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2021.11.22 – 0326 – What Is ‘Volume’? DEFINITIONS Volume – is a basic degree in softness or loudness of your voice along the path from whispering to shouting (or ‘raising one’s voice’). Sound is measured in decibels (dB). A whisper is about 30 dB, normal conversation is about 60 dB (a motorcycle engine running is about 95 dB). Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Throu...

2021.11.21 – 0325 – How You Naturally Pump Up The Volume How You Naturally Pump Up The Volume As we saw many chapters ago, your voice is produced by air from the lungs moving over the vocal cords in the larynx in the throat.   As the cords’ combination of muscle and cartilage contract and relax, the space between them increases or decreases, and the tone and pitch of the voice changes. &...

2021.11.20 – 0324 – A MIx Of Modulators   Of course, volume and projection are part of the overall ‘mix of modulators’ which combine in varying degrees to give you your unique voice that you use in different situations.   They are perhaps more closely related to ‘tone’ which we spoke about earlier, and that in itself is related to the content of a message: you rarely shout “ I love you ”...

2021.11.19 – 0323 – The Volume of Your Voice – plus a shout out to projection and energy   “The mouth is a true index of character. It is through the mouth and eyes that all emotions are expressed” A.A. Milne   In this chapter we’ll look at how loud you sound.   There’s a section on vocal proxemics , the times you may use a softer or louder voice and a bit on mic technique too. Plus...

2021.11.18 – 0322 – In Summary A common failing of script readers is banging out every, say, fifth word, like a beat on a drum. Or banging out unimportant words, the ‘ grammar glue ’ that simply link a sentence together, rather than the words which do the ‘ heavy lifting’ and help explain the story. (Here I have underlined the correct ones to lift!) Having this kind of intonation gives the impress...

2021.11.17 – 0321 – Final Intonation Considerations Once you have pre-read and rehearsed and are confident in what the sense of the script is, don’t necessarily read it exactly the same way each and every time. To sound convincingly conversational, you need to ‘feel’ the words each time your eyes see them, as though the thoughts are just occurring to you. As long as it’s true to the intended meani...

2021.11.16 – 0320 – What Am I Talking About What am I talking about? “She is a miniature horse breeder and is married to an English professor.” Is she a horse breeder who is small in height, and married to a woman who is English and teaches science? Or does she breed miniature horses and married to a German who tutors in the subject of English? “The new solicitor was very concerned about his brief...

2021.11.15 – 0319 – Intonations In Different Languages INTONATIONS IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES Each language has its intonation and some are more musical than others. In English, a wide range is used. In some instances, intonation carries the meaning of a phrase. For example, in question tags the intonation used can indicate whether the speaker is looking for agreement. It is important for speakers of...

2021.11.14 – 0318 – Prick Up Your Ears This ‘skeleton script’ comprising of just the meaning-full words, are the ones which are lifted and if you only heard these ones perhaps on the radio in the car when the kids were chattering, you get a gist of what the story was. Like catching your name being said amongst the hubbub of a party, they are the ones which prick up your ears. It’s like, as a child...

2021.11.13 – 0317 – The Magic Skeleton You have to be careful with intonation of course: ·        If you lift the wrong words that you begin to sound like a bad robot and thus not conversational or natural ·        If you lift the wrong words, it can actually change the meaning of a sentence, and may even land you in t...

2021.11.12 – 0316 – Hearing Your Own Intonation It is difficult to be aware of the exact intonation of your own presentation, partly because of how we hear ourselves ‘inside ourselves’ through our own sound passages and vibrations. And also, it’s because we know our ‘intention of intonation’, and therefore it’s difficult to judge how exactly that message has been received. To put it another way, w...

2021.11.11 – 0315 – The ‘Question Intonation’ Those who have a ‘sing-songy’ voice which goes unnecessarily up-and-down in tone (the ‘sea-sick syndrome’), can come over as patronising. It may sound ‘up and bright’ to them but to the listener it sounds cheesy and as though the presenter is on ‘auto-pilot’ without a care for the content of the message. Other presenters go up at the end of every sente...

2021.11.10 – 0314 – Circumflex Intonation But the human voice is capable of much more intonational gymnastics!   Within some words we can go down … and then up and then down again. Or up, down, and up again. And these intonation alterations give additional clues to the listener as to what we mean. Down > up > down (            ...

2021.11.09 – 0313 – The Flat Intonation And in some situations, I may just have an almost flat intonation (with a slight raise) on a word, to signpost a meaning to the listener. For example, if I am talking, it’s the way that I would say that I’m in the middle of my sentence, and I don’t want you to interrupt me yet because I’ve got more to say about this subject, but when I ha...

2021.11.08 – 0312 – The Downward Circumflex Intonation Within A Word    This is, unsurprisingly, a word said in a higher pitch followed by a lower one, and as you might expect often signifies closure, certainty, finality – and is what we often use at the end of a sentence, as well as: ·        Usually for straight questions expecting more straight answe...

2021.11.07 – 0311 – The Upward Circumflex Intonation Within A Word   This is when you start saying a word in one tone, and then end it on another, giving the word an upward tonal spin from one syllable to another. It suggests a wavering lack of finality as well as: ·        Doubt – “I’m not sure what I think about th at…”   ·   &nbsp...

2021.11.06 – 0310 – The ‘Intonation Circumflex’ But one doesn’t always merely ‘push’ a whole word, sometimes by changing your inflection within a word it carries another meaning. This is the ‘word-wobble’ or ‘circumflex intonation’, denoting doubt by the reader.   Consider the statement “ the Moon is made of cheese ” and the reply “ Really? ”. That reply could be said: ·   &nbs...

2021.11.05 – 0309 – Intonation for Comedians OK this is a bit off topic, but let’s spend a moment looking at intonation in respect of the delivery of a joke.   One of the reasons something is funny is because it is unexpected. And that may mean you have to change your intonation to signpost the humour. So (and this is not the joke!) what do you call the situation when lots of cars are filling...

2021.11.04 – 0308 – How Mis-Intonation Can Cause Mis-Direction Not intonating the correct words can completely alter its meaning and tone, leading to a completely different message given to the listener.   He said their action had made a walkout inevitable.   Stressing the word “ he ” might suggest there are others who would disagree with this statement.   He said their action had m...

2021.11.03 – 0307 – 13 – A Brief Bit on Brackets (or ‘A Pause for a Part on Parentheses’) You will be unlikely to find these in news or commercial reads (although sometimes you might), these are clauses which may appear with brackets around them, or – just like this – with dashes… or maybe ellipses. On other times, depending on the style of the writer, they may appear inside commas.   As brac...

2021.11.02 – 0306 – 12 – Positive Intonation About Negative Information Remember earlier we looked at the fulcrum of facts in a story or sentence? That is, ‘this person says this and that person says that’? Well that can be developed into situations when ‘that person says this happened and that person says it did not’.   In other words, negatives, opposites, contrasts and contradictions. Word...

2021.11.01 – 0305 – 11 – Positive Intonation About Positive Information The ideas about highlighting contrasting and new information join together, when we look at ‘positive’ words such as ‘any’, ‘all’ and ‘always’.   “ Police found a body in a house on Devilgate Drive, and they didn’t allow anyone to walk up there.” Remember our shades of colour in intonation. The fact that they didn’t allow...

2021.10.31 – 0304 – Grammar Glue Part 2 or – and and or are often two sides of the same coin. “ And ” is often giving additional information, whereas “ or ” usually suggests options or alternatives are available. In a simple ‘either/or’ phrase, the “ or ” is often subdued, to allow the basic options either side to be coloured. “You can have chicken or fish ”. But in a more complicated sentence, wh...

2021.10.30 – 0303 – 10 – Grammar Glue Consider a dodgy phone connection and you can only hear some of what a friend is saying. You get the gist of the content from the meaningful words in the sentence: the words which actually are full of meaning, give detail and context and move the story along. Some words in a sentence don’t add much information, they are there to give it structure and hold the...

2021.10.29 – 0302 – 9 – By Super-Stressing One Insignificant Word, You Downplay The Sense Of The Sentence “Christmas is the best time of the year.” It’s a short, straightforward sentence: this speaker loves Christmas! It is simply the best! Therefore, the words that are most-coloured are: ·        Christmas ·        Be...