Toastmasters CC 6 Project: Find your voice

Of all the Competent Communication manual projects nothing troubled me more than the CC 6 project. Incidentally CC 6 is also the final speech project that needs to be finished if one has any ambitions of competing in the International Speech Contest (ISC). So what makes this project complex when it has some simple objectives such as:

• Use voice volume, pitch, rate and quality to reflect and add meaning and interest to your message.
• Use pauses to enhance your message.
• Use vocal variety smoothly and naturally.

Should be pretty easy right considering the fact all of us use our voice everyday to converse with friends and family? Wrong, there's more to this project than just plain voice modulation. Although the project is all about vocal variety, its objectives are only met when audience easily connects to what you are presenting through your voice. In other words if everyone in the audience closes their eyes they should still be able to feel what you are attempting to put forth by listening to your voice alone. So here are some tips which will help you communicate with your audience as part of this speech project. 

1. Select a topic which aids dialogue. Keep in mind the accent of the characters and mimicking the mannerisms of the characters is not important. What is important is making the audience feel whatever the characters are experiencing. For this speech project I initially drafted a commentary on reality shows. After the speech bombed notoriously, I picked up a simple story which inspired me in my childhood. Needless to say the change in content worked well and I got through.
2. Feel whatever you are saying. This is a mandatory requirement for any speech but it's even more essential for CC 6. Your tone will belie your intentions if you are not invested in the point you are trying to make. Its therefore necessary to choose a personal story or something which really affected you for you to establish the audience connect. 
3. Sync your body language with your voice. This is a very simple yet often ignored rule of public speaking. Body language should be downbeat when grave concerns are being discussed and upbeat for jovial themes. Not only body language even facial expressions have to go along with your voice. The rule of thumb here is to remember how you react to emotions such as grief and happiness in real life and apply the same principles when you deliver a speech. This rule of drawing from real life experience will also enable you to pause at the right moment.  
4. Understand the difference between pitch and volume. Pitch is related to the frequency of the sound whereas volume refers to the loudness of the voice. To learn more click here. A high pitch could relate to excitement, fear, anxiousness whereas a low pitch could be used to convey something profound, solemn or intricate. Tune your voice volume to the acoustics of the room so that you don't end up sounding like a boom box.
5. Practice inflections. The way you stress different parts of a sentence will change what you intend to convey and take the audience along with you. For Example: 
• "I wasn't there" ('I' was stressed upon) tells the audience that apart from 'you' somebody else was there.    
• "I wasn't there" ('There' was stressed upon) tells the audience 'you' weren't 'there' but somewhere else.

So that's it folks. Next time you prepare a CC 6 speech follow the points above and send across your speech as an audio message to your friends and mentors. If your voice can spur them forward then your speech will definitely be a hit. May the CC 6 project help you find the voice of your life.

Until Next Time,

Your Toastmaster,

J.J. Chaitanya