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More learnings from IAF Conference 1997 Vocal Humour & Power: facilitating with your voice by Susan Nurre If you see a woman dressed in bright comfortable clothes, with a fun hat, a painted face, and silver hair, you might have just met your voice coach!!! There she was walking around the IAF conference in all her glory prior to her session -- meet Lynn Grasberg. Did I mention her guitar? It is not possible (with words) to describe the sheer fun and learning experience this session was. We sang, sipped water, made noises and faces, and laughed a lot (a whole lot!) As Lynn says, how we sound when we speak affects the groups we facilitate. We use our voice to focus people’s attention, improves a group’s retention of information, and set the tone of the event. Here are some of her suggestions for using your voice effectively. Care and feeding of the voice Drink a lot of water. Being hydrated helps your voice last longer and sound clearer. To avoid lots of trips to the bathroom, avoid gulping the water. Sip slowly throughout the workshop. Water is the best choice, other liquids don’t have the same effect. In fact drinks with caffeine, alcohol and sugar can actually dehydrate you. Try to avoid clearing your throat. Warm up your voice up to an hour before your workshop. Lynn suggests you consider trying these warm-up exercises in the car, in the bathroom, or at the least with your back toward your participants!! Whole Body Swing your arms. Rotate your shoulder blades. Start making a sound, and “shake that sound” into your body starting with the limbs a nd proceeding to the whole body). (got that mental picture of a room full of facilitators shaking sound into their bodies?) From deep in your belly, activate your breath Yawn Sign Act like a balloon (expend when you inhale, contract when you exhale) Energize your face for vocal first aid Massage your face, scalp, neck and shoulders Move your face (make faces, stretch and squeeze your face, roar like a lion and then squeak with a prune face) Relax your lips and tongue (make a motor boat sound, massage under your chin) Place your voice (get it to resonate in your nasal and oral cavities) Hummmm into your cheeks and forehead Make the sound “ning ning ning” to resonate your soft palate. Slide your voice up and down from low to high several times (like a musical siren) Talk from your stomach, not from your throat. If you abuse your voice from the throat, stick out your tongue as far as you can and pant like a dog. This will relax the throat. And a favourite of the conference attendees: Activate your articulators (lips, teeth and tongue) with tongue twisters. Repeat each one several times and increase speed as you go (if you can!) The lips, the teeth, the tip of the tongue Rubber baby buggy bumpers Unique New York Red leather, yellow leather Toy Boat Increase Vocal Variety After your warm-up, bring out the musical qualities of your voice so you’re not a monotone drone. Lynn’s mnemonic to remember the FIVE musical qualities is “pivot” your voice, actually spelled P-V-T-T-T P -- Pitch Allow your voice to go up and down, producing some “melody” in your speech V -- Volume Play with the loudness/softness T -- Tone Experiment with the many qualities available to colour your sound: smooth, bright, mellow, sharp, whispered, booming (like Ethel Merman), flowing, clipped T -- Tempo Vary your speed to keep your audience awake T -- Timing Play with pauses. Emphasize a word or phrase with silence before or after it. Other hints: If your voice is intimidating, it could be because you have a tendency to drop your voice at the end of a sentence. Concentrate of trying to end on an upnote. Many women make sentences into questions by talking "up" the end of the sentence. Focus on dropping your voice down at the end. At your next workshop, remember some of this advice from Lynn – you may look a little silly yawning and sighing but your participants (and you) will benefit! œ Lynn Grasberg, president of Humor Relations Associates, can be reached at 303.604.3246 © 1993-1999 Copyright All rights reserved