Vocal Variety and Its Role in Virtual Presenting  

Now that virtual presenting is here is stay, keep in mind that your oral delivery is more important than ever. Our colleagues, clients, and anyone else who is listening at home or in their office are most likely multitasking. Some of us have two monitors that allow us to be watching/listening and doing multiple tasks simultaneously. Since a few of your listeners may not be directly looking at the screen, your voice is what captures their attention. Therefore, I am coaching clients to incorporate “vocal variety.” Vocal variety is when you choose a specific word or phrase to add vocal emphasis to convey a meaning. A very easy way to add vocal variety is to increase your volume.

An example is, “Overall productivity has gone up by 25% during the pandemic.” The 25% that I bolded is where I suggest that a client increase their volume. A coaching tip is to record yourself, just your voice, and play it back. Did you hear any emphasis? It will feel unnatural for those presenters who don’t usually use vocal variety, which is normal. Although you may think you are too loud, trust me, your listeners will appreciate your using volume as a means of vocal variety. It becomes easier to apply this tool the more practice you have using it. 

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Kristen Curran-Faller

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