How To Project Your Voice With Power

And Clarity
JUNE 10, 2014 BY WILL GEMMA

Projecting your voice is not limited to large-audience speaking. If you’re addressing

a team, classroom, theater audience, boardroom or even a very small group of people
and there’s no microphone on hand, you need to be able to project. The key is to
project your voice without draining yourself of energy and vocal chords. While
some of the techniques rely on the art of speaking, arguably the most important
require physical practice.

Below you will find all the best practices for learning how to project your voice.
The Basics

The first thing you need to do is address the problem. If you are comfortable
speaking, have full control of the English language and already know the basics, you
can move on to the next section. Otherwise, you’re probably suffering from poor
posture, practices and enunciation.

Every time you prepare to speak publicly, you should review a brief checklist. You
should, obviously, practice these tips until they feel perfectly natural.

 Enunciation. If English isn’t your first language, or even if it is and you have
problems with certain sounds, remember that it’s better to enunciate as clearly
as possible rather than mumble over the parts you’re unsure about. Mumbling
will only confuse the audience further and weaken the power of your
presentation. Practice the sounds you struggle with, looking at different
tongue/mouth positions in front of the mirror if necessary.
 Consonant Attention. It’s generally easier and more natural to enunciate
vowels, but don’t neglect consonants. You want an evenly projected voice
that powers through everything you say. Just make sure you don’t
overcompensate, which can cause you to place stress in the wrong areas.
Smooth and natural is the way to go.
 Public Speaking 101. Don’t look at the floor. Don’t look at your hands. Look
at the audience. Make eye contact. This will force you to literally project your
voice towards their ears. It will also help them understand you if they can
watch your mouth as you speak.
“Real” Practice

Any speech or acting coach will tell you that you need real practice to improve. If
you have to stand in front of a mirror, so be it, but a larger room generally allows
you to get a better grasp for volume and projection. This will allow you to “feel out”
the exercises below and really understand how to use your voice in different rooms
and settings.

How To Project Your Voice

Voice projection is all about breathing correctly and leveraging stomach strength;
more specifically, the strength of your abdominal and diaphragm muscles. You don’t
want to try to amplify your voice in your throat. This will be exhausting and, if
sustained for long enough, will make you hoarse. This is not meant to feel natural.
At first, it will almost undoubtedly feel very unnatural. But just a little bit of practice
will make you significantly more comfortable. The first thing we need to address is
breathing.

 Breathing Techniques

Sound is conducted by air. The more air you have at your disposal, the more sound
you have, as well. This is why breathing is so critical to voice projection. The key
skill you need to develop is deep lungs. Shallow breaths will cause you to run out of
air almost immediately, which means you will start with a quiet voice and it will
only get worse from there. Plus, you will be breathless and unable to articulate
sounds, as if you just ran a race. Part of professionalism in speaking is remaining
composed.

You want to use your abdomen to pressurize your voice, which is the opposite of
other, sports-related breathing advice that tells you to breathe with your diaphragm.
Practice filling your lungs completely by keeping your chest relatively flat and
feeling your diaphragm move straight down, expanding as you go. In other words,
deliberately round out your belly when you breathe. Allow your abdomen to fill up
like a balloon. This will open up the bottom portion of your lungs, which are, in fact,
the most voluminous. So if you’re only using the top of your lungs, you aren’t even
approaching full air capacity. This also primes your abdomen to force that air back
up with serious power.

To practice, fill your lungs as described above and use your abdomen to pressurize
and force air out as you speak. You don’t have to flex as hard as you can, but only
experimentation will help you perfect it. When speaking, reverse the process you use
to inhale. Force air from the bottom up, refilling your stomach with air before it gets
depleted. It should feel like a water balloon or holding tank as you exhale and inhale
alternatively. Go for a full range of projection by trying both quiet and loud
projection.

Well-exercised athletes have up to twice the lung capacity of the average person
(this is especially true of swimmers). If you really want to see improvements in
voice projection, get in better shape. Cardio, such as running, swimming or biking,
simultaneously works your abdomen and builds your lungs. Even doing sit-ups,
crunches and other abdomen exercises will help you effortlessly project your voice.

You should never let fear get in the way of your ability to speak and project
yourself, but this is always easier said than done.
The Art Of Articulation

Articulation, which I mentioned above, is highly underrated. Projecting your voice

and articulating it go hand-in-hand. Articulation requires energy, just like breathing
does. This is why having a strong core is so important. Clear sounds travel more
efficiently than muddled ones, so don’t skimp on articulation.

Your face is like the flaring on a horn. That is, a horn or brass instrument. We work
very much like brass instruments, in that air begins under high pressure and is them
released by a flared opening. Your mouth is as important as any other part of
projection. Your cheeks and sinuses need to be strong and your mouth needs to be
relaxed and open. A small, strained, closed mouth will completely kill the sound
produced by your stomach. Build up jaw strength through practice and make sure
your sinuses are always clear. Your sinuses are like the tubing of a brass instrument;
if they’re clogged, you’ll dampen your projection considerably.

Don’t Force It
If you haven’t figured it out yet, projecting your voice is a fairly serious endeavor
and requires considerable energy. When executed correctly, your voice will sound
natural yet powerful. But until you develop the skills, don’t try to force your voice to
be louder. Stay calm and open up your stomach, lungs and mouth. Once you’ve
perfected your ability to resist the “forced” tendency, then you’re ready to take your
speaking skills to the next level.

6 Tips To Improve Your Public Speaking

Voice
When you speak, your voice is your most important tool. It influences the impact of your speech and can make
or break its success. Fortunately, you can learn to use your voice, just like playing a musical instrument, to
increase your power and persuasiveness in any conversation or speech that you give. All you need is a little bit
of guidance.

1) Slow Down
When you speak more slowly, your voice has more power and authority. Your listeners have an opportunity to
absorb and reflect on what you’re saying.
You exude confidence and you lend your words greater importance.
All powerful people speak slowly, enunciate clearly, and express themselves with confidence. Loud, confident
speaking is powerful and moving.
When you speak too rapidly, your pitch increases, often to something squeaky and child-like. This decreases
the impact of your words and your influence on the audience because listeners downgrade the importance or
value of what you are saying.

2) Use Voice Exercises

The human voice is like a muscle. It can be made stronger with exercise and use. Many people with weak
voices have become powerful, confident speakers by building their voices over time with exercise.
Here’s an example. Memorize a piece of poetry and recite it regularly as you drive or walk around. Imagine
that you’re making a dramatic presentation on a stage, in front of a large number of people. Put emotion and
strength and emphasis and energy into the words. Go slowly. Change the emphasis on each word in the line of
poetry, thereby changing the meaning of the line.

3) Record And Listen To Your Voice

As you develop your ability to speak powerfully, record yourself reading poetry or parts of plays. Replay these
recordings over and over, looking for ways to improve your pronunciation, your delivery, and your pacing.

4) Record Phone Conversations

You can increase your level of vocal mastery by recording your side of conversations and listening to them
afterwards. Every time you record and play back your own voice, you will hear different ways that you could
improve your delivery and articulation next time.

5) Focus On Pauses
The drama and power of a speech is contained in the silences that you create as you move from point to point.
There are four kinds of pauses you can use to put more power into your presentations. They are, “The Sense
Pause”, “The Dramatic Pause”, “The Emphatic Pause”, and “The Sentence-Completion Pause”. 

6) Eat And Drink Well

Energy is essential for good speaking and voice projection. Before a short talk, eat lightly. This ensures that
you are bright and alert when you start speaking, and that your brain is functioning at its best.
Before a long talk, it’s essential to eat well. A solid, high-protein breakfast or lunch will give you energy to
burn for four to five hours. Protein is brain food, and you need it to think and speak effectively. Your voice
will remain strong and your mind will stay clear.
To ensure the best possible voice, only drink room temperature water prior to and during your speech.
Cold water can chill your vocal chords and decrease the amount of warmth in your voice. When you have a
sore throat, it can be difficult to speak clearly and project that voice. If this occurs, drink hot water with lots of
honey and lemon juice. This miraculous combination has saved me on several occasions.

Conclusion
By following these 6 steps you will drastically improve your speaking voice. The feeling of confidence and
readiness that will accompany practicing these skills will make you feel unstoppable. It’s a great way to
overcome any stage fright that you might deal with in front of large crowds.

Quick Tips For Using Your Voice Effectively

by Speaking Tips | June 14, 2004

Here are eight quick tips on using your voice effectively in a speech, presentation or training
session.

 Make sure you speak loud enough for the audience to hear you. Nothing is worse
than having to strain to hear a speaker present. So, before you begin a presentation,
have someone stand at the back of the room and tell you if you can be heard.

 Don't shout into the microphone. Conversely, if you are using sound amplification
equipment, avoid the temptation to speak loudly. Before you begin, have the sound
technician adjust the amplifacation so that you can be heard clearly while using your
normal voice.

 Avoid speaking in a monotone. The easiest way to put an audience to sleep is by

speaking in the same tone of voice for a long period of time. Instead use your
natural speech patterns with their variations in pitch.

 Change your delivery pace. By speaking at different speech rates for short periods,
you can add energy and animation to your speech pattern. Observe the way you
speak during a normal conversation with a friend or colleague. You will notice that
sometimes you speak quickly and while at other times you slow down.

 Slow down for important points. By slowing your speech rate while delievering your
key points, you can convey emphasis and importance.

 Use the pause. Silence is an excellent exclamation point. By slightly extending a

pause, you can add emphasis to a key point in your presentation. The best
presenters plan their pauses to achieve maximum impact!

 Drink water. Before your presentation, drink a glass of water. This can help prevent
potential voice problems during your presentation. Keep a glass of water at the
podium and take a sip of water as necessary during the presentation.

 Check out the national news. News anchors provide some of the best examples of
effective voice usage.
How to improve your voice for
presentations
Have you ever given a presentation or done any other form of public speaking? If so,
you probably spent some time thinking about the words you were going to use and the
ideas you were going to express. But, as Dr Emily Grossman has pointed out, when
someone is speaking, most of the information we receive as an audience comes
through the speaker's body language, their enthusiasm, and – very importantly –
the tone of their voice.

Why is it important to improve the way we use our voice?

When we make a presentation or speak to a large group of people, it's important to

have an authoritative and appealing tone of voice. This will come from the ability to
make your voice resonate, as a resonant voice is more pleasing on the ear and can
make you sound more confident. This in turn helps the audience relax and enjoy
the presentation.

An audience will ‘pick up’ on your voice and respond favourably, potentially affording

you a greater deal of respect and attention. Often, the audience won’t know or
understand why this is the case, so having the ability to control and improve the way
you use your voice can be a useful and powerful skill.

There are practical reasons, too. Using your voice skilfully can stop you getting a
sore throat. When we shout, our vocal folds (often known as vocal chords) crash
together and become swollen and red, sometimes causing damage. So learning how to
use your voice by warming it up will prevent soreness in the throat.

How does our body produce sound?

Breath is the power behind the voice, but this is only the start. As we breathe in, our
lungs expand. When we speak, the air comes up through the trachea, making the vocal
folds (which are situated at the top of the trachea) vibrate. This creates sound. The
ability to control the breath is very important and is the basis of all voice work.

We then use the resonators in our throat, nose, mouth and cheek cavities (sinuses) to
amplify the sound, and our articulators (tongue, teeth, lips, etc.) to create specific
sounds that become understandable words and therefore speech.
However, as with any sport or exercise, it is important to warm up before we start. This
means first warming up our body from head to toe before we start to work on our voice.

Exercise 1:

Check through the body, shaking each part from the toes upwards. Shake your legs and
arms. Then, stretch up to the ceiling or sky. Roll the shoulders and lift them up to the
ears and then back down again, all the time making sure that they end in a relaxed
position. Finally, relax your neck. Gently roll your head by first putting your chin on your
chest and roll the head round to the back clockwise and anti-clockwise.

Exercise 2:

Yawn – this relaxes the throat and all the vocal areas. Then, yawn and stretch at the
same time.

How do we improve our breath control?

The most important thing is to learn how to relax and allow yourself to expand and
increase your breath capacity. The natural tendency is to breathe only in our upper
chest, so learning to breath down into our lower lungs and using
the diaphragm properly is the first step. The diaphragm is a muscle separating the
thorax from the abdomen – by finding and exercising this muscle, we can learn to better
control our breath during speech.

Exercise 3:

Lie on the floor on your back with feet on the floor, so that your legs are bent with your
knees pointing upwards. Check your posture: you should be relaxed, shoulders down,
fists unclenched, etc. Now mentally take a journey through your body from head to toe,
making sure you are relaxed. Start with your feet, ankles, legs and work your way up to
your head. When you find tension, ask your body to release it.

Relax and breathe. Take the breathing deeper, breathing in to a count of four (in your

head). Breathe in through your nose and feel the breath expanding the ribs like an
umbrella up and out. Place a hand just below your belly button and feel the belly rise
and drop.

Remember you must try to be relaxed at all times – always check (see exercise 1) and
do not force anything.

If the upper chest begins to lift while you are breathing, gently place a hand on it to keep
it still and down. Release all the abdominal muscles. Take your time and breath in and
out (in through the nose and out through the mouth). Breathe in and release the breath
to produce a long 'huh...ahh' sound. Do this a few times.

Now, apply tension throughout the body so it is completely tense and then release. Feel
your body relax.

Go back to your breathing – in through the nose and out through the mouth. Feel your
muscles through your back and keep your upper body still, but not tense.

Now slowly stand up. Centre yourself with your legs shoulder-width apart, arms and
shoulders relaxed, knees unlocked. Your head should be perched upon your neck.
Make sure your chin is not jutting out or pulled in.

Let your head drop, chin to chest (relaxed) and then let your body roll down vertebrae
by vertebrae so your body is hanging, arms loose, and stay like this hanging, relaxed
and breathing. Roll back up (make sure your head comes up last). Hug yourself, with
your arms, your hands touching your ribs. Roll down again into the hanging
position. Breathe gently in and out and feel the rib cage move. Gently roll back up as
before (head last).

This is a great exercise for feeling the movement needed in the ribcage and to help get
the muscles working.

Please note: as this way of breathing may feel very different to what you are used to,
you may not notice a great deal of movement to begin with. However, as with anything
new, 'practice makes perfect'.

How do we articulate sound into speech?

Articulation creates the specific sounds that make up words. By using our tongue,
teeth, palate and lips (our articulators), we create recognisable words. In order to be
clear in our speech, we need to exercise our articulators by going through the vowel
sounds. The following exercises 4-6 will help improve your articulation:

Exercise 4:

Make a 'hum' sound with your lips together but not tight – feel your lips tickle or vibrate.
Move the 'hum' sound around inside your mouth from the lips to nose and back to the
lips. Feel the vibrations in the different areas.

Chew some imaginary gum. Imagine it is growing and growing. Now, imagine you have
toffee stuck in your mouth and use your tongue to get it out.
Exercise 5:

Always from a relaxed and centred position, say out loud:

'pah paw poo pee pay...pah paw poo pee pay'

'lah, law, loo lee lay...lah law loo lee lay'

'gah gaw goo gee gay...gah gaw goo gee gay'

Use these structures to go through different sounds and, in particular, sounds that you
find difficult. For the 'lah' sound, the tip of the tongue should be behind the front teeth
before flicking out to an open mouth.

Exercise 6:

Say out loud:

'ba da ga...ba da ga' (making the sound of the consonants, i.e., 'buh' not 'baah', 'duh'
not 'daah', etc.). Repeat.

'pa ta ka...pa ta ka'  (again make the sound of the letters 'p', 't' and 'k').

You can do this anywhere, but try to use your full voice and also whispering (which
should always be voiceless).

Tongue twisters are also a good way to exercise the articulators and help improve
fluency of articulation and diction. You can find many on the internet, for example: 'She
sells sea shells on the sea-shore' and 'Peter piper picked a peck of pickled pepper'.

Exercise 7:

Place your hand on your chest and yawn. Feel the vibrations and resonance in your
chest. Now say 'hello, hello, hello' from deep down in your chest.

Why is the ability to project our voices important? 

If you want to be heard, you need to learn how to project. Projection comes from taking
control of the breath.
If you can, arrange to visit the room you are going to be speaking in and walk around it.
Use your speech and play with it, walking around while speaking, playing with the
volume. Ask a colleague to listen to you – can they hear you clearly? Does your voice
resonate?

Try speaking very slowly. Now try singing your speech. Now 'throw' your voice to the
farthest wall. This should always be done from a place of relaxation. Check that your
shoulders are down. Wriggle and roll them to check for tension. Check your posture.

Finally, make sure you check your pace – we always speak much faster than normal
when we are nervous. Practise speaking very slowly. You will feel that it's too slow, but
it almost certainly won’t be.