Hello dear readers! Lyudmila Redkina is with you. Take your time, you are walking along the embankment and a lebenak approaches you. He shouts: “Auntie/uncle, mother, how I am doing!” Give me some kaaku!” Which means: “Aunt/Uncle, watch me play! Give me some candy!” It’s probably unusual for you to read such words, right? And hearing them is even more fun! Today we’ll talk to you about how to improve your diction and clarity of speech, so that there won’t be something like this: “password”, “do you have a muse? - but I don’t have a muse, that’s such a bad thing in life!”, “girl, huh?” do you like Kafka?, – yes, especially Grefneva…” and so on.
COMPLETE LIST OF HUMAN SKILLS
Why do you need good diction?
First, let's figure out what diction is and why we should care about it.
Diction is a clear, clear pronunciation when a person pronounces words and phrases clearly and legibly. A person with good speech does not “suffer” from a lisp, nasal tone, or stuttering.
Good diction is not a requirement only for TV presenters and teachers. Everyone needs it in life and everyday life. We all get a job, communicate among our circle of acquaintances, we don’t know, in the end, where we will be “taken”, where and with whom we will interact.
A very striking example of a person with “good” diction was from 2021 to 2019 in the Supreme Council of Ukraine - A.V. Parubiy. Everyone who could laugh at his speech, because it’s not often that you hear a SPEAKER (from the word “speak”) of a country’s council with such diction! This is exactly what I mean: we need to take care of improving the quality of speech now, learn to speak beautifully, so as not to make people laugh later...
Intonation
Watch the intonation and correct pronunciation; it is important to correctly place stress in words and make logical pauses. This gives you the opportunity to take a breath, properly structure your further speech, and also attract the attention of your listeners.
So, before you start doing the exercises, you need to create a working environment. Sit comfortably in front of a mirror in a spare room, remove unnecessary objects and ensure the necessary acoustics. Complete all tasks for about 5-10 minutes, proceed to the next one after you have mastered the previous task. Record a video in order to correct errors in the future.
Exercises to improve diction and speech clarity
Philologists have studied the issue of the development of diction and come to the conclusion that many people need to improve the articulation of speech of the Russian-speaking population. This is due to the fact that the Russian language is distinguished by “lazy” articulation, unlike English, for example.
There are even certain ways to check if you have good articulation for clear speech:
- Take a mirror and, looking into it, pronounce vowel sounds (a, o, i, e, u, s). Do your lips change position and shape? If they move well and change shape, then you are on the right track.
- Tongue mobility is important for good articulation. Roll it up into a tube. If it does not work out, it is due to muscle weakness or a congenital feature. But you can develop!
- It is also important to open your mouth well. To check this, prepare your palm without the thumb. Then open your mouth as much as possible, slide 4 fingers inward between the upper and lower jaw. If you managed to do this, then your mouth opens without clamps, which means the muscles are ready to work.
So, we’ve sorted out the diagnostics, now let’s decide what to do to develop speech and improve articulation. I present to you several effective exercises to help you achieve your goal.
Warm-up
Take a pen or pencil between your teeth and say any sentence or phrase of 10–15 words. In this case, the pencil must be squeezed as hard as possible. Then take out the stationery object and say the phrase again. You will hear the difference immediately! The entire articulatory apparatus will be tuned to correct speaking, precise and accurate.
It is enough to warm up with a pencil for up to 5 minutes before exercises; this exercise is necessary to “pump up” the articulation muscles.
You can also warm up with nuts. Demosthenes in Ancient Greece developed a unique method of training speech with stones. On the seashore, he picked up a mouthful of stones and shouted words into the stormy sea, trying to pronounce them clearly. Practicing with nuts does almost the same thing. You put them in your mouth and try to pronounce the speech-improving words as best you can.
Warm up with a pencil
Tongue Twisters
At home, you can perfectly improve your speech pronunciation, because everyone has pencils and access to tongue twisters. This is the minimum set of articulation development. But let's move on.
Tongue twisters are used for children aged 4–6 years. This is a very effective way. Tongue twisters are also used to improve the diction of adults; below I will write the most effective of them. In addition, with such phrases you improve not only your speech, but also your vocabulary. Select the tongue twisters you need, just focus on working out all the letters and their combinations.
Listen to a recording of your voice
Oh, I don’t really like listening to my records. I remember how I once heard my childish and funny voice on the recorder, and I was saying quite serious things... I and all my friends laughed at the recording.
But for the development of clear and competent speech, listening to your voice on a recording is a very useful activity. Almost every person will want to change it, work on diction. You need to do it this way: you take some passage from the text, then clearly try to read it, recording it on a voice recorder. If you didn’t like the entry, repeat reading. And so on until you perfect your pronunciation.
The same can be done to improve your English speaking. You can also bring in a good friend who speaks English to listen to an “expert” opinion.
A prerequisite is diaphragm training.
For vocalists and people who stutter, the diaphragm is a condition for success. Who would have thought that some kind of bridge over the stomach determines a lot of money in show business! But for correct speech and singing, mandatory training of this very diaphragm is necessary. A trained diaphragm makes it possible to finish a phrase and finish singing it.
You can train it this way: take a deep breath, then draw out the vowel sound until there is no breath left at all.
When you reach 25-30 seconds of this “pulling”, change the pitch of your voice, try to draw out the sound in a thinner voice.
When and under this condition you stretch the vowel to 25-30 seconds, proceed to inflating balloons. It’s good for your body, and you’ll please those around you! Well, jokes aside, inflating balloons very well develops the diaphragm and increases lung volume.
Combination of different sounds
In addition to tongue twisters, correct speech and diction can be achieved using special combinations of sounds. These combinations use consonants and vowels. By repeating them 5 times, you practice diction. Well, competent speech is added by the experience of reading different books (I’ll give a list below). What combinations will be useful:
- bgi-pki, bga-pka, bge-pke;
- vzdri-fstri, vzdro-fstro, vzdry-fstro;
- stri-ztri, stra-ztra, stro-ztro;
- gkru-khkru, gkro-khkro, gkra-khkra, etc.
Features of voice production
After chanting and taking these precautions, it’s time to decide why exactly you need to improve your voice. The rest of the recommendations will depend on this.
For singing
Singing is music. Therefore, when setting your voice, you need to focus on the melody, so that the sound flows and does not jump along a bumpy road! Imagine that your body is an instrument and your vocal cords are a transducer of air into sound.
The main highlight of the voice when singing is vibration.
You can quickly achieve your desired singing voice only after achieving vibration. How to feel it? Take a deep breath, then start speaking. Try to relax, and the sound will go smoothly, easily, vibrating a little.
Be sure to use a chant and then a warm-up: to sing correctly, you need to breathe correctly. We will talk specifically about breathing exercises below, and warming up will help you relax and sing beautifully.
Warm up. Stand up straight, place your palm on the diaphragm (this is between the solar plexus and the stomach). Exhale completely so that there is no air left, then inhale very slowly and deeply. At this moment, try not to raise your shoulders, but breathe through your stomach so that it moves, and not your shoulders and chest. This warm-up is also a coronavirus prevention!
Breathing warm-up
To sing, you need a musical instrument at home or a special program on your smartphone. Starting from the note “do”, begin to sing the scale: do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, do. Then down in reverse order. Try to breathe correctly from your stomach so that your diaphragm rises, not your shoulders.
For proper singing, breathing, range (how many notes you play), and freedom of voice are important. Well, if you want to sing in a popular voice, then you need to form the correct direction of the air stream in your mouth: cover your mouth a little and direct the air to the upper palate, and the sound should fly from the tip of the tongue. With this style of singing, you need to maintain the intonation of each vowel sound.
And it is in folk singing that the openness of sounds is most encouraged; even “a” and “o” are sung approximately the same. It is very good to sing and learn to sing with folk songs, since they are very similar in articulation to ordinary spoken language.
For public speaking
During public speaking, a person spends a lot of energy; not only the tongue and lips work, but the whole body. Therefore, when staging a voice specifically for public speaking, it is important to warm up the whole body first. This is our instrument, haven’t you forgotten?!
So, what needs to be done when staging a voice for the stage and pulpit:
- Warm-up is a must! To do this, we jog with our arms and legs in turn. We stretch up, raise our shoulders and lower them. Tilt your head to the right and left. Try to yawn - cause a yawn: open your mouth wide, strain your entire speech apparatus to feel it.
- Get into a comfortable position. But at the same time, make sure that your spine is straight, your shoulders back, your head should be kept level: do not lower or throw back. This is important for your confidence and the freedom of your voice. Tilt your head forward and see how your voice changes! It’s no wonder that famous speakers stand up straight and behave confidently on stage.
- Make sure your speech is loud, but not shouty. Resonators help create a velvety loud voice. To check their operation, stand up straight, put your hand on your chest, sing the sound “a” - if there is vibration in your chest, the resonator is working. When the chest resonator operates, the voice becomes low and velvety.
- If you need a squeakier, higher-pitched voice to perform, stand up straight and place your hand on your throat. Extend the sound “a” - if the neck vibrates, then this resonator is working. The voice becomes weaker and higher.
Here, too, it is important to practice every day. Read a work by your favorite writer or your report in front of the mirror. Try speaking with different resonators, change the volume, intonation, but do not overstrain the ligaments.
For voice acting
When voicing roles or imitating the voice of another person, you need to change the type of your voice. If you are faced with such a task, it is important to understand what exactly needs to be changed for voice acting:
- Pitch – try not to sound monotonous, it is important to switch to high and low notes to make your voice sound expressive. But! If you have a high voice, and you are going to record it using amplification devices, try to make it lower - it will be more beautiful. High tones are greatly distorted and unpleasant to the ear.
- Volume depends on the volume of air in the lungs. If there is a lot of air, you will blurt out all the information very loudly and people will jump in their chairs. Therefore, adjust the air flow if you need to say something quietly, and “turn up the gas” if you need to pay attention to something.
- Audibility depends on the room. If you need to voice a role in a small room, you don’t have to strain yourself too much. But if this is a theater, then the rules of proper breathing, as when singing, the flow of air in the mouth, and the pitch of the voice work 100% here.
- Expression – helps speech become more expressive. Try to draw pictures in your mind to express emotions along with information. Get used to hearing emotions and reading texts expressively.
For men
Voice production for men differs with resonators. Men often use the chest resonator, which makes their voice more rich, bass, velvety, and beautiful.
To be popular, many try to make their voice lower, because we are not used to meeting men with squeaky voices - it somehow doesn’t listen. But there are also representatives of the male half of society. Just remember Vitas...
What you need to make your voice lower:
- Relax your facial and jaw muscles.
- Relax your neck muscles, smoothly rotate your head in different directions, accompanying this action with a sigh.
- Tilt your head to the side, relax your jaw, open your mouth slightly and yawn deeply, deeply, gently stretch your mouth to its maximum.
- Then yawn in the same way, only with your head tilted forward.
These exercises will help relax the vocal cords and muscles of other organs, and this will help produce a low male voice. By the way, this is how the announcer’s voice is staged, only diction exercises are also very important there.
For women
In women, the head resonator works more when the voice takes high notes. It is important here not to strain your vocal cords or squeak. The head resonator is often called falsetto - this is another type of singing when the edges of the chords work. This is a bit of a misnomer, since falsetto is a type of head resonator (very high notes).
It is easier for women to hit high notes, and the transition of the resonators is practically not audible to the viewer when the transition is correct. It is important to develop range, and this is achieved by warming up and chanting.
Recommendation from the author of the blog – Pavel Butor
Friends, if you want to learn how to sell coolly through voice, then you need to go to Mikhail Kravchenko. He is an expert in the art of public speaking.
I met Misha on Fr. Bali in January 2021 at the Accel anti-conference. Incredible charisma, voice and presentation. He instantly captured our attention - we met and talked.
Me with Mikhail Kravchenko on Accel
I'll tell you what Mikhail will teach. You will never again:
- be afraid to go live;
- worry about speaking in public;
- prohibit yourself from speaking confidently;
- sell for small checks;
- Drain audiences on webinars;
- eat words;
- avoid recording videos and Stories;
- be ashamed of your own speech.
Why doesn't your webinar bring in 1 million?
And if it brings, then why doesn’t it bring 2, 3, 5?
Most experts lose money right here, on the webinar! Weak engagement, retention, completion, low number of registrations and, as a result, shortfall in payments.
No one comes to a topical webinar if they are not interested in the topic and are not ready to buy. And then the question is only for you: “Why did 100 people come to the webinar and buy 10, and not 50, for example?” Mikhail also has such cases.
It's all about you. More precisely, in your sale. Submission. The ability to involve, grab the audience “by the metaphorical balls” and bring it to the end - to the offer. After all, this is obvious: in order for your offer to interest a potential buyer, he must first hear it.
Mikhail Kravchenko helps experts and online schools with a turnover of 1 million rubles increase audience engagement and retention at webinars and increase conversion to applications and payments up to +30% in 2 months through voice training and detailed development of a sales speech.
Misha will teach you to speak in such a way that people, listening to you, will not only stay until the end of the webinar, but will not even leave the computer to go to the toilet. So that they feel as if “an angel has descended from heaven” and is whispering in their ear. Not less.
It will reveal your individuality, charisma, natural charm and magnetism. Will teach you how to control your voice in order to better convey key meanings to the audience. Your performances will have a hypnotic effect.
Mikhail works with the best and only individually. His clients:
- Nikolay Mrochkovsky is one of the founders of the online education market in Russia and the holder of the Guinness record for the largest online business training;
- Vitaly Kuznetsov – founder of the Federation of Online Business and the best expert on startups in Russia;
- Sergei Teplykh - man of the year according to JQ, performed at the Olympic Stadium for 25 thousand people;
- Ajit is the highest paid tantra trainer in Russia and the founder of LYAM-DOM.
All of them are participants in Misha’s individual coaching “Voice in a Million”.
After all, a webinar that brought in 5 million can bring in 10. And voice is one of the most important criteria that most players in the market do not take into account. But the best ones are used.
Your voice and its sound are your personal signature. This is a brand that is expensive. This is a status that inspires trust.
Sign up for a consultation in the header of Mikhail Kravchenko’s Instagram profile.
Ventriloquist
Close your lips. And start actively pronouncing the text. Any.
