It is when you are able to control your voice to the highs and lows, and be able to make it a little more dramatic so that you catch the attention of the audience.

Imagine attending a session where the speaker is only interested in delivering the information, that too in a monotonous voice. In such a situation, it becomes very difficult for the listener to pay attention. The audience tends to get distracted very easily.

It is said that the audience judges the speaker in the initial one and a half minute to know whether they are going to listen to him/her any further or not. This fact leaves you with a very less time span in which you are supposed to grab the attention of the audience.

If you ask me whether it is difficult or not, my answer would certainly be NO.

But there are a number of things you need to keep in mind while modulating your voice in the right manner.

What are those? Let’s find out:

1. Be Loud and Clear

Being loud does’t mean that you have to shout. There is a difference. Make sure that your voice doesn’t creak while being loud. This can irritate/annoy the audience and make them lose interest.

2. Practise Variation

You can look up for some steps that you can practise in order to develop the desired voice.

Practice speaking with variations in your speech. Let’s go back to the time when we used to sing rhymes, or when our teacher used to tell us stories. Remember, only the variation in your tone can convey your expressions. Make your speech sound interesting to the people listening to it.

3. Stress on Powerful Words

Words don’t create an impact, unless they are rightly delivered. You can take effective pauses, stress on a certain set of words, which will help your speech sound more interactive.

4. Create a Crowd Pleasing Speech

Connect with the audience. Speakers should use tools like humour, story and experiences to attract the crowd. The audience should be able to connect with you, right when you start your speech. You can even appreciate them for being a good audience, or ask them a few questions so that it gets you closer to them. Entertain your audience with a story that they can relate with. However, you need to keep in mind that the story should convey a message/moral to them. Narrating irrelevant stories will only distract them.

5. Effective Pauses

Pauses are very important. They build curiosity in the minds of the people listening to you. You have to ensure that you don’t take very long pauses, boring the audience instead. Have a clear idea of what you’re about to speak. This will help you build a roadmap in your own mind regarding the speech and hence you will not forget your content

There are 2 effective pauses I would like to share with you:

1. A pause right after your introduction, while moving to emphasise on a certain idea will be really effective.

2. A pause while moving from one topic to another.

6. Avoid Ahs and Uhms

This can really irritate the audience while listening to the speaker, if he tends to keep on adding fillers like ahs and uhms over and over again. To avoid such fillers, you need to practise speaking a lot.

7. Sound Enthusiastic and Confident

The audience is seeking a hero in you, when you are speaking. DO not sound lousy, monotonous or use the same variation of tone in your speech. Display enthusiasm in your words.

Best of luck!!