Unfiltered Thoughts

2022.03.11 – 0435 – ‘Verbal’ GesturesVerbal gestures – ones which enhance what you are saying or replace what you’re thinking, maybe:·        Moving hands in front of you from one side… and then another – indicates comparisons (that while A was happening here, B was happening there)·        Closed fists being put on top of one another – showing the stages of something (a structure or the ‘building blocks’ of an idea) being built ·        Clicking fingers may suggest something sudden or an idea, (or be me used as we try and remember something)·        A clenched fist shows strength of character or emotion ·        As well as the obvious nodding or shaking, your head on one side may indicate disbelief or that you are trying to understand the speaker·        There’s a lot that can be seen in the eyes of a speaker or a listener: whether someone is holding contact (or not), or glancing away. Squinting can be a sign of someone trying to understand or disbelief, wide eyes may indicate surprise or disbelief. Winking may be a hint at an in-joke.·        Smiling will help relax you as you read, not a huge Jim Carrey-type grin but just a slight upturn of the corners of your mouth. So smile for a lighter story or give a slight lip-purse or pout with a frown to show concern – it’ll be heard in your voice.·        Touching the tips of thumb and forefinger to make a precise point or to help enunciate words or hit the beat or a sentence. Think of your voice as an orchestra and you as the conductor.You don’t want to necessarily adopt all of these movements (if you do, you’ll look rather odd!) but consider which ones you would normally use in everyday conversation, and try to employ them in your studio or stage work. It will look natural and feel natural and you will sound more natural too.
Your gestures are heard in your voice, so don’t be a mannequin – move! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.10 – 0434 – ‘Leading’ and ‘Ideas’ GesturesDifferent types of gesturesWhen you are speaking with an audience face to face you employ any of these types of gestures to help you influence them. So even if they are not there in front of you, you may still want to use them:[1]
Leading gestures – show people what you want them to do, such as:·        Point – to make them look in a certain direction·        Raise your hands – to encourage them to do the same thing·        Applaud – as you say “let’s give them a round of applause” Ideas gestures - when you want help to express a thought or create an emotion for example:·        An open palm – indicates openness, taking or receiving (perhaps of an idea), or the start of a handshake (originally indicating honestly and that no weapon was being held). A hand that’s held down suggests suppression or secrecy·        A shoulder-shrug - suggests an uncaring attitude, or ignorance, a casual attitude say “Hey, this really works for me. You should try it.”·        A step forward might indicate that you are advancing an important story, a step or two back that you have made it and are concluding.·        High-up gestures indicate inspiration and aspiration, lower-down gestures suggest poor/rejected ideas or emotions. Gestures near shoulder level may indicate calmness, stability.
[1] There are many books, articles and videos on gestures, which go into this topic in considerable depth. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.09 – 0433 – Adopting Authentic Gestures So, gestures along with the words we choose and the way we deliver those words (for example a timid or a robust voice) helps in communication – the message we are delivering and the understanding of it and the impact that it has. In most of the situations that we are looking at here, radio/podcast/video and stage delivery, we want to be imparting information with confidence and naturalness, conversationality and authority. Therefore, if we adopt the gestures that we would normally use in such a face-to-face situation – even if there’s no-one actually in front of us, it will help us deliver the message in an authentic way, with the correct authentic tone. So, what kind of gestures are these likely to be?[1]
[1] Remember, gestures change from culture to culture, and sometimes country to country: think how many of our Middle Eastern or Southern European friends move as they talk, so these can only be generalisations to encourage you to think what you would do naturally and to replicate that in your ‘un-natural’ talking environment of a studio situation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.08 – 0432 – Your Lesson In Physical Expression For Better Verbal Connection. Now this is where we start your lesson in physical expression for better conversation and connection. Of course, we use gestures all the time:·        when we are looking for the remote control at home, we may tap one palm with a finger of the other hand as though we are using the device we are searching for·        we may touch our temple with a forefinger if we think someone we are referring to is a bit confused, and we surreptitiously scratch our cheek with two fingers in a V-shape if we don’t like them·        try giving someone directions without gesturing and you’ll see (literally!) what I mean.  More seriously body language gives away a lot of information about us and how we feel:·        on a chair cross-legged and cross-armed makes you appear defensive·        standing on a stage, with a wide stance and arms outstretched makes you look confident perhaps to the point of Messianic  And in the office or at a meeting:·        squinting and rubbing your chin gives a look of thoughtfulness and consideration·        raised eyebrows, wide eyes and a nod shows approval and encouragement Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.07 – 0431 – Face-To-Face Gestures When Talking Face-To-Mic The ‘father of modern public speaking’ Dale Carnegie, wrote, “A person under the influence of his feelings projects the real self, acting naturally and spontaneously. A speaker who is interested will usually be interesting”. If you are interested in your subject, believe in what you are saying, and want to share your message with others, your physical movements will come from within and be appropriate to what you’re saying. And if you use ‘face-to-face’ gestures even when you’re ‘face-to-mic’ and can’t actually see those you’re talking to, then you will start to sound a bit more natural. There were non-verbal signals before there was language.  After all, animals manage to negotiate their entire social lives by using non-verbal signals. They make friends, find mates, rear young, decide hierarchies and work together in groups, by using non-verbal signals.Similarly, Stone Age man would tell others about the best hunting grounds, teach them how to make weapons, fight and appease neighbouring tribes and so on without language as we know it, but with grunts and gestures instead. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.06 – 0430 – ‘Using Your Hands To Help Your Voice’Hold on, this is supposed to be all about talking, with your mouth, isn’t it? Well yes and no. Talking also involves the rest of your body. Certainly, in breathing you use your diaphragm and throat … but talking also involves your hands, your head – in fact a lot of the rest of the body too: posture and gesture go hand in hand (!) to affect your vocal delivery. Earlier we looked at how to imagine another person in the room with you, as a way of presenting more conversationally. It’s not just picturing someone in your mind that can help though, you can also use this ‘body behaviour’: the gestures you would normally use when speaking face-to-face.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.05 – 0429 – What is A ‘Natural’ and ‘Conversational’ Sound?
Now let’s enter a new section in the [1]‘voyage of the voice’, with more communication skills.
So far we’ve looked at how the voice is produced – with a series on breathing - and how words are formed when we spent some time on articulation. Then we examined the various aspects of speaking from intonation to projection, pace, pause and pitch.
So, now we know what goes on in the ‘chest and the head’ – what does it take to go one step further?
In this chapter / series of episodes we will take a look at the ‘attitude’ of conversational reading. That is how we sound more natural and fluent, how we bring a story to life.
First, how talking is more than ‘moving your mouth’ – how sounding natural comes in part from moving the rest of your body too. That is the verbal orchestration that is gesticulation.
Then a series on conversationality, or if you prefer ‘voice acting’: how can you sound as though the words are not being read? What are the tricks to use, and the psychological ‘zone’ you need to be in, to appear not to be using a script, even though you are? It’s a tricky trick to pull off.
Linked with this of course, is ad-libs: going off-piste from a script. Then a section on fluency and what I’ve called vocal viruses. No, not coughs and colds, but the causes of slips and trips, stumbles and hesitations, filler words and fluffs.
[1] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.04 – 0428 – The Speed Of The Read – A Summary
And that’s the challenge: to maintain clarity and inflection throughout the script.
“Sometimes the most powerful sound in stories is a lack of sound, or a pause, or a silence, or a cadence of the way we speak in person that you can't really get when you're reading print. You hear that in your mind, but you don't really know how it's intended to sound. So, I think there's a musicality to audio storytelling that gives it also a little bit of an advantage over just watching something that has visuals and audio and also just reading something on the page.”Julie Shapiro, Executive Producer of Radiotopia from PRX[1]And those are our paragraphs on the power of the pause.
Now, is it time for you to start giving someone ‘the silent treatment’?
[1] Interview with Tamar Charney, NPR, on “The Power of Digital Audio Storytelling: From Podcasts to Voice Assistants” webinar series, Knight Centre. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.03 – 0427 – Peter’s PT For Talking To Time Take some copy which has a required duration indicated on it, and read it aloud like you might in a demo, and with a stopwatch to hand.
How many words did you read in 30 seconds? Or how many seconds were you over?
Keep practicing until you can sensibly get the copy in the seconds required, several times in a row. Then take another script and repeat the exercise before return to the first script and seeing if the rate and the rhythm are still there.
Then go back to the second script. Then take a third one, of a different style and duration and word-count, and try it all again.
A further exercise would be to take your 30 second script and elongate it so it when you read it, it lasts 40 seconds, or shorten it to 25: all of these are skills that will come in useful in the recording studio. You are often presented with a script that is just too ‘word-rich’ and yes, every single one is vital. It is up to you to ‘fit the words into the seconds’ in a clear and interesting way. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2022.03.02 – 0426 – Peter’s PT For The Fast Talker VOCAL YOGA – PETER’S PT for the fast-talkerHere’s one of those infamous ‘Terms and Conditions’ statements you often hear at the end of ads. Can you clearly communicate this script at speed and at ease? “Representative example cash price 13-4,2,0. Deposit 4,8-9,9-41 Credit amount 8,5,2,0-5936 months optional final payment 6,2,3,7-67Total payable 14-7,3,6-72Based on 8-thousand miles per annumRepresentative APR 5.9%Fixed interest 3.05%” The ad I took this statement from, had it read in 13 seconds… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.