Improving Your Speaking, All for a Song

I just rejoined my singing group, A Cappella Pops, after a four-month hiatus. Forty people making music only with our voices, without instruments. But I have learned so much about speaking from being on stage as a singer. Some examples:

1. THERE IS A CONNECTION BETWEEN THE EYE, EAR AND BRAIN WHEN LEARNING A SPEECH OR A SONG - I have only so much time to learn a song, so I would record our group rehearsals and play them back WHILE I was reading the sheet music. The more I did that, the more I absorbed the information in my "muscle memory." Likewise I applied this method to my speaking, which enables me to memorize my speeches more easily. (This method was validated to my by previous Toastmaster World Champ Randy Wilson.)
2. PROJECT AIR FROM THE DIAPHRAGM - I learned a lot about the mechanics of projecting sound from learning to sing. Your back must be straight to create a column of air, and your voice becomes much more powerful and controlled.
3. YOUR FACE AND YOUR BODY ARE PART OF THE EMOTION - I can't tell you how often Jan, our director, yelled at me, "Pat! Smile!" To which I responded, "I am smiling." And of course I wasn't. And friends and family in the audience would tell me after a performance that I looked really scared. Hm, not exactly what I was trying to convey. Additionally, my body could be off-putting and distant when I wanted it to be inviting. So I had to work to adjust my face and posture to be consistent with my message. Funny thing - when I fixed those things in my singing through practice, they also improved in my speaking.
4. YOUR WORDS SOUND DIFFERENTLY TO YOUR AUDIENCE THAN THEY DO TO YOU - I found that my vowels had a different sound than I thought they did when I sang. For example, singing the sound of the letter "E" sounded screechy because I opened my mouth too wide. So I had to position my mouth differently. Also, the "-er" sound at the end of a word was pretty unattractive to the ear. I have a solo in a song from "The Lion King" in which I sang the word "surrender," and I gave it a piercing sound. So Jan had me change the sound to "surr- rend- AH," and that took the edge off.
   
   Similarly, when I reviewed recordings of my speeches, I found other words that were euphonic when I said them, so I found different ways to pronounce these words. Try it.

So if you want to improve your speaking, apply singing principles. If you don't currently sing, try to learn by taking lessons or joining a group. Regardless of the outcome, at least the singing will be fun.

BTW, learn more about A Cappella Pops, such as where we are appearing or how to buy our CDs, at www.acappellapops.com