Our brains are hardwired to pick up on a change in our environment and ignore anything repetitive or predictable. So, imagine how difficult it would be for an audience to listen to someone who speaks in monotone for any length of time. That steady tone becomes white noise, and the audience will tune out. That’s why vocal variety is critical.
How do you inject vocal variety into your delivery?
We create vocal variety naturally when we focus more on what we’re saying and less on how we’re saying it.
When we’re in casual conversation that’s not being recorded, we all vary our speech based upon what we’re conveying. Our delivery might become faster if we’re excited, or we might slow down if we want to put extra emphasis on something.
The problem is, when we’re reading a script, we tend to lose that natural variation in cadence because we are overly focused on pronouncing each word perfectly.
By keeping yourself connected to what you are saying, you are much more likely to have that natural variation in your inflection.
When we are speaking on camera, we can often appear less animated than we are in person, but it also can suck all of the energy out of our delivery. Karin Reed explains the importance of vocal variety when communicating via video.
Learn More: On-Camera Coach
If you found this information valuable, check out my book, On-Camera Coach: Tools and Techniques for Business Professionals in a Video-Driven World, now available from Wiley Publishing. On-Camera Coach aims to take the mystery out of communicating through the camera and provides specific tips and techniques that can make your message sing—and you, the messenger, feel confident in a job well done.
