In public speaking, the voice is the carrier of the information. If your voice lacks volume and clarity, the message will be poorly received. Monotonous sounding voices lack the personality and will bore listeners. For these reasons, speaking voices can make or break the success of the speech.
Fortunately, speaking voices can be developed and improved. With consistent practice and proper training techniques, your speaking voice will develop into a very pleasant and influential tone.
The only way to improve your speaking voice is through practice and exercises. But you must hear yourself speak first. So, try to rehearse a speech while recording it. It will be better if you don't try too hard at first. Try to speak as naturally as possible so you can determine if your normal efforts will sound good enough.
After the recording, listen to your voice. Take note of your flaws and determine the parts in which you hear yourself having difficulties. You must know the what gives you most trouble.
These are the common blunders in speaking voices and the ways to remedy them:
1. Low volume
Having an inaudible voice is public speaking mortal sin. You are not whispering to your spouse; you are addressing a crowd!
Low volume can be a result of poor confidence but if confidence is not the problem, insufficient lung power or lung capacity is the likely reason. To resolve this you must loosen up your speaking muscles and do some breathing exercises.
Take a deep breath. As you exhale, vocally count to ten. Increase your volume in every count. Repeat as often as you want. Keep in mind to breathe from your diaphragm and use your stomach muscles for volume not your throat. Straining your throat may harm your vocal chords.
Learn to relax the muscles above your neck. Loose muscles will not fatigue easily. It will be much easier to control your voice if you are loose and relax. The muscles from the throat, jaws, and nasal airways are only used for effect such as, pitch and tone. They should not be used for volume increase as much as possible.
Posture is also important. A straight and relaxed posture will allow you to expand your lung capacity and lets the air in your body flow easily.
2. Monotone
Speaking in monotone makes it look like you lack personality and you won't be able to arouse audience interest.
Try to speak with passion. Learn to emphasize important phrases by breathing into them while using your throat, jaw, and nasal muscles to produce inflection.
Don't try too hard to speak out of your natural pitch. Be natural but professional sounding. Humming in different tones can help develop pitch control.
3. Pacing
Fast pace will give the audience a hard time to catch up while too slow of a pace will turn off people.
You must not forget to breath and pause. Start your speeches slowly because you tend to increase the pace as you get along with your speech. Fast pacing will often result to gibberish. Articulate the words if you have a tendency to speak fast.
