Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice-Over Voice

2023.09.02 – 0975 – The Diction-ary of Voice - A Part 1 The Diction-ary of Voice ON GOOD SPEAKING TERMS   **A Abdomen – your stomach area that moves out as you breath in, as the diaphragm lowers to allow the lungs to expand Actuality (‘act’) – sound, such as an interview, recorded on location or in a studio and which are not the reporter or narrator. Ad lib - a spontaneous addition or ch...

2023.09.01 – 0974 – A Whispering Voice Whispering voice Symptom: Speaking very softly Prescription: Don’t. A whisper needs vocal fold tension, with the sound produced in a small gap between them. Instead talk in a breathy voice as outlined in episode 770. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2023.08.31 – 0973 – The Whining Voice   Whining voice Symptom: As you might expect, this sound is related to the ‘unnatural pitch’ described above. It too is a higher-pitched voice, with the added issue of elongated words, especially vowels, and often additional nasality. Those vowels may ‘whine’ on a steady pitch, or rise and fall similar to a police siren. Put all that together and the spea...

2023.08.30 – 0972 – ‘Vocal Fry’ Voice ‘Vocal fry’ voice [1] , [2] Symptom:  We have covered this in some depth previously, especially in episode 38: the low, glottal, creaky, choppy, breathy delivery often described as a millennial speech pattern used most often perhaps by women and most famously by the Kardashian clan and Katy Perry. It happens when vocal folds stay relaxed when you spe...

2023.08.29 – 0971 – Valley Speak Valley speak (short for ‘ Valley Girl-speak ’) [1] ’ [2] Symptom:  This is a combination of several vocal features (nasality, uptalk, fast-paced run-on sentences, breathiness and vocal fry) and vocabulary (“ like ”, “ I know, right? ”, “ whatever ”, “ totally ”) Episode 638 discusses the use of the word “like” and 640 is on other ‘filler words’. Prescription:...

2023.08.28 – 0970 - Uptalk Uptalk [1] Symptom:  Most sentences end on a lower inflection than how they start, to give a signal that the end of the thought has been reached. Apart from sentences which end with a rising inflection. (“ Do you agree? ”). Uptalkers use a rising inflection no matter the sense of the sentence. It can give the impression that you are doubtful of what you are saying,...

 2023.08.27 – 0969 - Unnaturally pitched voice Unnaturally pitched voice Symptom:  This is similar to the ‘mono-tone’ (but where that is usually a lower pitch, this problem is usually one of being too high), and ‘forced pitch’ (but this is not done deliberately). It's when nerves or excitement (sometimes combined with an undue haste), cause you to speak with too high a tone, away from yo...

2023.08.26 – 0968 – The ‘ Tired’ Voice   Tired voice Symptom: You sound dull, flat and a little ‘slurry’ as your tongue has trouble forming words. Prescription: ·        A voice will become tired with the amount, volume or the tone of the sound it is being asked to perform (see: ‘vocal loading’ and episode 756). Regulate your speaking so you don’t speak...

2023.08.25 – 0967 - The ‘Throwaway’ Delivery   ‘Throwaway’ delivery Symptom: When your voice trails off on the last word or two of a sentence. This makes them sound unimportant and sometime unintelligible and can be another pattern of talking that you don’t realise you have adopted. Prescription: In news and commercial scripts, the last words may be vital to the item. A pay-off, a punchline o...

2023.08.24 – 0966 - Throat Clearing   Throat clearing Symptom: Throat clearing can become a habit. The slightest tickle and you may cough, but this irritates the vocal folds even more and makes them more raw and sensitive which then exacerbates the problem. Prescription: ·        Swap a cough for a hard swallow, preferably with a sip of water and you ha...

2023.08.23 – 0965 – The ‘ Thin’ Voice Thin voice Symptom: 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. ·&nb...

2023.08.22 – 0964 - Stumbling Stumbling Symptom: 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! ·   &nbsp...

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 doe...

2023.08.20 – 0962 - ' Sloppy' Speech Sloppy speech Symptom: 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: ·&...

2023.08.19 – 0961 – The ‘ Sing Song’ Delivery Sing Song Delivery Symptom: 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 be...

2023.08.18 – 0960 – The ‘ Sibilant’ Voice Sibilant voice Symptom: 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 s...

2023.08.17 – 0959 - The ' Script-reading' Voice Script-reading voice Symptom:  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...

2023.08.16 – 0958 – The ‘ Quiet’ Voice Quiet voice Symptom:  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...

2023.08.15 – 0957 - Popping on the Mic Popping on the mic Symptom: 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...

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...

2023.08.13 – 0955 – Noisy Breathing   Noisy breathing Symptom: Your in-breath is clearly heard on the recording, sometimes as a suck (occasionally this comes with a lip-smack as well), or a wheeze. This is covered, along with others from episode 0092 – “The Seven Kinds Of Extra Weird Mouth Noises”. Prescription: ·        Re-angle yourself or the microph...

2023.08.12 – 0954 – The ‘ Nervous’ Voice Nervous voice Symptom: These may include a higher-pitched, fluttering voice, quickly-snatched breaths, little variation in intonation and regular mistakes.   Prescription: ·        We looked in some depth previously how nerves are a natural part of a performance, but reinterpreting them can be a good first step t...

2023.08.11 – 0953 – The ' Nasal' Voice Nasal voice Symptom: This is when ‘too much’ sounded-air goes through the nasal cavity where the resonance of sound is changed (a ‘bunged up’ voice is one that doesn’t have enough air through the nasal cavity! Episode 64 discusses the difference in a bit more detail.) Although powerful and penetrating, such a voice has a thin and twangy ‘honk’ to it, with ver...

2023.08.10 – 0952 – The ‘ Monotonous’ Voice Monotonous voice Symptom: Spoken tonal delivery which has little variation, with a perception of a single (or ‘mono’) tone. Such a delivery gives the impression that the speaker is bored or tired, that the topic is boring, or if reading from a script, that they have not understood the content enough to feel confident giving correctly-placed intonation. S...

2023.08.09 – 0951 – The ‘ Hoarse, Husky or Croaky’ Voice Hoarse, husky or croaky voice Symptom: A raw, scratchy voice (not necessarily low in pitch) which may signify overuse (such as shouting or talking loudly), abuse (such as drinking and smoking) or both (a late-night party for example). Prescription: ·        If there’s an obvious one-off cause (such as...