How do you use pauses, intonation, and emphasis to enhance your voice projection?

One trick I have learned over the years is that to avoid fatigue and keep projection up is to stand straight and avoid restrictive clothing. If possible I also make sure I can move through the room. This helps in engaging the audience and make sure everyone can hear me. If you are delivering an online session, consider having a standing desk or find a spot where you can have your computer on correct height. This will avoid you being hunched over, which stops you from projecting your voice clearly.

Breathing properly has many components, as well as methods of teaching, and as described breathing with the diaphragm is the most important. Allowing your lungs to fill properly will help you to control your breathing and therefore your exhale, which can help to enable longer sentences and more structured speech. However, another trick, such as a snatch breath, where you drop the diaphragm quickly to allow in more air, can help you to breathe during a sentence that requires speed and dexterity. A lot of people will talk about maintaining pace and clarity for listeners, but I would argue that modulated speech in terms of pacing and rhythm, through proper breath control, will allow you not only project properly, but hold onto your audience.

Pauses allow your audience to catch up and also to resonate with particular points in your speech! Sometimes in a speech, I talk faster and with more energy to convey passion or conviction. It's also important to recognize that this can be overwhelming for an audience over a long period of time. So, I intentionally add pauses to allow the content to sit and time for the audience to appreciate it and catch up a bit.

Sometimes speech is a bit like music, and that can often come from good speech writing. But casual speaking, which isn't planned or overwritten in advance with the hope of inspiring or moving an audience, is assumed to have less need for pauses. But the wonderful thing about a pause is that it's not just about suspense or intrigue, it's also about bringing your audience back in if they have wandered. It's about reminding people that you are in control. Pauses can also be utilized in places where they don't assumedly belong, bringing a sense of playfulness to your speech.

Intonation is key on camera and on stage, but it's especially important in audio formats like radio and podcasting. When your voice is all you have to tell your story, you must leverage the power of its range to paint a picture for your audience if you have any hope of engaging them. You may not have a so-called radio voice, but if you think about some of the most famous voices in the world, I guarantee intonation is a significant part of what makes them memorable.

Although speaking to a crowd is very different from speaking into a microphone, the use of emphasis can be noted on a different scale. With a microphone, the slightest increase in pace or a decrease in volume can make a huge difference. And I would actually apply that to speaking in front of people. Use emphasis incrementally, not in great big swathes. If you're going to move towards a more authoritative or excited part of your speech, begin to build beforehand. This will allow your audience to join you on that journey, and that will keep them with you, and carry them onwards. The same goes for slowing down or adding more reflection, don't suddenly drop off any cliffs, as its harder for an audience to believe you.