Member Article

Talking under people

With Dr Simon Raybould, Curved Vision Theatre

We’ve had a house-full this bank holiday weekend. All told, there were 10 of us, each with a different accent - and not a quiet one amongst us. A wonderful melange. Even normally it’s pretty tricky to make yourself over the teenage choice in radio stations around here, but with additional kids it became extra hard. So the adults resorted to a trick known and loved by classroom teachers the country over…. we talked under the cacophony.

The next time you’re really - and I mean really - trying to hold an audience’s attention, try dropping your voice. It’ll pull them forwards on their seats and you’ll have a tremendous impact. One huge word of warning however, you’ve got have them ‘in the palm of your hand’ before you try this, otherwise they’ll just switch off.

As you do it lower the pitch too, but make sure you slow down a little and increase your clarity; otherwise no one will be able to hear what you say, no matter how interested you might have got them! Put those things together and use it at the right time for a really exciting moment in your presentation!

As always, questions and comments to me at sme@curved-vision.co.uk or see the tellingpeople.co.uk for training dates.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .