“Bueller, Bueller?” Many of us recall the monotone roll call of Ben Stein in the classic film “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Mr. Stein’s famously droll delivery perfectly illustrates the importance of vocal variety when we speak.
If our voice never has any variety, we may seem bored with our subject, and like the monotonous economics teacher in that classic 1986 movie, we will lose our audience’s attention .
Now, I have some good friends that seem like they’d have great radio voices – deep, chesty and fill a room. But listening to Barry White is a lot easier when there’s a background track and besides that, the song is only 4 minutes. What I mean is that I’ve heard some of those friends speak at length, and at about the 7 or 8 minute mark, I’m asking myself, “What’s he talking about again?”
It makes sense though, doesn’t it? Think about the most boring teacher that you’ve ever had. They likely were disinterested or under-educated in the subject, and you could hear it in their voice (at least for as long as you were listening). Even if you were trying to force yourself to pay attention to that teacher, you still may have found yourself nodding off like you were listening to a bedtime story.
That’s why vocal variety, or modulating your voice is so important. Even if your voice isn’t particularly deep, if your delivery stays at the some tone, your audience will get the impression that you aren’t at all interested in your subject, or worse, that you just don’t know what you’re talking about. The result is that they probably won’t remember what you were talking about.
Instead, using simple modulation techniques can relay to your audience that the subject matters to you because it’s important. That in turn can help to stir their emotions, thus making your presentation more enjoyable and even memorable.
Not Just Cues on Your Outline
Effective modulation cannot be limited to cues in your outline, although that is a great way to start. Ultimately, you have to really know your material and have a feel for when some vocal variety would be appropriate. Again, your goal is to communicate how you feel about the material, and hopefully inspire your audience to feel the same.
While that certainly begins with identifying a message that you sincerely feel strongly about, there are some more technical aspects we can discuss.
Adjusting the Volume of your Voice in a Presentation
Let’s start with volume. As you may have experienced in the past, not every event will have adequate, or maybe any, Audio/Video (AV) equipment. Hotel or company conference rooms may provide a projector for slides, but you may more often find yourself speaking to a smaller audience in a smaller room without a microphone.
Even some larger and better equipped venues may be underpowered or poorly suited for your particular voice (so if possible, always try to get in the room early to get a feel for it). But proper volume is more than about whether you’re heard. It’s also about what’s appropriate for your topic. Is the subject technical, motivational, or sobering? The volume you choose to set the tone should fit the material and the expectations of your audience.
Ask yourself: How do I change my volume and tone when I want someone to understand that I'm serious about a subject?
When you pay attention to your vocal variety in everyday speech, you may be surprised. You may realize that you change your volume and pitch when giving direction, expressing urgency, or conviction. In the same way, be on the lookout for parts of your speech that need that type of variety.
Adjusting your Pacing in Your Speech
What make you happy and excited to talk about? Are you a Star Wars fan that thinks that Han shot first? An armchair quarterback that can’t believe the calls in last week’s game? An environmentalist that believes paper straws are the future? Whatever you’re passionate about, whatever you love to talk about, how does it come out when you really get going?
I know when I start getting into PR and how ideas and movements influence the masses, I often have to apologize for getting too excited and animated. Although our personalities differ, most of us have another gear that we shift into when we’re genuinely excited about something.
We speed up, we speak up, and we try to fit in a couple little extra points before we lose our turn to talk. On the opposite side of that coin, we may slow down considerably when we want something to be clearly understood. We may pause and repeat a sentence to be absolutely sure our listener heard us.
It seems simple enough for most of us in conversation, but it can become tricky when you’re on stage – even if you generally feel comfortable in front of an audience. Depending on your notes and the type of equipment you’re using, your pacing may be affected.
Awareness is key on this point. Understanding the utility of proper pacing to make a point or keep the audience engaged involves more than just getting excited. When you identify what’s important in your speech, you can contrast your pacing to create suspense, generate a response from the crowd, or breeze past details that are required but not the key point.
Ask yourself: Am I hitting a dense point in the speech where I might need to speed up qualifying but less important details? Do I need to raise my volume to highlight the point after a lengthy explanation?
Identifying and rehearsing those key moments can help you to begin breathing life and variety into your presentation.
Be Careful, Don’t Wear Them Out
The danger of being loud or excited throughout a presentation is that you can unintentionally be monotonous in the opposite direction. Volume changes and excitement can lose their meaning if you don’t sail the tide and use variety in the other direction. But this will require another article to expand on.
In short, raising your voice or being excited just to constantly jolt your audience can be exhausting. Again, sincerity and rehearsal are important factors here.
Don’t Call Out, “Bueller”
The point of this article isn’t about warning people with deep voices to add variety. Any of us can unintentionally speak in a tone that is fixed and predictable. It’s also quite common for people that are normally animated in conversation to become monotone when giving a speech.
When we dig into the parts of our presentations that we sincerely feel strongly about, the change in our tone will likely be apparent. But it’s also important to realize that we may not be as easy to listen to as we think we are. We should seek feedback whenever possible to make sure we’re not sinking into a monotonous tone.
The goal is to motivate, inform, and entertain our audiences. When we successfully vary our volume and pace, we can be sure of a heartfelt applause, and not the silence of an absent Ferris Bueller.
