Engage your Listeners with Tempo
TRANSCRIPT:
My name is Amy Blesing, and today we’re looking at how to engage your listeners with vocal variety.
Today, we’re focusing on tempo.
Let’s talk vocal variety. Your voice is a powerful tool in getting your listeners to engage and want to listen to you. So whether you’re recording videos or speaking live, knowing how to utilize your voice is a game-changer. Exploring vocal variety gives you tools to be more intentional when you speak, which helps people stay interested in what you have to say.
We can explore vocal variety by playing with pace, pitch variation, tone, volume, and pausing. Today, let’s look at pace, which I actually like to call tempo.
Tempo is about how fast or slow you speak at any given time, and it’s a very effective way to engage listeners and keep them engaged.
Have you ever had someone speak to you with a really quick tempo—or speak to you painfully slowly? Or perhaps this is something that you experience yourself doing, and you really want to work on it. Well, whether it’s consistently speaking fast or slow, either way creates one result—and one result only: your listeners will check out. They’ll stop listening to you and will most likely get frustrated.
Speaking too quickly means people can’t keep up with your thoughts. They lose track of what you’re saying and very likely can’t even understand what you’re saying—because you probably end up tripping over your words and running ideas together.
Speaking too slowly creates the opposite problem. People are thinking quicker than you, and they get frustrated and impatient waiting for you to get to your point. They check out, get bored, and stop caring about what you’re saying.
But here’s the cool thing: if you can temper your speech, presentation, or even your conversation with a range of tempos, you’re more likely to keep people engaged.
So how do we know what to use—and what’s the impact?
First, we want to establish what we would refer to as our moderate tempo. This is our home-base tempo. It’s the pace that’s easiest to listen to and to follow. Your moderate tempo feels comfortable and steady—like you aren’t racing yourself. A moderate tempo helps people stay with you without feeling overwhelmed by how fast or slow you’re speaking.
If you don’t feel like you really have a moderate tempo yet, that’s okay. When you bring your attention to your fast and slow, that’s going to help you find your middle ground.
Once we have our moderate tempo, we can then utilize our quick and slow tempo for emphasis or impact.
How slowing down helps:
When we slow down intentionally, we let our audience know something is important—that we want them to really listen and remember it. When something is high-stakes or meaningful, slowing down, even for just a few words, can be incredibly powerful.
How speeding up helps:
Speeding up or using a quicker tempo can inject energy, levity, or fun into a speech or conversation. You might use it when making a lighthearted comment or transitioning between ideas:
“Let’s move on.” or “Let’s look at the results.”
A quick tempo can also build momentum and excitement as you lead into a big point.
My advice is to use quick and slow tempo strategically—and not for too long. A few slow words can be more powerful than a whole sentence at a slow pace. At the same time, staying in quick tempo too long will make people tune out. Use both intentionally.
You can practice by playing with tempo as you read news articles out loud or by trying famous speeches online. Be curious about what your quick tempo, slow tempo, and moderate tempo feel like. They won’t be the same as mine or anyone else’s—and that’s the point.
I’m here to help you find your authentic way of speaking, not to make you sound like a robot or someone else.
As you read, identify phrases that feel important and experiment: Would a quick or a slow tempo help deliver this more effectively?
Over time, you’ll become more instinctive about using tempo to engage your listeners.
And don’t forget to pay attention to your audience—their body language and eye line will tell you a lot about whether they’re listening. Changing tempo might be the tool you need to bring them back onside.
Let me know what questions you have or what was helpful about this video—and drop back in to share how you’ve been playing with tempo in the comments. I’d love to hear from you!
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