Posts Tagged ‘presentations’

Public Speaking Tips: Volume and Power

In this article for public speaking tips I would like to explain the use of volume and power.

Volume and power can quite understandably be confused. Loud volume is not necessarily power in the context of public speaking. Volume is the level of sound whereas power is the intensity of the voice. It is possible to speak very quietly and yet have power in your voice.

Public Speaking Tips: Volume

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Volume is something that a speaker needs to master. Volume is used more than simply to be heard. The first step though is to make sure as speaker that you can be comfortably heard. Too quiet and your audience will struggle, too loud and you could make them feel uncomfortable. There are of course different levels of volume required when a microphone is being used.

The use of volume makes a talk more interesting and can be used to put across feelings like happiness, sadness, excitement. Varying the volume to suit the topic can certainly help make a talk come alive for your audience.

Volume also needs to be changed to suit circumstances. For example if an outside noise interferes with your environment you may need to speak louder to overcome it and then lower your volume once it has passed.

Public Speaking Tips: Power

The use of power is one of the public speaking tips that many people find difficult to master. Power as I have already mentioned should not be confused with volume. I am sure you have seen those  gangster films where ‘the boss’ wants someone dead. He will say often in a very low tone “waste him” and there is a great deal of intensity and power in the way it is spoken.

We can use power in our talks to emphasise points without being loud. Simply being loud also does not necessarily create power. Power in the voice tends to come from deep down in our throats, much deeper than where loud volume emanates.

Speakers that are naturally quiet will need to exercise their voices to improve their volume and avoid straining their voices. As with all of my public speaking tips you are going to have to practice getting the use of volume and power right. You can practice by reading out loud and making your reading sound interesting by using volume and power as appropriate. Record your reading and listen to it, making notes where you can make improvements.

Look out for more public speaking tips from Roland.

Public Speaking Tips

I always enjoy sharing my public speaking tips with you. In this post I would like to explain the use of gestures and how you can use them in your presentations. Gestures give life to a talk by animating the speaker and more. Visualisation can be achieved by using the right kind of gestures.

Public Speaking Tips: Gestures

The use of gestures is one of those public speaking tips that when applied can really raise the ability of a speaker. Gestures fall into a number of categories and I will explain these for you now.

Facial, Hands and Body

By using your hands and body you can help your audience to see a point by enforcing it with gestures. Your face can usually be relied on to convey emotion.

Public Speaking Tips – Examples of the use of Gestures

The use of gestures in the right way is vital and gestures with the hands and body will usually fall into two types. These are descriptive and emphatic.

Descriptive gestures are used for emphasising things like size, shape, speed and so forth. You could for example shape your hand movements to represent a circle or point for a direction. We often do these gestures naturally when speaking informally but often when if front of an audience we can clam up. Emphatic gestures are for as the word would indicate emphasising for example words such as “no” a swift horizontal arm movement would do this well.

Facial gestures can be used to represent happiness with a smile or laugh, deep thought with a furrowed brow and so on. With the use of facial gestures we have to make sure that they are appropriate, a smile when talking about someone’s misfortune may not be appropriate and would detract from what we are saying, possibly causing offence. As with all my public speaking tips they will only work if you practice them. In view of the fact that we may be nervous when speaking especially as a new public speaker gestures are something that we should think about and practice.

Gestures can show that you are enthusiastic, relaxed, confident and well prepared. A speaker who looks stiff and uncomfortable will not put their audience at ease.

Gestures need to be a natural part of our speaking skills. New speakers will often stand upright and then you can see that they now have a gesture to use, do it and then return to arms by their side. It’s good to practice in front of a mirror or record ourselves on video so that we can see that we are applying these public speaking tips.

If you find these public speaking tips useful and would like more help you might like to take a look at my analysis service.