Roland Millward

Posts Tagged ‘presentation’

Modulation. What is it?

The easy explanation is to say that the word when connected with speaking or indeed music means a changing in the volume, timing or pitch. Modulation makes music or speech interesting to listen to. With speech it is modulation that makes the words and phrases stand out and to be more readily understood and remembered. It is important therefore that a public speaker masters the art of modulation.

Modulation is made up of three elements. Let me explain each one in order.

Pitch

The pitch is how high or low we speak just as there are higher or lower notes in music represented by the notes on the stave when written down. By varying the level of our voice in pitch we can create variety in our voice as well as use it to make certain words stand out. You might for example use a higher pitch for excitement and a lower pitch for something serious. People who speak on one level come across to an audience as quiet boring and so varying the pitch is essential. There are also many of us that develop a bad habit of raising the pitch at the beginning of a sentence and then gradually tapering downwards until the next one or those that end every sentence on a higher pitch. Your public speaking coach will advise you if you are doing this.

Pace

The pace or timing at which you speak also needs to be varied. There are occasions when quite rapid speech is called for, other times for it to be slowed more than normal. Rapid or slow speech should be used sparingly but there will be speeds that vary in between the very fast and the very slow. Always be wary that if you go too fast your words may become slurred and unintelligible and your listeners will not understand what you are saying. If you naturally speak fast even if the words are clearly spoken a constant fast speed will wear out your audience mentally so learn to slow down and speed up when necessary in short bursts. Likewise a naturally very slow speaker causes people to lose concentration as their minds want to go faster than the speaker. Speaking at a good pace and varying the pace does require practice and you will need feedback from your coach to help you master it. It can also help if you record your presentations and listen to them later and try and put yourself in the place of your audience.

Power

The third and final element of modulation is the power and volume that we use when speaking. Vary not just the loudness (volume) but also the power or intensity that we use in our voice. This is perhaps the simplest area of modulation to master for many people.

Practice

To be able to use good modulation will take practice and more practice. It is good as with most things in public speaking to try and use modulation in our everyday speech. You will find with good coaching and practice that good modulation will become second nature to you.

Roland Millward

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At the risk of repeating myself

Repeating oneself is often viewed as a sign of old age. However repeating oneself is not always a bad thing.

When you give a talk you must remember that people will remember relatively little of what you have said after just a few hours of leaving the venue. How can you help them remember at least the key points of your talk?

One way is to use repetition. By repetition I do not mean simply keep saying the same things over and over again like children who are learning their mathematical tables. Repetition is repeating key ideas, the theme, and phrases that will help your audience to remember. This is a skill that once learnt will be invaluable as your audience will not only remember your talk but will likely talk about it to others for longer.

This subject is covered in my one day intensive speaking course in much more detail and you will be encouraged to practice this skill throughout your speaking career. When you compose your talk note carefully the key ideas that you want your audience to take away with them. This will form the basis of where you will build your repetition into the talk. You will be able to use phrases such as “Did you notice”, “I am just going to say that again” and then repeat or rephrase that point. Other useful phrases to commence your repeating of a point could be “what have we learnt so far?”, “let’s just go over that again”, “I just want to go back to” and of course many more. I am sure though that you can see that making sure your audience understands the reason for your talk and remembers the key thoughts is vital and using repetition is a tool to achieve this.

The key to repetition is to make it a natural part of the talk and not look like an after thought as though you were thinking “they did not understand.” You must also not appear to talk down to your audience or treat them like 5 year old children at school. With careful planning and thought your use of repetition will come naturally. Observe your audience and if puzzled looks are on their faces you may have to repeat your point so that they can understand. It has to be said that if people do not understand what you have said, simply repeating the same words is unlikely to make things clearer. You will need to put things in a different way. Therefore to make sure you do not have to do this too often prepare well and choose your words and illustrations according to the audience that will be listening. If you are talking about a matter that will be well understood by your audience it will require different explanations than a subject that is ‘foreign’ to them.

So let me say that again…..

Repetition is vital and its proper use is a skill that must be developed to become a successful speaker.