Engage your Listeners with Vocal Melody
TRANSCRIPT:
My name’s Aimee Blesing, and today we’re looking at how to engage your listeners with vocal variety. Today we’re looking at melody. 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 pitch variation. Pitch variation, which I actually like to call melody, is about exploring what’s available to you vocally so you can express yourself in a number of different ways, and you can be more influential in your quest to engage people.
Singers work on pitch range and melody all the time because it’s not very interesting to hear someone sing on one or two notes, is it? People tend to be moved and engaged by songs that have interesting melody lines—by those power notes that a singer builds to when the climax of the song happens.
We can use our voice musically as speakers too, and the cool thing is, you might actually already know how to do this. Tuning into what we already do is an important step in building awareness of our instrument. So start paying attention to how you speak when you’re with friends or people you like. In everyday conversation, do you speak in a monotone way, or are you animated, free from self-consciousness? Are you naturally using melody when you speak?
To begin exploring the melody in your voice, you can play with what I call your vocal roller coaster. I’ll pop a link to my Vocal Roller Coaster Tune-Up below so you can get started with that. The vocal roller coaster is going to make you aware of all the notes you actually have in your voice, and these are available to you anytime you communicate.
We also want to understand how melody will impact our listeners. So low notes tend to invoke a sense of seriousness or sternness. They can also be used to create a sense of suspense or secrecy. Mid-range notes in the voice tend to feel more conversational, easy to listen to, and these are good notes for relaying information, for making clear points, and explaining instructions. The higher notes in our voice tend to lend themselves to excitement, building anticipation, and playfulness.
So between these three, there’s a lot to express and explore. And once we get familiar with them all, we can start to move seamlessly and authentically through our vocal melody every time we speak.
Start playing with melody by reading texts aloud, intentionally making choices about whether you’re going to use low pitch, mid-range pitch, or high pitch. See what feels most natural, and get curious about how this can apply to your other speaking situations. You can do the same thing with a speech or a keynote. Find the moments where you need to match a somber tone with some low notes, where you want to get an important point across with some mid notes, or bring some levity or fun with some high notes.
It’s important to stay within what’s comfortable for you. So high doesn’t have to mean ridiculously high, and low doesn’t have to mean living in vocal fry. Pitch variation is unique to you, so play with it, explore what feels authentic to you, and enjoy engaging your listeners.
Let me know what questions you have or what was helpful about this video, or drop back in and share how you’ve been playing with melody in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.
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