Oral Presentation | Voice Modulation Tips

Oral Presentation | Voice Modulation Tips

Voice modulation means the fine-tuning of the pitch or tone of voice that helps the audience clearly hear and understand the lecture, presentation, and speech delivered by a speaker. It is very important especially in public speaking. If you want to become an efficient speaker, you must master the art of voice modulation. By mastering the art of voice modulation, you can make your oral presentation or speech more interesting, understandable and memorable to your audience. Those who have acquired sweet and melodious voice naturally also need to exercise their voice for modulation, variation and professional success.

The most important three speech organs of a human being are lips, jaws and tongue. You have to exercise these three speech organs like other parts of your body. What you need most for this purpose is to read aloud everyday for a few minutes. You can make it a habit. If you do so regularly, you will soon discover the variety, power, ability as well as faults of your vocal organs. Such a regular practice will certainly help you to correct and improve your voice modulation.

You can also develop some other habits to improve your voice for modulation. For instance, you can at times record your speech on a device, and listen to it later for any flaws. Besides, whenever you attend a meeting, event, lecture, or seminar, you should mark carefully how effective speakers vary the pitch of their voice to match the thoughts, ideas, and feelings they convey. Also, you should make it a habit to consult a dictionary not only for the meaning of a word but also for the pronunciation of the word.

However, try to use every opportunity to speak; practice and experience will give you the confidence and power, and you will gradually be able to correct and improve your voice for modulation. On every occasion whenever you speak or deliver lecture, you should bear in mind the following points:

Ø  Always convey your message with the variation in the pitch and tempo. Never deliver your speech in a monotone as it will not only bore but also send your audience to sleep.

Ø  Speak at a rate so that your audience can understand you because fast delivery betrays a lack of confidence.

Ø  Speak normally at about 125 to 150 words per minute. Check your speed and try to bring it within this range.

Ø  Pronounce words properly, putting stresses at the right syllables.

Ø  Speak loud enough so that everyone in the audience can hear you clearly.

Ø  Pause for a moment in between sentences to control your speed and approach better.

Ø  Refrain from vocalized pauses and nasalization such as 'er', 'ah', 'unh', 'umm', etc.

Ø  Take care that you do not repeatedly use such phrases as 'you see', 'I mean', 'What I meant,' 'Understand?, 'Have you understood,' 'Clear?', 'Is it clear?', 'Was it clear?', etc.

Remember that a lazy lip movement breeds unintelligibility, a stiff jaw stifles the voice and an inactive tongue strangles it. So, always try to maintain a balance while speaking or delivering your lecture.