Vocal Variety – Escaping Monotony

By Andrew P Bennett (Distinguished Toastmaster and Public Speaking Teacher)

Have you ever been told that your voice is monotonous or lacks vocal variety?

It is an easy speech fault to point out, but so few people can even start to explain to you
how to correct it. This article will set you on the right path. It is possible to acquire more
vocal freedom and expression so that, as you share your message, the audience can
respond more easily and find pleasure in listening to you.

Firstly, let’s just check that you are in the best condition for our voices and speaking.

You can imagine you are like an instrumentalist getting ready to play a beautiful piece of
music. You have to know how to hold your instrument correctly to produce the most
beautiful and varied sounds. Just the same attention needs to be given to the body and the
speaking voice. Here is a summary which can be used as a warmup before you speak.

Remember your voice only works well if there is humidity. Speakers should always carry a
bottle of water and take regular sips during warmup. Also, water should be available on the
platform during presentations.

Posture
All the exercises in our warmup routine are performed gently and slowly. If you have issues
with your neck or back do not go beyond your comfort zone. You may prefer to miss out an
exercise rather than stretch too far.
You need to find a comfortable, flexible body alignment which helps you look alert and
ready to speak. Your body is like a column with the feet supporting the column – just
slightly apart or one foot a little in front of the other. No wide apart stance. You are now
standing well.

Release any tension by gently and slowly allowing your head to drop forwards, then your
shoulders and torso, arms nice and floppy as if you were a rag doll folding in two, head
down towards the floor. No need to touch your toes, just as far as is comfortable. As you do
this, breathe out.

Then slowly, slowly uncurl yourself bringing the head up last as it is the heaviest part of the
body. As you uncurl breathe in calmly and then once upright gently breathe out.

How do you feel now? You should experience a feeling of wellbeing. Your head is now
crowning the column of your body. Next we will wake up the muscles of your face.
Screw your face up tightly and then slowly, slowly release each part and muscle until your
face comes back to normal. Repeat two or three times. It can be fun. Have you ever noticed
how a sleepy, boring face produces a dull sounding, monotonous voice?

Breathing
When you take a breath during speaking it is with the intention of expressing your thoughts
or perhaps calmly during an expressive pause.

Quite often speakers receive confusing advice about breathing. For the purpose of this
article let’s just say that we you want to move away from a stressful, shallow, high in the
chest breath, which often accompanies nerves, towards diaphragmatic breathing, a breath
anchored lower in the body that brings poise. This is the kind of breathing that opens the
door to vocal range and variety.

Breathe out, with your shoulders back and relaxed, place a thumb on your lowest rib at the
side. Gently breathe in feeling your ribs expand and then gently breathe out. You do not
actually need to take in much air to speak, but your breath does need to be in this deeper,
calming place. Try this exercise one more time with your thumb on your rib, then breathe
out. Take a pause and then try to breathe in the same way, but without the thumb to guide
you. Don’t do this exercise too many times in one go without a pause, as you may become
light-headed!

Playing with sounds

If you wish you may sit down on a dining table chair with a good back during this section. Maintain
your feeling of buoyancy and alert posture that you had when standing. You may like to take your
shoes off to feel better contact with the floor.

It is time, now, to start to transform our breath and good posture into sound.

Take a gentle low ribbed breath and hum a line or two of your favourite song. Pause.

Blow your lips out as on a cold day - Brrrr! Your lips should be nice and loose when you
hum.

Take a low rib breath and hum your song again. Feel a slight buzz over your cheekbones
and even in the centre of your forehead above your nose.

We are progressing towards vocal freedom and resonant sounds.

Let’s try some voiced consonants with some vowels. These are consonant like M, N and L
which you can make a sound on, rather than just being used to clip the end of a word.

Be aware of your low rib breath and posture:

Let’s start with ‘M’: Mee, Meh, Mah, Moo. Try again and enjoy the ‘mm sound’ it is like you
are humming. Now try with an ‘N’: Nee, Neh, Nah, Noo.
The base of your tongue contains cartilages which are attached to your voice box. There
can be a lot of tension there. Let’s loosen the tongue.

Poke your tongue out - point it to the right then centre, then left then centre. Then swallow
any accumulated saliva and try once again.

Now try Lee, Leh, Lah Loo.

We will now patter some consonants to improve clarity of diction. Take each set of words
slowly at first to master the sounds and the try them again with a feeling of bouncy rhythm.
Don’t forget your low breath before you start each group.

Pitter Patter Potter x 3 times

Mixed Biscuits x 3 times

Flipper Flopper Flatter x 3 times

Clipper Clopper Clatter x 3 times

Vocal flexibility and range

Now we are ready to explore some vocal flexibility and range. Here is a nonsense rhyme
which you can enjoy with the vocal rise and fall of its questions, the mixture of consonants
and vowels which you can enjoy tasting on your tongue, lips and teeth. Remember your low
rib breath and posture, but once you have learned the rhyme feel free to move about and
explore the physical freedom of body and voice as you repeat it.

Does the man in the moon like music? Does he tootle on his flute or does he croon?

Does he slip in something lunar in the way he plays his tune?

Or does he simply sit and doodle on the moon?

Well done for following along with me so far. I am genuinely proud of anyone who tries to
find their best vocal qualities in order to communicate better. Now that your voice is
warmed up it’s time to practice!
Discover your vocal potential
There is no quick fix kit to finding vocal variety. It’s all in about practice!

It is a fact that much everyday conversation takes place on a mundane, dull level. Just listen
to the people around you in the bus or on the train. If we want to develop your vocal variety
to hold your audience’s attention you need to move away from this kind of speech for a
while and come into contact with a more expressive, wider vocabulary so that you can
discover your vocal potential. Eventually you may return to a more conversational style in
your speech presentations, but with an added vocal richness and expression.

When did you last read aloud? For some people reading aloud stopped at school after
those early years of learning word recognition. Perhaps there wasn’t much emphasis on
reading with meaning and expression at the time, just the essential ability to recognize the
correct word formed by the letters. Might this loss of contact with the meaning and reading
aloud be one reason why people slip into monotonous speech over the years, become self
- conscious of their voices and don’t develop much vocal variety?

I believe that all speakers need to practice reading aloud regularly both their own words
and the words of others to extend their abilities. You can read passages from famous
speeches, poetry, prose, plays, newspaper articles. If you practise 10 minutes of reading
aloud a day following your vocal warm up, you will soon find an improvement in your voice.
Here’s my suggested a plan of action.

Firstly, read a passage silently to yourself. Look for the meaning of the words. Don’t forget
if it is poetry that the meaning may well continue beyond the end of a line.

Then, read the passage aloud - aim to express the meaning behind the words and the
mood of the writer. Is the writer happy, frustrated, sad, ironic, humorous?

Take a rest and read the passage silently again two times. Note any key words or phrases
the writer uses to construct his message. You are allowing the words to play on your
imagination and open the door to expression.

Read the passage aloud again. Perhaps twice. If you do not mind listening to your own
voice, record and listen for the differences between your very first and later attempts. In this
way you will begin to train your ear to experience new sounds. You will notice an
improvement. Eventually you might like to film yourself, but only once you feel comfortable
with reading aloud.

Listen to audiobooks and poetry online. You will also become more aware of the voices of
speakers at gatherings you attend again helping to ‘wake up’ your ear which is particularly
important to those folks with monotonous voices.

Suggestions of material to read:

Did you know that the novels of Charles Dickens were written to be read aloud? What is
more they contain many characters which is good practice for building character voices.
You could then transfer this skill if you are telling an anecdote with different characters in
one of your speech presentations.

I am also a great fan of the works of E M Foster - ‘A Passage to India’ ‘Howards End’ both
have terrific descriptive writing to read aloud. Equally the works of Thomas Hardy. However,
the reading material can be anything you like right up to the present day. An exciting
police, spy or action novel can be excellent.

Poetry – there is a huge range from the rich language of John Keats, Wordsworth and
Shelley right up to the present day with Maya Angelou, Lemn Sissay and Carol Ann Duffy.
Absolutely no need to put on a posh ‘poetry reading voice,’ – remember we are entering
into the meaning of the words to increase our vocal variety.

In this article we are interested in clarity and expression. A regional or foreign accent does
not worry me here, as long as your words can be clearly understood and clearly enunciated.

Accent reduction is a separate issue which you can tackle with a voice coach if you wish.

Lastly make sure that you find time to practice your own words and speeches to integrate
your new skills. The whole point of my suggestions is to be able to share your message with
your audience.

There is no quick fix kit to finding vocal variety. Each of us has to practice a little and often
to extend our abilities, which is so much more effective than cramming a long session of
practice into a once a week slot!

However, the pathway to vocal freedom and expression is an exhilarating one to take, so I
encourage you all to set out on that path using this article as some initial guidance. Beyond
this there is bespoke individual coaching adapted to your specific vocal and speaking
needs. Thank you for your time and my wish is for you all to experience the pleasure of
Public Speaking!

Andrew P Bennett, DTM

FTCL (voice) LTCL (voice teacher) ANEA (public speaking teacher) FRSA, FGMS.

Let me know how your practice goes! You can reach me at vocallyserious@[Link]