How you developed your voice and speech

You know, when you’ve started to learn about speaking? In your mother’s womb. According to science, the fetus develops the ability of hearing sounds pretty early. Having this capacity – especially when the baby is born and during his first months alive – humans listen attentively to their surroundings and imitate sounds with their organs of articulation. Using their voice, they want to find the sounds in themselves.

Of course, your parents made the most important sounds. You prioritized their voices for survival and of course love. If you’re a baby in England, you’ll decide, that the sounds of the English language are a more important tool than others. Using them, you could express your needs (“Hug! Hungry! More hugs!”) and chances are high (or should be high), that they are fulfilled by your parents. It seems, that they understood you, if you were noisy in that practical fashion.

Speaking starts with listening

That’s it. We’re done with babies, both of us made it. Conclusion of our leap: This is where all of us (who don’t suffer from neurological sickness straight from birth) started. We listened.

This is valuable information. The following catalog helps you to listen more carefully and as a consequence upgrade your verbal expression. You’re given proper categories to evaluate speech-events of others. They have been used during my studies to evaluate artistic speaking events. I altered them a bit, dropped some categories, to improve its usability for you. Now you’re suited to re-access your inherent mimic-ability. 

Your Catalog: Start evaluating voices

Watch performances of politicians, radio-speakers, YouTubers or the waiters in your favorite coffee-shop and start evaluating. It can help you to understand, how they act through their voice and speaking. Reflect how that made you feel and discover what is impactful to you and in what way. Below the catalog, you find descriptions of each category. In case a category confuses you.

Criteria	Impression	Notes
Impression in general
Adressing-Posture (related to listener, intention of acting through speech, communicative, etc.)
Thought-Speech-Process (sectioning the messages through breath & pauses) + Gesture
Voice (Pitch, change of melody, loudness, tempo, etc.)
articulation
Body-Expression (gesticulation, mimic, proximity in space: movement, etc.)

Deep dive into your categories for speaking

Let’s talk about every category quickly. If you’ve never worked with us before, there can be unclarity. No worries, they are truly simple to understand. If you evaluate voices and speeches, generally start from a broad perspective and get more detailed in the process.

General-Impression: It’s best to start with a general feeling, that got evoked in you. Maybe more. Don’t be too judgmental or lose yourself in details.

Adressing-Posture: Make a change of perspective. Think about the intention the speaker had, when starting to act with a verbal expression. How was the relationship to the audience? Open or more defensive? Here you can also note the intensity of the speaking-action. 

Thought-Speech-Process: Actually this is about breathing, pauses and tempo. Could you follow the speakers arguments? Did he or she interact in a way, that they related to your reality too, so you were able to understand even complex subjects.

Voice: Here you can really focus on how the voice sounded to you. Note what it evoked in you.

Articulation: Was it articulate or did the speaker mumble, drop words, etc. Again note what it evoked in you.

Body-Expression: Besides voice and speaking, how did the speaker communicate using the body.

Exercise: Cultivate your own voice and verbal expression

Now you can start researching voices and speaking-events in whatever way you want to. Note your observations in a journal. Then try to express them yourself. Next time you read a paragraph or poem to yourself or someone else, you can use your collection for rehearsals. Maybe you have a public speaking event happening, and you want to speak, that one paragraph in the gesture of your favorite waiter. Have fun and be playful and let me know, how it was.

Let’s be heard and visible,

Günther