14 October, 2015

What's in your Voice?

Did you ever wonder why a few make an impact when they speak?
A few impress us with their expressions and emotions while they speak. A few bore us with their monotone or with their plain voice without any modulation. A few speakers motivate us to take some action and they make the best impression in our lives.

Did you ever think that our voice can be our brand? Yes, it is. We attend a lot of conference calls as part of our work, we make business transactions with people talking by phone without even meeting them. We assign work, run a business and work virtually a lot. We judge people by their voices, we trust or hate them by their voices and their conversations without even seeing them. So, in this virtual world, our voice is important and it can help in creating a brand for ourselves, Agree?



Recently, I have attended a training and got to learn different elements of voice which can help create an impression on others.

The main levers of Voice are:

1. Pitch
2. Tone
3. Pace and
4. Volume

Pitch is a range in which our voice can go in between. Some voices will be deep, who can talk very clearly in low pitch (Ex: Voice of Amitab Bachan, a Bollywood actor) and some voices will be shrill and they can talk clearly even in high pitch(Ex: Voice of Sridevi, An actress). Musicians practice a lot on maintaining proper pitch which is pleasing to ears. So, this element is unique for your voice and it might be difficult to change it or improve it and needs a lot of practice.

The Tone is an expression of our voice.  We vary our tone depending on the circumstances. Our tone is different when demanding someone when compared to that while requesting. People can make out when we talk sarcastic or appreciative just by listening to our tone, right? Motivational speakers vary the tone as per the circumstances to keep the audience attentive. A flat tone may sound boring.

The Pace is the number of words pronounced per minute. When we talk fast, the audience might not catch up with us and while we use a very low pace, they might get irritated. Keeping a proper pace makes our voice interesting. Speaking with moderate pace might need concentration, but not a very difficult thing to practice.

Volume is the loudness of our voice. Our voice is there to be heard. People might not give much attention to feeble voice and a very louder voice seems arrogant and showing disrespect. So, choosing a proper volume makes the audience comfortable in grasping our thoughts.

If we think and concentrate on all the above elements, we can surely make an impact on others when we talk. These elements also allow us to understand our voice, its uniqueness and enable us to create our own brand. Agree? Let me know your thoughts on this topic, I am all ears :-)

Until next time,






Image courtesy: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Your_voice_Matters_logo.jpg

7 comments:

  1. Wow, never knew there were so many aspects to someone's voice! Except maybe the volume :). It's interesting how a person needs to adapt their voice in accordance with their profession.

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  2. Mahathi, thank you for sharing such a useful post with us! I remember learning the basics of these as part of our drama class in school which in later life, especially at work, I found extremely valuable!

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  3. Thanks Fab, it was the same feeling when i attended the corporate training on Voice :-)

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  4. Thanks Esha, Good if this post is helpful to others.

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  5. Recently I gave a workshop and I believe a lot of the points mentioned had to be weaved in my speaking. So I kinda agree with all!

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  6. Thanks Richa. Glad that you agree to all :-)

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  7. Nicely expressed:)

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