Unfiltered Thoughts

2023.08.23 – 0965 – The ‘Thin’ Voice
Thin voiceSymptom: A voice which is weak, with a lack of air, energy and resonance. It may lack authority.Prescription: ·        It may be trained to become stronger and fuller. Review the advice about relaxation to reduce tension, better breathing skills and breath control, and increasing resonance in your voice.·        A thin voice may also be down to starting at too high a register which is leading to poor resonance and running out of breath … both of which lead to nervousness and hence a higher pitch. (Look back at the advice for ‘a nervous voice’ and listen back to episode 277.)·        A different kind of mic, its placement or the acoustics of a room may help to a small extent. There’s a lot of advice on this from episode 513.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.08.22 – 0964 - Stumbling
StumblingSymptom: Verbal mistakes in adlibbed conversations or more likely, when reading as script: restarting words, mispronunciations, mis-intonations, repeated corrections and generally losing your way in a sentence. I outline some more of these in the episodes after 650.Prescription: Give your mouth and mind a chance to get things right!·        Relax and warm up to remove any held tension in your vocal apparatus. Have a good rest before a recording (episode 108 and the ones just after).·        De-stress mentally so you are not distracted. Have confidence in what you have been asked to do, your knowledge of the topic and your experience.·        Review and rehearse your script or make notes if you are adlibbing (ad-libbing is in episode 485 and 633 amongst others). Knowing your topic will help you with intonation, checking pronunciations (episode 138 onwards) will help reduce guesswork and inaccuracies. Reading through and good sight-reading (episode 590 and 642) will give you familiarisation that will reduce on-air or on-tape surprises. Practice this ‘cold reading’ to improve your confidence. ·        Open your mouth enough to allow your tongue to properly form the words (episode 72)·        Hydrate to allow your tongue to slip around your mouthy easily (episode 751)·        Sitting properly will lead to better breathing, which will calm you and lead to better resonance and calmness and accuracy, in a ‘virtuous circle’ ·        Adjust the script (if you are able to) to make it easier to read: maybe the words used, sentence length, font size or layout. We looked at this in episode 174.·        Slow down if stumbles are caused by your mind working faster than your tongue (episode 379 is a good one on ‘fast talking speed traps, also 646 and the ones just after).·        Remove tongue or lip studs that may reduce tongue manoeuvrability  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.08.21 – 0963 - Stammering –Stammering – also called ‘stuttering’Symptom: Stammering is when someone:·        repeats sounds or syllables – for example, saying "mu-mu-mu-mummy"·        makes sounds longer – for example, "mmmmmmummy"·        a word gets stuck or does not come out at allPrescription: ·        Little is known of the reasons behind stammering. Those with it have probably experienced it since childhood and are probably already in the health-care system and being assisted by professionals. Therefore, such advice is beyond the scope of this book.·        Although acute nervousness and stress are not thought to cause stammering per se, those situations can trigger it in those who are already predisposed.·        At a very basic level, relaxation and breathing exercises can be used as well as helping the becoming calmer emotionally, with reassurance from others about your work, content and environment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.08.20 – 0962 - 'Sloppy' Speech
Sloppy speechSymptom: Good diction doesn’t (usually) matter (!). As I have said several times in different ways (such as in epsiode 263), what’s important is whether your target listener is getting a muddled message. If they are, then you are not communicating with them and you need to consider whether how your delivery or diction is at fault.Prescription:·        Relax and open your mouth effectively to help you form the words. Vocal warm-ups will also help, as will lubrication (“hydrate, mate!”) ·        Breathe properly to give your sound more support.·        Don’t over-do the elocution, you want to sound conversational not jerky and staccato
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2023.08.19 – 0961 – The ‘Sing Song’ Delivery
Sing Song DeliverySymptom: This presentation or reading style is characterised by an artificial, repetitive pattern of a gradual rise in pitch for the first part of a sentence …. and then a gradual fall until the end is reached. Or any other regularly-repeated and predictable rhythm in melody which takes the listener away from understanding what is being said, to how it is being said instead, and may bore or annoy them. Rhythms struggle against the sense of a sentence and muddle the meaning. Episode 275 and 276 and others around it, will give you a better understanding of this issue. Prescription: ·        This pattern may be a verbal rut that you’ve got into (perhaps initially through nerves), and then has become a habit. Aircheck yourself regularly to hear how you really sound.·        If working from a script, check to see how it is written and laid out. Consecutive sentences which are of similar length and construction, perhaps with a single-syllable word at the end, often leads to a repetitive rhythm. There’s an example of this in the episode and show notes for 171. Simply re-writing them and then marking up the meaning-full words, can make a big difference to presentation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.08.18 – 0960 – The ‘Sibilant’ Voice
Sibilant voiceSymptom: When a voice is perceived to have excessive ‘s’ sounds it may be because the microphone is picking up and exaggerating that particular frequency.(Consider that sibilance, like many ‘voice sounds’ is subjective. In other words, slightly more ‘s’ sounds may be in the ear of the listener rather than the err, mouth of the reader! And sibilance may be considered a sound of ‘interest’ (rather than the archaic and offensive term ‘impediment’); it gives colour and character to the voice. As long as you can be understood and the message is received, that communication happens … who cares? Having said that you may feel self-conscious about the sound, feel that people are being judgemental about you, or that it’s reducing your opportunities.)Prescription:·        Adjust the angle of the mic so you are not speaking directly into it. If that doesn’t help, speaking with an audio engineer who may be able to suggest altering input settings on your studio desk / workstation. ·        If you are recording audio, then you may be able to clean it up in post-production: many recorders have a ‘de-esser’ which reduces the high frequencies of sibilance. There are also specialist post-production programs such as Auphonic which will be able to help you (but be careful you don’t change too many settings so your voice becomes unrecognisable!)·        You may want to consider changing your microphone as different makes and models and pickup areas cope differently with different voices.·        Or it may be an issue with your own vocal production: poorly-fitting false teeth, a pierced tongue or a tooth-gap. All of our ‘mouth furniture’ is slightly different in its shape and size and place – teeth, tongue and where we place them in relation to each other (as discussed in episode 101).·        We make the s-sound differently. Say ‘sizzling sausages’ and feel where the tip of your tongue is. Is it curling up or down? Or somewhere flatter? We make the sound in different ways just through culture and learning, not being taught, but it may be that if you try the other way it will increase or decrease the sibilance: the amount of air within the ‘s’ may affect the sibilance, as might the length of time you make the sound for. Episodes 76 and 86 are good ones to catch up with on this.·        So, there are lots of small changes that you may be able to make, and if you are worried or need more help or advice, see a trained speech trainer to work with you individually.·        Listen back to episodes 545, 557 for more on this topic.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.08.17 – 0959 - The 'Script-reading' Voice
Script-reading voiceSymptom: When you sound as though you are reading words rather than communicating or telling a story. When you sound wooden, bored, flat – or at the opposite end of the spectrum, overacting and maybe even shouting. When you sound different when you adlib an on-air conversation with a colleague or interview a guest and when you read the cue into the next story, or the weather forecast: the warm personality either falling flat or being exaggerated like a fairground barker.Prescription:·        Remember you’re having a one-to-one conversation, not one to many. Imagining them sitting in a room with you, just the other side of the desk, may help in the volume and tone you use (it’s what I previously called a ‘point of vocus’ in episode 343).·        Talk with your hands! Use body language and gestures to help bring the script to life. If you ‘act natural’ you are more likely to sound natural as we looked at in episode 430 onwards.·        Know what it is you are reading, the trick is outlined in episode 280. That is understand the context: why are you reading it? It must have some kind of importance for someone, that’s why you have been asked to read it, so tap into that understanding and relevance. Picture who is listening and their likely reaction, as discussed in episode 238.·        Review what we have looked at before about colouring words and lifting or subduing the ones that are important (or not!). Don’t worry too much about applying those ‘rules’ in the moment, but having that background knowledge will help you use them more naturally over time.·        As I mentioned in episode 132 and 133, Don’t worry about precise diction of every letter in every word and stop worrying about how you sound, but what it is you are trying to communicate.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.08.16 – 0958 – The ‘Quiet’ Voice
Quiet voiceSymptom:  I once worked with two people in the same office who spoke very quietly. Neither of them seemed concerned or embarrassed when their colleagues continually said “sorry?” or “pardon?”, or when it was easier, simply nodded along unable to hear them. Talking quietly is usually the result of little vocal energy or breath support. In a studio you can electronically boost the levels of the sound being recorded, but as we saw before, this can also mean that other sounds are louder too: your breaths, the slight clicking as you open your mouth, the studio air conditioning and the general studio ambience. Prescription: A quiet voice can be the result of a number of issues.·        It may be a mental issue, inasmuch as the speaker (whisperer?), is shy, nervous or embarrassed. You can overcome this in part with friendliness, explanation and other ways to boost confidence such as their ‘on-air miles’, and understanding of what is expected of them, how to ‘drive’ the studio desk and the topic or script at hand.·        It may be a symptom of that person not being very enthused with their job. Basic talking ‘therapies’ may uncover such an issue.·        The main physical reasons for a quiet voice are to do with a lack of projection of sound, a lack of energy from the diaphragm pushing the air. This can be overcome with better breathing, done diaphragmatically of course, and better posture, all tied up with core-strengthening exercises to better assist your abdominal muscles to be able to push and regulate the whole air-flow mechanism.·        Episodes 354 and the couple after that, deal with this ‘voice extreme’ and how to overcome it Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.08.15 – 0957 - Popping on the Mic
Popping on the micSymptom: Some letters are pronounced by the lips temporarily stopping and then releasing a flow of air from your mouth. That means that when you say words with ‘p’ and ‘b’ in them, particularly at the start of a word and particularly if that word is at the start of a sentence (when you have more air and energy), air may hit the mic, causing the sound to momentarily distort on-air or on the recording.Prescription:·        Be aware of words which contain these ‘plosive’ sounds and back off from the mic an inch or two as you say them.·        Do this together with reducing the power of pronunciation of such letters, and consider turning the mic at a slight angle so that you are speaking across it rather than directly into it.·        You should also have a pop shield or filter fitted to the mic – either a foam covering directly on the head of the mic, and/or a gauze-covered ring attached to the stand and sitting in front of the mic.·        More in episodes 555 and 556. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.08.14 – 0956 – The ‘Plonking’ Speech Pattern
Plonking speech pattern Symptom: This is when a reader doesn’t know which word to highlight in their intonation, so they do it either randomly or, like a metronome, on every fourth word (or the last word in every SENTENCE). It’s also what politicians do when they want to give the impression of strength and certainty. Rhythms are lazy and show the reader is in a rut. Catch episode 273 and 274 for more on this. Prescription: Listen to people talking in conversation, when they naturally lift the correct words for meaning. Then replicate those ‘conversational rules’ onto written news scripts, and mark them up correctly. Work out the context of what you are saying: what makes the story (or the ‘sell’), a ‘story’? what words do you need to colour in some way by lifting or subduing? A poor rhythm doesn’t make you sound authoritative, in fact it makes it sounds as though you don’t know what you’re talking about. Plonking is for plonkers[1].·        I have a whole possibly unique series on how to work out what words to lift or subdue, from episode 283, that I’d highly recommend you listen back to.
[1] A ‘plonker’ is a slang British term for a foolish or silly person. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.