Record yourself speaking with a voice recorder and evaluate your voice. Assess your volume, pitch, articulation and rate to determine the main areas where you need improvement.
Go to voice recorderIn order to do so, you shall practice and make it a habit to breath from the diaphragm (instead of the chest). This is the single most efficient way to make your voice more attractive and powerful.
Good posture allows your diaphragm to fully expand which benefits breathing. Better breathing makes your vocal projection more efficient. Better posture also increases confidence which in turn improves how you sound even more.
You should always speak loudly enough so that everyone in the room can hear you. However, adjusting the volume of your voice up or down can add emphasis or intimacy to different parts of your speech.
Be aware, different countries and cultures appreciate different tempo of speaking. You should speak slowly to make sure you articulate clearly each word. However, if you speak too slowly the audience will get bored.
Speaking on a lower pitch will make you sound more confident, affirmative and even attractive. However, you need to change the pitch once in a while to avoid sounding monotonous.
Closed lips and teeth will reduce your speech volume. It sounds simple, but many people do not practice this.
Avoid beverages that can dehydrate you, such as coffee, soda and alcohol. Water will keep your throat and vocal cords lubricated.
Filler words like "Umm/er/uhh" can kill your credibility and make the audience lose focus. Notice how often you use them and acknowledge them. Replace them with short pauses which actually make people pay more attention on what you are saying. If pauses feel uncomfortable then practice transition sentences.
While reading a book, speak out loud. Or listen to native speakers with a voice you admire and imitate them by repeating what they are saying. This is particularly useful to train your muscle memory, especially if you are trying to improve in a language that you are not a native speaker.
Tongue twisters benefits include clearer pronunciation and clearer speech patterns. In addition, they strengthen and stretch your speech muscles and highlight to you which sounds are the most difficult for you to pronounce. Finally, they are fun, making learning pronunciation more enjoyable.
Practice Tongue TwistersMany of these courses begin with vocal warm-ups from the diaphragm. You can learn a lot in these classes and meet people to practice with. These classes can be a lot of fun!