Voice Clarity Tips - 1

This post is about Voice clarity.Let's see how we can achieve that in our vocalization, if not in our lives! In any communication, written or oral, your goal is to be understood by your listener, or reader- your audience. Clarity in speech is of two kinds- verbal and vocal. Verbal clarity would mean that your content shows continuity of thought.

Vocal clarity means you do not speak too fast or too slowly. You do not have a heavy accent, you do not slur or mumble your words, and you use standard pronunciation for your word. There is no heavy deviance in basic speech sounds (vowels and consonants). You have some tone changes echoing the meaning of a given thought- for example, sad, powerful, questioning,humorous, wise, authoritative, or agreeable. 

Finally there is some up and down rhythm or intonation giving expressiveness and mood to your voice . Intonation simply means the music of your speech- the music reflects tone changes, just as music is about different notes being sounded on an instrument which gives forth a pleasing tune. 

Neither in speaking nor writing should the composition of your piece display disjointed thoughts. Using the the right choice of words helps you expresses the meaning clearly and expressively thereby convincing the audience. You need to show your ideas visually while speaking so 'show' but do not show off good vocabulary.

And yes you can do this without the help of PPT slides if you look people in the eye, stand confidently, have a good vocabulary, use stories, examples, and connect with people at some gut level. Even with friends, strive to colour your words and get out of the habit of using banal, commonalities where everything is "Nice, amazing, great, good or lousy..".

Lata and Asha

Remember what I said in the beginning about Vocal clarity?  I'd like to cover those points one by one, but I can't do all of them online. I need to hear you and we need to be face-to-face for me to help you with pace and other issues. There are some things, lots of things in fact that you can do if you are working by yourself on voice clarity.  

For Voice Clarity, Lesson 1 let's  get  started on jaw exercises, learning some speech sounds and practicing aloud sentences, daily,  for a week to get that crystal clear sound. Yes, your words should be clear and luminous!

Jaw and Mouth Exercises Warm up 

1) Stretch your lips into a smile, and then do a ‘brushing teeth’ grin. Drop your jaw, then close it. Now do it again, and keep doing it as if rudely chewing gum to annoy your worst teacher, then faster. Do at least 8 times. 

2) Yawn and sigh loudly, stretching your throat muscles as much as possible. Then breathe in deeply through a wide open mouth. As you let the breath out through your mouth, softly say "Ah". (Time yourself and try to achieve a higher number of seconds each time that you breathe out.) 

3) Breathe in through your nose. As you slowly let the breath out, softly say "shhh", drawing out the sound as long as possible. How many seconds were you able to maintain the sound? Next also try this as you draw out "s" like a hissing snake. (You may start out at 10 seconds or less, but try to work up to a higher number of seconds.) 

4) Unclench your teeth - Relax your mouth, neck and as you get ready to speak, a few seconds before, with your mouth still closed, lift the upper jaw from the lower. Then start talking. Most clarity problems will be resolved if you simply unclench your teeth, and open your mouth; then relax, like yourself as a person and realize you are a likeable person who has something worthwhile to contribute. 

Timeless Bollywood Diva Rekha  lent her lovely voice for the hit song ‘Saare niyam tod do’ in Khoobsurat 

Vowel Sounds 

î hit sitting is stick mirror fit passive
ĕ (an eh sound) egg edge can many head met bed ten wealth merry bread friend leopard
ē be even feet seat money see cheap tricky nicely
ī (said like iy or ai) bye sigh die I pie ice aisle height my fly guy bike
ō go open tone owner sew plateau groan soul sig-na-tO-ry
ô (a little ‘aw ‘sound) mauve frog off on all auto daughter awful cough broad
oiy boy choice boil coin noisy poise, Deutsche Bank
u should could look pull
ü do loose flu blue who soup Tuesday juice
ū (said like yü) use few view beauty cute music you tune news new
ŭ up under love done son cousin trouble rough cut other

The vowels given above must be enunciated correctly without any heavy regional accent and with an open mouth for clarity. No mumbling! Even without coaching you must be saying at least one of the words given next to each target sound correctly (?) Have someone listen to you and then practice saying all the words next to that letter in the same way. 

Don’t worry about the symbols for now. These are phonetic symbols representing the sound rather than a letter of the alphabet. In English unlike Hindi and Marathi, the vowels make many different sounds. One says hat, but hate, not but note, cat, cart, father, all, any, late, able...the list goes on! Knowing spelling rules also helps you pronounce words correctly- more about in a later post. 

"Dirty Dozen" Sentences to practice Speech Clarity

1. Why do wily women win wealth and wed well?
2. Republican or democratic, there is often static in demanding practical and tactical actions – not to mention whim-wham distractions and flim-flam transactions.
 3. Auctioneers should talk with wall to wall audibility.
4. Talk without thought is to be deplored, abhorred, ignored; with thought to be lauded, applauded, rewarded.
5. In speaking don’t exaggerate, exasperate, fabricate, or lacerate, but try to captivate, animate, evaluate, substantiate and fascinate.
6. Rise and shine, the climate’s fine, the air like wine, the day divine, and all of it mine.
7. Doubts may crowd around you but never doubt yourself.
8. Annoyance shown in the voice can destroy poise.
9. Costly toys multiply joys, but spoil little boys.
10. Don’t devote days and days, to despair, dawdling and delaying decisions.
11. Be likeable, loveable and livable, or you’re liable to be leavable, left and lonesome.
12. Grow to greatness by grappling with and overcoming your problems, going
through not around them.

Vocal Clarity is pace, pronunciation, and essential speech sounds- the vowels and consonants, Voice modulation is about expressiveness and intonation -there's a lot to be covered. All the best with your personal development speech plan!