Vocal variety speech
Let your voice go to get that emotional reaction

An effective vocal variety speech is a speech where you convey your emotions through your voice to your audience. Not excited by your topic? Then you'll likely use a monotonous voice and put the audience to sleep.

Source: Flickr - Nosha

Very excited and passionate about your topic? Then you'll use techniques like varying your voice pitch, -quality, -volume and -pace to convey that and keep your audience at the edge of their seats.

The vocal variety you employ in your speech should be matched to the content of your speech. For example, slowing down when making a serious point, and speeding up when you want to convey more action taking place.

Vocal variety - Voice Pitch

Your voice pitch is a best explained in musical terms. Think Luciano Pavaroti - his voice pitch is high, whereas Josh Groban's voice pitch is much lower. In general, men's voices have a lower pitch than women's voices. Try varying your pitch by speaking in a woman's voice if you are a man, or in a man's voice if you are a woman. Pitch is often also used as a tool to build towards a climax or point that you are trying to make.

Try these voice pitch exercises before doing your vocal variety speech:

• Up the stairs. Start reading a piece of text out loud. With each sentence elevate your pitch. See how far you can get.
• Down the stairs. Same as above, just go down with pitch instead of up.
• I saw you did it. Vary this statement with normal, high and low pitch. See how the effect changes?

Voice quality and tone

Voice quality here reflects how you say something - the emotional content of your words. Saying 'I stubbed my toe' when you just came home from a 30-minute jog will sound different when you stub your toe after hearing that a loved one just passed away.

Emphasis on specific words can also change what you are saying. Look at the sentence below and the different meanings if emphasis is placed on different words.

• I ate the sandwich. I, as opposed to someone else.
• I ate the sandwich. Ate, as opposed to throwing it away or something.
• I ate the sandwich. The, as in the one we are talking about as opposed to another sandwich.
• I ate the sandwich. Sand, made of sand.
• I ate the sandwich. Sandwich, not the apple or something else.

Voice volume

Voice volume refers to how loudly or softly you are speaking. You might want to raise your voice to convey anger, or soften it to build suspense or make people lean in to hear what you are saying. Make sure you are properly controlling your breathing appropriately to the voice volume you are using as running out of breath when trying to make your point forcefully will lose its impact.

Voice projection is an important element here and refers to how far back in the room you can be heard. Instead of building up to a scream to be heard further back, gather your voice from deeper in your abdomen to project it further. To practice this, try speaking in front of a mirror. Then slowly back away while trying to ensure you can be heard at the mirror. That is changing your voice projection.

Speech pacing

Source: Flickr - Thristian

Here we are referring to the rate or pace of your speaking, whether it is fast (very excited) or slow (in control). Changing the pace of your speech at the right time adds emphasis if done right. When making an important point, for example, slow down so the audience can wrap their head around it. Or when you want to convey an exciting event speed the pace up.

Using pauses in your speech at the right times also helps with pacing and lends credence to the point you have just made.

Practice your vocal variety speech before hand rather than trying to add the vocal variety on the fly. On your speech outline, make notes and highlight phrases or words where you aim to change the vocal variety. It's a bit like setting music to your speech and needs to be planned when you are first learning how to do it.

To obtain more practice on using your voice, try reading children's stories out loud. Add different voices for the different characters (and the narrator), and speed up or slow down at the fast and slow bits. Recording yourself as you read it will make it easier to spot potential areas for improvement.

Vocal variety is one of the most important skills you can learn as a speaker, so use this vocal variety speech as the opportunity to do so. Let your audience feel the emotions and let your story come alive!

Potential vocal variety speech topics

• Anything on interpersonal relations, for example that annoying thing your neighbor does that drives you up the wall.
• A customer service experience you've had.
• Calls on the phone - where there is no visual communication going on, you have to focus on the voice.
• Story telling - a bit like reading a children's story book.
• I had to hold it all together because...
• Impersonating other people (without causing offense).
• A situational event, e.g. My ex came around when I was introducing my new partner to my parents.

More resources for vocal variety speeches

• Tips and exercises for vocal variety
• Reviews and techniques for a vocal variety speech
• Using your voice to engage with the audience