Have you ever had to sit through some public presentation in which the speaker spoke in a monotone from beginning to the end? I doubt if you made it to the end of the presentation without nodding off to sleep. That is the misery you will put your listeners to when you speak in a monotone devoid of any emotion. That you are reading this tells me you surely do not want to put your audience through all of that as it might end up being their worst nightmare yet.
Apart from the content of your presentation, another major part of essential communication is the vocal component. Studies have shown that the vocal component accounts for about 38% of your speech. If this were true as is generally accepted to be; then you most likely would want to pay attention to it.
First off, the most important voice elements a public speaker must understand are voice quality and animation in addition to mastering the concept of inflection. For vocal quality, your voice must be pleasant to the ear, natural in quality, audible to the ears and just forceful enough to command attention. Inflection is simply the rising and falling of your voice at intervals during speech and is the exact opposite of speaking in a monotone. For animation, there must just be enough energy and enthusiasm.
Several characteristics are inherent in vocal variety, which essentially means how you vary your voice in public speaking.
Pace - This refers to how fast or slow your voice is. In your presentation, there are times when you may need to speak very fast or very slow in a bid to vary your voice pace. Remember it is all about not speaking in a monotone.
Pitch - This is a reference to how high or low your voice sounds. In the same way that musical notes can be high or low, the variation of your voice pitch for effect is an integral part of vocal variety.
Volume - This is an indicator of the level of sound produced with your voice i.e. how loud or quiet it is. It would be a disaster for your audience to tell you to speak up because they cannot hear you. Some people even with the aid of mikes still end up being inaudible.
Tone - This tells your listeners how flat or enthusiastic your voice sounds to them. I am sure you do not want to speak to your audience in a tone that tells them you are not convinced of what you are saying to them.
Worthy of note is the saying, "They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel" credited to Carl W. Buechner. One sure and easy way to make them feel nothing is to use a monotone to deliver your speech from beginning to the end.
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