Can you hear me?
7 exercises to support and develop voice projection
Do you get complaints that nobody past the two front rows can hear you when you stand up to speak?
Speaking too quietly, or too softly, regularly tops the list of problems people want fixes for in public speaking.
The answer is not necessarily a microphone. In many circumstances you simply don't need one IF you learn to project your voice.
This does not mean yelling or shouting. If you shout continuously not only, will you ruin your voice, but you'll also lose your audience. No one enjoys being harangued at full volume.
Does speaking in public make you nervous?
How wound up are you? Often a little voice is the result of being nervous.
Being nervous naturally causes us to tense up. And if you're tense, you can't project your voice. If you can't project your voice, you can't be heard and if you can't be heard that makes you more anxious, which in turn makes you more tense... It’s a vicious circle. This collection of exercises will help you break it AND be heard.
Thank you to those of you who completed the survey I put into a recent newsletter. I’m grateful for your honesty, your kindness and I’ll use as many of your suggestions as I can. (Today’s topic was one of them!) If you missed the survey and would like to add your comments, please click the button. It will only take a couple of minutes.
7 exercises to support and develop voice projection
Do these regularly and the 'I can't hear you, speak up!' comments will become history.
The first three exercises: Rag Dolls, Shoulder Raises + Rolls and Yawning are for releasing tension. (You can find them, and several more, on this page of vocal warm-ups.)
The fourth exercise: Lip Trills and Tongue Flicks, is for warming up your lips and tongue to get them ready to help project your voice. The fifth: Humming, helps amplify sound, the sixth: Tongue Twister Drills are for clarity and the seventh: Progressive Distancing will teach you how to increase your volume without strain.
I use all of them for my own benefit and have taught them to classes. I know they’re effective.
Shall we begin?
1. Rag Dolls
Stand with your feet a shoulder width apart, breathe in through the nose and bending from the waist allow yourself to flop like a rag doll while breathing out through your mouth.
Shake any tension out of your arms, neck, shoulders and allow yourself to literally hang loose.
And then breathing in through your nose very gently and slowly bring yourself upright and breathe out through your mouth.
Repeat two or three times.
2. Shoulder Raises + Rolls
Tension loves to live in shoulders. To get rid of it:
Raise your shoulders up to your ears as you breathe in.
Hold for a moment.
Then exhale and let them fall completely.
Now roll your shoulders slowly forwards on an in-breath, then back on an out-breath.
Repeat several times until you feel the difference in your upper body.
3. Yawning
Yawning releases tension in the jaw allowing you to open and use your mouth easily.
Open your mouth as wide as you can while saying 'ah' until all your breath is gone. Repeat several times.
Do not force the sound and gently massage any residual tension away.
4. Lip Trills + Tongue Flicks
Both these are great for warming up the lips and tongue. They’re two of your best articulation allies.
Lip trills:
Gently blow air through relaxed lips to make a brrrrr sound, like a horse.
Try it with pitch: glide up and down like a siren.
Tongue flicks:
Stick your tongue out and flick it up, down, side to side. (I call it lizard tongue. If you’re doing it with your class, demonstrate it yourself! That’ll help your students get over the hurdle of not wanting to appear like clowns in front of their peers.)
Do “la-la-la,” “da-da-da,” and “ta-ta-ta” sounds quickly and lightly.
5. Humming for Resonance
A strong voice resonates in your face and chest—not just your throat.
Hum softly with lips closed.
Feel the vibration in your nose, lips, cheekbones, and chest.
Try “mmm,” “ng,” or “zzz” sounds.
Then open up into “ma,” “me,” or “moo” with a relaxed jaw.
This helps your voice become warmer to listen to as well as easier to hear.
6. Tongue Twister Drills for Articulation
Clarity is a key part of projection because you want those listening to understand as well as hear you. Enter: tongue twisters.
Start slowly and build up speed.
Exaggerate each sound.
Examples:
Red leather, yellow leather
Unique New York
She sells seashells by the seashore
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper
For more see: Diction exercises | 36 of the best tongue twisters
7. Progressive Distancing for Voice Projection
To do this exercise properly you must breathe well. (Click to find full instructions on breathing to support your voice.)
Learning to use your diaphragm to regulate the flow of air required for volume will make yelling to be heard, (and wrecked vocal cords), a thing of the past.
(A large hall is the ideal place for this exercise but if you don’t have access to one, work in the biggest space available to you. If you do have a hall start at one end and work your way to the other.)
Once you're sure your breathing is the best it can be, begin.
Stand and start with speaking to something/anything right in front of you: for instance, your screen or a picture on your desk.
Say whatever you like to it: a simple greeting (Hello Bob), part of a speech you're practicing, or read a small passage from a book using your typical conversational volume.
Then, while keeping your breathing even and relaxed, take several steps back. Repeat the greeting, speech segment or reading without strain. While you’re speaking imagine your words cleanly arcing through the air to reach their target.
Now do it again and again; each time getting further and further away from whatever you are speaking to while maintaining clarity, pitch and tone. As the distance increases, so too does the amount of air you expel on the out-breath to get the volume you want.
Click to find more about voice projection.
That’s it for this week!
Aroha nui,
Susan
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Great column. I particularly enjoyed your audio of the Bill with a billboard who also had a board bill. What fun!