Improve Your Speech With Vocal Variety

Have you ever considered that one of the most powerful tools in your public speaking tool kit is your voice?

I ran a poll on LinkedIn recently, asking what was the biggest turn-off when it comes to presentations. The overwhelming response (63%) was poor delivery.

LinkedIn poll results for vocal variety in public speaking

Imagine you stumbled upon a podcast episode delivered in the style of Alexa or Siri. Would you stick around to hear more? If you’re anything like me, the answer would be a resounding “no!”

The lacklustre tones of a voice assistant are fine for receiving directions or factual information. But compelling, engaging public speaking is about connection.

And we just can’t connect with a robotic monotone!

Delivering your speech or presentation in a flat, repetitive tone can make even the most fascinating topic seem dull. If you’re not injecting energy, enthusiasm and interest into your voice as you speak, your audience will simply switch off.

You use vocal variety without even realising it

Imagine you’re reading a bedtime story to your child. How do you hold their attention? We automatically switch into a higher-pitched, singsong tone, upping the excitement by exaggerating aspects of the story and giving the characters unique voices.

You might make Little Red Riding Hood timid and whispery and play the Big Bad Wolf with a bold, booming inflection. Or maybe you’ll slow down your speech dramatically as the wolf is sneaking around the house, then speed up again to ramp up the drama as Red Riding Hood is frantically trying to escape.

How to add vocal variety to your speeches and presentations

You don’t need to go quite that far for your next presentation, but the principles are the same. It’s about using the full range and capabilities of your voice to bring energy and colour to what you’re saying.

Here are five simple strategies to infuse some vocal variety into your public speaking.

1. Vary Your Pitch

Pitch refers to the “highness” or “lowness” of your voice. And it may even affect how others perceive you. This American Scientist article documents an experiment where participants had to choose a preference from pairs of voices where the pitch was digitally altered to be higher or lower than the original.

Approximately 60% of the subjects chose the lower-pitched voice, regardless of whether the speaker (or the voter) was male or female.

When you’re speaking passionately about something, your pitch tends to elevate. But if you want to be taken seriously on a topic, try lowering your pitch for added gravitas and presence.

Former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher underwent vocal training to modulate her pitch. The results were striking, and you can see the contrast in this video.

Varying your pitch throughout your speech to suit the context of your words is a good way to keep your audience engaged. But be careful not to overdo it. Too much switching up and down can be offputting.

2. Change up the Pace

If you speak at a consistent, unchanging tempo, it can become boring and repetitive for your audience. Just like our bedtime story example, you need to vary the cadence to keep things interesting.

Speed up to add drama or convey tension. Then, slow down again if you want the audience to pay close attention to a specific part of your speech or presentation. These variations in pace make for a much more engaging talk.

3. Harness the Power of a Pause

Have you ever noticed that when everything unexpectedly goes silent, your attention is drawn to it? It’s the same when you speak. If you suddenly stop, you’ll instantly have everyone’s attention.

Being deliberate about using pauses in your speech helps to:

Pull focus onto a particular point.
Allow the audience time to absorb your message.
Have the chance to regroup your thoughts

For more on this, take a look at Panic to Powerful Presentations- How To Use Pause for Impact

4. Modify the Volume

Once you’ve found the optimum volume for your talk, you can play around with amplifying and quietening your voice in specific parts of your speech.

Speaking loudly will add extra power and punch to your words, whereas turning down the volume a notch is another way to grab your audience’s attention. Just make sure you don’t get so quiet that they miss what you’re saying.

5. Add Strategic Emphasis

Try highlighting a particular word or phrase by emphasising it as you say it, so it stands out from the rest of your sentence.

Think of this in the same way as formatting the text in a piece of writing. You’re adding the vocal equivalent of subheadings, bold, and italics to draw attention to certain pieces of information and create flow in your speech.

When should I experiment with adding vocal variety?

Start introducing vocal variety as part of the preparation for your speech rather than on the day itself - at least until you’re more familiar with the techniques.

As you’re practising your speech, ask yourself questions like:

What should I emphasise in that sentence?
How can I draw the audience’s attention so they’re fully focused on what I’m saying?
Where do I want to create the most impact, and how will I do that?

Recording yourself is an excellent way to do this. It makes it much easier to see what your delivery sounds like.

Are you emphasising the key elements you want the audience to remember? Have you slowed the pace for any significant sections? Or are you rushing through and need to pull it back a little and allow that pause for the message to be absorbed effectively?

If you’re using notes to help you, it can be useful to highlight or annotate the parts where you want to add a particular vocal effect or emphasis to make it easier to remember while you’re practising.

Preparation + practice = the foundation of successful public speaking

Ideally, you’ll use a combination of all five techniques here to keep your audience absorbed and engaged. But don’t worry about trying to master them all at once. Pace yourself!

Preparation and practice are fundamental in speaking confidently and persuading your listeners to buy into your ideas. And your voice is one of the most powerful tools to help you achieve that.

5 Easy Ways to Make Your Message More Impactful With Vocal Variety