What is the difference between a great speaker and a bad one? How is it that one presenter can make one subject come to life and another, using the exact same material, can bore you? How is it possible to be fantastic in front of one audience and terrible in front of another?

It’s all in the voice. It’s not about content, if no one would watch TV or listen to the radio to access information, most people can assimilate information faster through the written word.

There are three main elements to your voice and each can be used to great effect to either hold your audience’s interest or destroy it.

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Rhythm is simple, it’s a measure of how fast or slow you speak. One of the first pieces of advice new speakers are given is to slow down. It is true that when addressing large audiences you need to be slower and more measured than in real life, you will never see a politician looking in a hurry to get to the end of a sentence for example.

But (and there’s always a but, isn’t there?) that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t vary your pace, slowing down even more can denote “gravity” to your points, while speeding up (even just a little) can show enthusiasm and so on.

The worst speakers show almost no variation in rhythm and their speeches almost always become a “buzz” in the listener’s ear.

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The rise and fall of their speech is in pitch, if you listen to Australian talk you will often notice that they rise in pitch at the end of each sentence. This can be confusing to Northern Hemisphere listeners who associate that rise with a question.

Variation is key, but understanding audience preference for tone is also important. I was tuned out during what I was told was an excellent speech by a leading coach because the steady rise at the end of each sentence turned me around.

tone

The final and most important part of your speech is tone, tone is the inflection you give your words to add additional meaning. In everyday life you can tell the difference between anger, humor, happiness and a million other emotions by the tone in which you speak.

Your speeches should do the same, if you want to take your audience with you. You must use the right tone to convey your message.

These three simple qualities of your voice are often the difference between the success and failure of your speech. It’s not just about the content.