PITCH
In spoken English we use inflections to give clues to our intention and meaning. For example, if you say "The meeting's going to start at eight" with an upwards, rising inflection, your listeners will most likely get the impression you're asking for agreement or clarification. On the other hand, saying the same words with a strong downward inflection makes the sentence into a very commanding statement.
Even people who fear they are monotone in delivery have these inflections in their voice, creating natural highs and lows. It's just that their highest high and their lowest low may be very close to each other. Presenters with a wide range of pitches are more likely to keep their listeners' ears engaged.
| If you want to have more pitch available to you, first get your voice used to reaching these new peaks and valleys. This is not particularly difficult work, it simply takes patience and discipline. |
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Imagine your voice is a muscle that you're going to put on an exercise regimen. You know there will be natural resistance. Your muscle will want to maintain it's own comfort. It'll want to stop stretching before it really needs to. But you will push it gently just a touch beyond its limit in order to gain new strength.
You are going to work on pushing the limits of your pitch. You are going to do this by working outside the natural highs and lows you hear in your head every day. Gently drop your jaw, half way to a nice yawn. (If you yawn, that's good. It relaxes the equipment.) Take in a nice, relaxed breath.
Gently, begin to make an "ahh" sound on the highest note you possibly can. Don't stay on that note like a singer, but rather let your voice cascade easily downward into your natural range, all the while allowing the "ahh" to fall out of your mouth. Continue the sound down through your natural range into the deepest sounds you can make. Let the sound die away when you've hit the lowest note in your cellar.
There are two points to this exercise. The first obviously is to stretch your vocal muscles. Overtime, your highs will get higher and your lows will get lower. The second, equally important point is that it expands what your brain says are "acceptable" notes to use.
Doing this vocalization repeatedly for just a few minutes every day will expand the powerful presenting tool called "pitch."
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