It is a common assumption that all good orators are born with excellent voices. But history tells us otherwise. We don’t have to go too far for a good example. Initially when Amitabh Bachhan was launched, many people criticized him for his meek voice. But he overcame it by shouting at walls and strengthening it ; effectively transforming it into the Baritone , as we recognize it today. That voice is symbolic of the struggles effective speakers and in this case actors go through to polish their vocal skills.
There are many aspects of your voice that may or may not make you sound good to people. Some of them are listed below >
Quality :[/b]
Every voice in this world is unique. It has some characteristic that distinguishes it from the other. Mimic-artists have to work very hard to get the approximate aping of someone’s voice –sound at best ; average.
This quality factors in on the resonating capacity of the sounds coming from our vocal chords. This variation may result in a voice being : soft , charismatic , thin , nasal (Reshamiya anyone ?) , hoarse etc. Only a small number of people are blessed with voices that are both deep and resonant. A young Lata Mangeshkar had to sing the “pyar kiya to darna kya[/b]” – from Mughal-e-AZAM[/b] ; in a toilet , to add the resonating effect which her voice lacked at that time.
Crossing the oceans ; any famous leaders like Abraham Lincoln , and Winston Churchill had to revitalize their voices to get to the pedestal that enabled them to look down on the world and wave.
Volume [/b]:
How many times has it happened to you that the speaker was not distinctly audible to you ? You must have felt it at least once. If you ran late to the class and were forced to sit on the last bench ; but the speaker’s voice didn’t reach you. You wring your neck , lean forward and try to grasp tid-bits of information which fortunately pass through due to his horizontal movement.
Gradually you do start losing interest. Listening itself is too strenuous an activity and to top that , twisting you spine ; seems all too hazy for you ,in perspective.
Traditionally in interviews, low volume is often associated with severe lack of confidence. Well it is not without a sound reason. We all have been there ; when the result card did not sing praises about our efforts – he parents used to stare us down ; meek and into the well , was our voice in those testing times ; wasn’t it?
On the other hand a volume too high ; comes off as a turn off. It is seen as a desperate attempt to rope in listeners. Even if it is your natural ; tone it down , some people prefer country over Heavy metal.
Pitch :[/b]
[/b]The ups and downs in your voice are referred to- as pitch. Rock-fanatics are well aware of this. Who hasn’t heard Chopsuey [/b]or November rain[/b] ?
People tend to confuse it with volume. But that is not the case at all. Pitch is related to the merging of emotional expressions in your voice to fluctuate it to aesthetic effect ; while volume is plain quantitative in nature.
Pitch is important to connect with the listeners. They will get bored if you sound like a parrot reciting what he has memorized for a while. Subtle variations to arouse emotions in the audience; will definitely work wonders for speakers.
Rate :[/b]
Rate of the speech refers to the speed of delivery and it varies from one profession to the other. On one hand we have Mohinder Amarnath speaking like a bullet train when Yuvraj singh goes for a quick-risky single . But in calm textbook situations ; the commentary remains –as it is supposed to be ; a background additive. This act of swiftness was quintessential to incite enthusiasm in the viewers.
On the other had we have a News Reader on a Tv-channel. He is supposed to keep a constant delivery rate. As he is beig hired to be objective about the reports coming in and not to mix his emotions with the same.
Pauses:[/b]
Pauses are what we call small breaks. In written language they are represented by commas and semi-colons – to drive a wedge between one idea and the other or to make transition smooth.
The most important aspect of pauses is the timing. You can’t just insert them anywhere you want. they should be there only when needed. Treat them like a scarce resource – judiciously.
All pauses are not beneficial. Some are there to degrade your delivery. A vocalized pause is one such example. It constitutes of – “ ummm , hmmm , aan” etc . It should be avoided at all costs as it gives an impression that you are ill-prepared to deliver the speech.
A lengthened pause is silence ; and shortened silence is a pause. So , if you stray too long it may become awkward for you regain composure and get on with it.
Pronounciation & Articulation :[/b]
First we come to pronunciation. It is the act of utterance of words conforming to the standards set by the community in which you re speaking. It is such a tricky aspect to deal with that BPO-executives have to undergo severe training in order to meet the expectations of their patrons.
Most of us don’t have English as their first language. It is a problem because the phonetics of our native language creeps in when we converse in English.
For example Hindi speakers have frequent troubles with /s/ ; Tamils with /e/ and malayalees with /b/; in various words.
Articulation and pronunciation; similar to pitch and volume are frequently confused with each other. Articulation is the ability to speak the words distinctly. Many people are in habit of clubbing words together unintentionally.
Some other examples of improper articulation is clubbing and cutting words short. Bringing in street and net slangs like -lemme , dint- is also unprofessional on part of the speaker and may spike contempt in the audience.