Improve the Quality of Your Speaking Voice | Public Speaking Tips

Well, let's be honest. Do you sometimes avoid

speaking

because you don't like the sound of

your

own

voice

? Maybe you even avoid recording a

voice

message because you can't stand listening to

your

self after recording audio or video. People face the reality of how they really sound to others. And they usually say, Oh my God, do I really sound like that? The answer is yes. That's what other people hear when you talk. But do not spread panic. Your voice and sound when

speaking

may change. As a holistic voice coach with a master's degree in voice production, I deal with these types of issues all day, every day.

So relax and settle in, because today I'm going to help you

improve

the sound of your speaking voice with three affective exercises. Stay tuned for Tuesday's Q&A or your voice questions will be answered. Hi, I'm Elisa James, founder of The Voice of Confidence

public

speaking course, and I help people look, feel and sound more confident and competent on stage, in podcasts and in front of the camera. Today, we're going to dive into improving the sound of your voice so you can feel more confident about the way you sound when you speak. Tip number one: record and analyze.

The best way to do this is with a voice memo recorder on your phone. So I want you to grab your phone right now and also grab a pen and paper to write notes. This is what we are going to do. First, the first step: simply read a passage from a book on your phone for a minute. We will analyze that shortly. Step two, this time I want you to record again for a minute, but this time speaking spontaneously. No preparation. Just talk about anything that comes to mind for a minute. Are you ready? Go now.

Feel free to pause the video while you're recording, that's it. Why are you still here? Go, go. Are you recording? I'll see you in a second. Wow, I did it, okay. Now that you've done those two exercises, you'll listen to them and write some notes. The first place we'll start is with the reading passage. Listen to your recording to learn the following things. Does your voice sound hoarse or hoarse? Or maybe we are canaries. Is a tone too low or too guttural? It may be a little difficult to understand or follow. I want you to listen to it a few times with your eyes closed and then write down what you hear.

Now let's listen to the second recording. This time we're hearing different things like this. Do you ramble? Are you using filler words like one of those a lot, or are you articulate and clear? Do you sound nice or not or worse? Does it sound boring and flat? If you need help getting

quality

feedback about your speaking voice, play the recordings to a friend or colleague and ask them to write down some of those descriptions, too. It's always good to get someone else's opinion on what could be

improve

d. Tip number two, playing in front of our voice is like a musical instrument.

A piano, for example, has eighty-eight keys that produce beautiful sounds, from high tones to low tones. Our instrument doesn't have that many notes, but we can easily use at least eight to 12 notes when we speak, which makes our voice sound very interesting. So if you only use one or two notes, it will sound very boring when you speak. So, let's now play with some opposites to discover more interesting and attractive ways to speak for you. For example, if you heard in your recording one or two that your pitch was too high, try the opposite, try a much lower pitch and feel and hear the difference.

And that would make it so that when you speak, if you felt like your voice sounded too tight and you were tightening your sound, I want you to go in the other direction and make it sound more open by adding more airflow. Try a completely opposite approach to what you heard on your recordings. Another problem I hear a lot is that someone sounds too nasal when they speak. It sounds too on the nose and when it plays in the noise, it will make you sound like you are too fancy. Or maybe you're not interested at all in what the other person is saying.

In that case, you are giving your listener a very bad first impression. If you're too nasal, you'll want the sound to be more oral, more sounds coming out of the mouth. So listen to your recordings, write down your descriptions. And then I want you to prove the exact opposite of what you heard. Tip number three: Goldilocks airflow. Do you remember the children's story Goldilocks and the Three Bears? Inside the cabin were three bowls of oatmeal. One plate was too hot. The other one was too cold. But the third. Right now, this is one of the most important elements of a balanced speaking voice.

It's something that a lot of people don't think about when they talk, and that's airflow. The air flow causes the magic in the sound. And this is what I mean. If I really stop the flow completely or partially and try to contain it, you'll hear that I get a very tight, tight sound if I try to talk or sing like that. And believe me, I hear this a lot. There is literally not enough airflow flowing through the vocal cords. The more airflow we have through the vocal cords, the more sound will make it sound aesthetically pleasing.

If there is too little air, it does not flow. The more airflow we have, the more relaxed and pleasant our voice becomes. Now in practice this takes a little time, but anyone can use a good balanced airflow. Any guaranteed. If you found this video useful today, share it with your friends and subscribe to my channel so you don't miss the next video. See you there if you are interested in improving the way you speak and communicate. Watch my next video. How to improve your communication skills. Hope to see you there