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Public Speakers! Relax and Strengthen Your Voice With These Easy Exercises

One of the most discomfiting occurrences when you’re speaking in public is to have your voice tighten up and come out as a high-pitched squeak or just give up and go away. It’s so off-putting that it makes a person want to jettison the entire business of speaking in public. Perhaps the thought of being a mime becomes very attractive indeed.

This is probably the most frequent question from my students:

What can I do to prepare myself so that when I’m nervous I can still breathe?

First it’s helpful to be aware of how you breathe normally. To ascertain this, sit on a straight chair.
1. Put one hand on your upper chest and the other hand on your belly.
2. Take a normal breath, and make these observations: Which hand moved? Did your belly go out or in?

You’re doing well if both hands moved OUT, or if your belly moved OUT. What you want to avoid is having your belly suck in and your chest move out. That’s probably the most common style of breathing, and it is something you definitely want to change, for the sake of your body’s health as well as the strength of your voice.

Although breathing is a natural body function, breathing for proper singing or speaking requires training and strengthening the muscles of your diaphragm, back, and belly. The following exercise should be done daily:

1. Sit on a straight chair. Feet flat on the floor. Spine absolutely straight, but not tense.(Feel as though you have a cord running straight up from your tailbone to the top of your head, gently and effortlessly keeping you in that straight position.)

2. Put your hands on your belly, fingers spread and just touching in the center slightly below your navel.

3. Take a great big breath right into your belly.

4. Let your lower jaw drop a bit and say a quiet “HA” as you pull in your belly with your hands, slowly as you can comfortably.

Do this several times, always being aware of any tension that might occur. (Allow your tongue to lie inert on the bottom of your mouth, tip barely touching the teeth.)

Now repeat the first three steps of the exercise, but substitute 4Aand later 4B, for #4.

4A. With your hands, pull your belly in pretty fast, and let out the air with a loud “sssss” sound. Then do the same thing, but with only one hand, and with your thumb on one side and your fingers on the other side of your throat, feel to be sure there’s no tension during the “sssss”.

As your control develops you’ll be able to sustain your breath for longer and longer periods. Try this next one.

4B. When you feel ready, release the breath with a soft hum. Any note in the middle of your register. Avoid the lowest notes.

Simple as they are, these little exercises can make your entire life easier. They feed your physical and mental body with health-giving oxygen. You’ll find you’re more relaxed and positive in your everyday activities.

Carole McMichaels, Author: “Fearless Public Speaking: How to Get Rid of Your Stage Fright and Prepare and Deliver a Winning Presentation”, invites you to join her free newsletter on speaking in public. You may also get your free report, “7 Valuable Tips on Writing a Mind-Gripping Speech”.

www.getridofpublicspeakingfears.com
Article Source: www.EzineArticles.com

1 comment March 21st, 2006

Public Speaking Tips: How to Learn to Articulate Clearly

You have a raging passion for your subject. Or you have a strong financial motive to speak on your subject. Or maybe you simply want everybody to like you!

Whatever your Cause, people must be able to understand your speech–your physical speech–before they are able to give you the response you’re working for.

Consonants and vowels are the building blocks of intelligible speech. It’s the breath that supports and carries these consonants and vowels to our listeners.If we focus on these three elements of speech–consonants, vowels, breath–we’ll have an excellent basis for clear, understandable presentations.

Here’re some pointers:

Consonants must be well-articulated and crisp. To achieve this, say each of the words below by itself, slowly. Use your tongue and lips to shape each consonant clearly. Exaggerate! Speak every syllable.

1.wash 2.washing 3.Washington 4.definitely (all 4 syllables) 5.accessible (ak sess i buhl) 6.Antarctic (ant ark tik) 7.residing (Make the “s” a definite “Z” sound.) 8.treatise 9.not 10.non-native

Now speak the sentence below, breaking it up into smaller segments, if you like, until you can say the entire sentence very clearly at a normal pace.

“The treatise on the Antarctic was definitely not accessible to the non-native speakers residing in Washington.”

You may notice that you run out of breath before you can get the whole sentence said. If not, congratulations! If so, mark a place or two where you can sneak a breath without interrupting the flow. Try this:

“The treatise on the Antarctic (breath) was definitely not accessible (breathe here only if you absolutely must) to the non-native speakers (breath) residing in Washington.”

Vowels should be given the true vowel sounds. We Americans are becoming increasingly lax in differentiating between the vowel sounds–so much so that “uh” has become the vowel of choice for A, E, I, O and U! I believe it’s a blend of pure laziness and a cultural deficit of actual listening to sounds. We’re so cruelly bombarded with noise of all sorts that we take refuge in turning off our active hearing.

Breath! Ah, the breath!–the fundament for all speaking. This is not the place to give you exercises to strengthen and lengthen your breath; that must go in other articles.

However, this will help:

Think of your breath as being released on a steady, constant stream. That stream continues steadily during the tiny silences between words, connecting one word to the following word. Think On-going and Easy.

Avoid giving an explosion of breath for a few words, then letting the breath drop before the next little explosion of breath. You lose a great deal of breath by breathing too frequently and too shallowly.

THINK: CONSONANTS. VOWELS. BREATH. THINK: MY BREATH IS ON-GOING AND EASY.

Carole McMichaels, Speaker, Coach, Author: “Fearless Public Speaking: How to Get Rid of Your Stage Fright and Prepare and Deliver a Winning Presentation”, invites you to join her free newsletter on speaking in public. You may also get your free report, “7 Valuable Tips on Writing a Mind-Gripping Speech”.
www.getridofpublicspeakingfears.com
Article Source: www.ezinearticles.com/?expert=Carole_McMichaels

Add comment March 21st, 2006