I was working with a student recently who had a very quiet voice ---- and he knew it. But, too, he recognized that it was time to do something about it. "I realize that making a persuasive presentation that can be heard by everyone is an essential step in my career development" he said. And how right he was.

How many times have you sat through a presentation where you have had to strain to hear what the speaker said? In fact, after about five minutes of that, we usually switch off and give up the attempt.

Whilst your material might be top notch, if no one can hear you clearly, all you preparation is wasted. Not only that, if you do not have authority in your voice, then it will be a very difficult job to convince anybody of anything. So what can we do?

We can work on what is called MODULATION.

Usually connected with such things as radio waves ---- which can be modulated to change their characteristics ---- modulation is also an essential skill for the professional presenter.

So let me present the 4 'P's to improve your voice and increase your authority in presentations.

PITCH

The pitch of our voice could also be called the 'musicality.'

It has to do with the note at which we pitch a word or phrase. Doing so in a monotone is guaranteed to send your audience to sleep!

What we need to do is to vary our pitch according to the importance of the expression we are using. For instance: when we are excited our pitch goes up and when we are serious or somber, it drops (just listen to the voice of the sports commentator when someone scores a goal and compare that to when someone is injured, to see what range is needed!)

If you have a problem with pitch, either join a choir :-) , or practice singing in the shower to increase your range (or learn Norwegian