Maybe you know this. You're supposed to speak in front of a larger group, and you know in advance that your voice won't be loud enough to fill the room and reach the audience in the back rows. With this feeling, you then step in front of your guests and say quietly to yourself: "I just can't speak that loudly. I'm just rather introverted and quiet. And I don't want to bend my personality just to speak louder!"

Do you still remember "Sister Act", the wonderful film with Whoopi Goldberg from 1992? The scene when Whoopi motivates her shy colleague in the nun's choir to free her voice is legendary. And elicits sounds from the reserved girl that echo sonorously throughout the nave.

I want to take up this image today and make you understand the speaking technique behind it. And at the same time, show how you can appear sonorously and vocally convincing with echo-oriented speaking without denying your personality.

As a sensitive person, can you speak loudly and fill the room?

Echo-oriented speech is a technique used by professional speakers that is used to Voice full , louder and more convincing. You make the vowels of your words sound a little longer by waiting for the reverberation of your voice while you speak. This technique is especially helpful if you count yourself among the more introverted people and sometimes have the impression that your voice is too quiet .

Room-filling or echo-oriented speaking is the stylistic device that many of the most famous studio speakers use to give their voice that very special timbre.

With the reverberation orientation of your voice, you can do it:

  • to reach even the backmost listeners of your presentation effortlessly, without to speak loudly
  • Give your voice a full, warm and sonorous sound
  • Give the topics of your presentations even more impact

Is it perhaps better to be extroverted?

Often it seems that the loudest gets the attention. However, if you, as a more introverted person, still want to be heard, you should not try to emulate the extroverts. Perhaps you have already experienced that the attempt to deliberately speak "loudly" quickly destroys the Voice and even more so leads to a flat or monotonous speech.

Use your own strengths

So let's use the special strength of introversion: your sensitivity. With this special speaking technique, you use your ability to listen and your feeling for nuances. You'll use all of this to make your voice resonate with the environment and create a powerful sound that transmits. And it will help you maintain a melodious voice instead of straining to be loud.

Once applied, echo-oriented speaking will allow you to speak effortlessly without amplification, even in larger rooms. In this way, you convey your concerns and topics effortlessly and sonorously, without exerting energy. You avoid the negative effect that the effort to speak "out loud" has, especially for more introverted people. Instead of screaming or straining your voice, you can get your message across in a pleasant and natural way.

First steps to experience the spatial sound of your voice

To learn the technique of echo-oriented speaking, you should first practice in an empty room with good acoustics. This can be a long corridor in the apartment, a large empty hall, a stairwell or even your bathroom.

So, if you're in a place with a high-volume reverberation, start with a single vowel:

  • Send a long "e" into the room with guided breath and listen to the reverberation of your voice
  • Now reduce the volume significantly. Imagine that your gossamer "eee" sounded just so soft or loud that it can form a fine ball of sound around your head
  • Now with your eyes closed and your ears pricked up, enlarge this sounding "E" room with the next elongated "eee".
  • Repeat the exercise gently until you hear the sound of your voice returning to your ears from the different directions of the room.

Experience how your voice gains volume, carrying power and clarity.

How can this be done a pleasant, full tone?

To understand why the sound of your voice changes when you listen and listen while speaking, let's first look at the role of hearing in speaking.

You are probably aware that both your ears are listening when you speak. As soon as your voice sounds, the sound lands on your eardrums after barely fifteen centimeters. The sound, the so-called Primary sound , so it doesn't have to be loud to be caught by ourselves.

Wherever you are when you speak, the sound reaches your environment and is reflected back to your ears more or less clearly. This Reverberation is significantly attenuated compared to primary sound.

If you are now one of the more introverted contemporaries, your hearing has become accustomed to being satisfied with the quiet primary sound of your voice over the course of your life. A habit has developed – and you think your voice is just too quiet.

Learning from extroverts without imitating them

Maybe you're asking yourself now: What actually makes the extros sound louder? Is it just the more active body language, the more expressive gestures, or is there something else?

It is their clearer desire to receive confirmation from the room and from the bystanders. They therefore speak clearly Space-oriented .

  • Their ears, one could say, wait with the release of the next vocal sound until the reverberation of the previous one has returned to the ear.
  • The sounding sounds of the language, especially the vowels, take a little longer as a result. The Vocal Space is stretched, as it is called in technical jargon.

The body has to use a little more energy. And already the sound volume of the voice grows, the voice vibrates in the room.

Echo-Oriented Speech: Starting with the Litany

Back to Whoopie Goldberg and the film scene in the long and high nave. Because now it's time to apply the newly acquired technique not only to individual vowels as above, but to speaking.

Anyone who has ever spoken in a similarly large and reverberant room knows the effect that arises when you stretch the individual vowels of a word for a long time. It sounds like an exaggerated litany.

I recommend my clients to use the counting words "twenty-one, twenty-two" etc. for the following training step:

  • stretch out each vowel of these words for a long time before moving on to the next sound. It will sound like this: "aaaaiiiinuuuuuundzwaaaanziiiich, zwaaaaiiiiuuuundzwaaaanziiiich" etc.
  • The exercise is particularly effective if you close your eyes while speaking to give your hearing full attention.
  • Pay close attention to the reverberation of your voice and imagine that you are surrounded by these sounds.

Now speak a few sentences with the same slowness and intensity and observe exactly how the sound, power and clarity of your voice spreads throughout the room.

With a sonorous voice for more effect

Echo-oriented speech is an ideal technique for people who present themselves on stage as a introverted or insecure and want to avoid tiring the listeners and straining their own voice by speaking loudly through strained loud speech.

If you're ready to take your speaking skills to the next level, echo-oriented speaking is an invaluable technique that will help you master your speech skills with a little practice. Voice full and powerful without effort with a pleasant resonance. Your audience will appreciate your confident attitude and listen to you enthusiastically with open ears.

Have fun and success testing and applying these suggestions and tips!

Let me know how you like this post! Write your feedback and thoughts in the comments!

Blaue handschriftliche Unterschrift auf transparentem Hintergrund, die Bände spricht und mit Raffinesse verkauft.

Your Arno Fischbacher

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The author:

Arno Fischbacher is a business voice coach and rhetoric expert, speaker and author. He prepares executives and employees of the top companies in Germany and Austria for negotiations, presentations and media appearances. Fischbacher is the author of several books, past president of the German Speakers Association (GSA) Austria, chairman of the European Network of Voice Experts, stimme.at.

If you would like to learn more about specific training opportunities with Arno Fischbacher, make an appointment here free information talk.

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