Improving Your Speaking Voice
Public speaking is much more effective with a strong, powerful voice. A clear voice comes across as confident and influential. A throaty, strangled voice comes across as painful and may turn off your audience.
Your voice is important when public speaking. Your voice is your business. You cannot afford to be hoarse after public speaking. The following vocal exercises will help you improve, strengthen, and relax your speaking voice.
• Stretch Your Face – Stretching your face warms up the muscles for public speaking. Smile as big and wide as you can for a few seconds, and then relax. Open your mouth as wide as you can for a few seconds and then relax. Repeat these exercises several times until your face feels warmed up and ready for your speech.
• Breathe – Do not forget to breath while public speaking. Practice deep breathing. Take the time to breathe before you deliver your speech. Breathe from your belly. Place your hand on your belly and feel it rise and fall with your breath. Do not breath from your shoulders by letting them move up and down.
• Lip Trill – Gently put your lips together and blow, making your lips bubble with a rolling noise. Stay relaxed and do not tense your lips. Just relax and blow. Lip trills are one of the best vocal exercises you can do for improving your public speaking voice.
• Humming – The easiest vocal exercise of all is humming. Many people hum to their favorite songs without even realizing it. Humming is a great way to warm up your public speaking voice. Close your lips and hum for five minutes. You can hum a song or simply hum random notes. Hum at different pitches, high, low, and in between.
• Yawning – Yawning is almost as easy as humming. Take time to yawn a few times while making a high sound at the beginning of your yawn to low sound at the end of your yawn. A yawn relaxes the back of your throat, keeping your voice light and clear for public speaking.
• Enunciate – Do not blend your words together into one long incomprehensible word. Enunciate every word separately to ensure your audience understands. No speaker wants to hear the sentence “I could not understand a word he said.”
• Practice Tongue Twisters – Improve your diction with tongue twisters, paying particular attention to the letter “T.” For example, “better,” not “bedder.” Proper diction helps your audience understand your speech and is imperative for public speaking success.
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