and use state of the art technological and presentation equipment. But can your audience hear you, understand you or are they influenced by your voice tone?

Speak Up
When you breathe from the diaphragm and use this organ to propel your voice, you create a confidence with your audience. They will be able to hear you without strain and the sense of strength and stability in your voice gets connected to your message.

Speak Out
Using proper placement, pitch and tempo makes full use of your facial mask and resonators which will project your voice as far as you need to. The mouth and tongue bend the sound forming the words on the air that comes from the diaphragm. Well done your audience will understand you clearly.

Speak Well
Articulating every letter in every word will give your voice a lyrical sound and feel that will compel your audience to want to listen to you.

It's common knowledge that you should practice one hour for every minute of a speech or presentation. It's also common for us to dislike our taped voices or images. Audio shock is experienced because you sound different when you hear your voice outside your head because of your internal resonating chambers. Video shock happens because you are used to seeing a reversed image of yourself in mirrors and on video you see your true image.

To solve the problem - just practice, practice and practice proper enunciation, diaphragmatic breathing and projection and you will accomplish two goals with one action - you'll gain additional confidence and a clearer, robust and more pleasant voice.

[Back to Articles]