We envy people with a naturally good singing voice, but here’s the thing: you can improve the variation of pitch with your speaking voice, too. No matter if your voice is in the higher or lower pitch, you can train it to change altitude. Why? Because it’s change that attracts the attention, not so much the tone quality. A monotonous voice would kill any presentation skills you have, just because it will put your audience to sleep, says Danja.

You’ve most likely been to a wedding and you know what wedding bands do. It’s not love songs all the time. They’d play some rock, a blues, a ballad. It’s the same thing with the cadence of your speech. When you present, the variation of tempo will further engage your audience thanks to the contrast you’ll be creating with your voice. Danja recommends speaking at a lower pace when wanting to let a message sink in. Wanna focus on something important? Then slow down, let the audience process the information and let meaningful silence do the talking.

Another musical effect you can achieve with your voice is varying the projection. You might have heard about piano and forte and everything in the dynamics scale, from the softest to the loudest? You can recreate that in your presenting voice as well, Danja is convinced. Too loud a voice may make people ill at ease, while a softer voice can be hard to hear. Make use of both intentionally. Even whispering can be heard if you’re confident in your breathing techniques and know how to do the pianissimo like an opera singer. What matters most in all of Danja’s tips is to constantly be mindful of the contrast you’re creating for the audience, because the change in pitch, tempo and dynamics retains the audience engagement.