How do you speak loudly ?
Speaking loudly is more than just raising your voice so that you can be heard. Raising your voice would naturally cause you to tense up, and hence tense your posture, breathing and so on. End result, your voice gets heard, but it gets a workout too, which leaves you fatigued, especially after a day of talking loudly using the incorrect techniques. And if used incorrectly long enough, then it damages the vocal cords, and you end up with a sore, hoarse voice.
The best way to go about projecting your volume in way, so that you can be heard, effortlessly, is the way to go.
Here are 5 steps on to project your voice safely:
1) Breathing
I cannot emphasise enough about how important breathing is, especially for projecting your volume. We can breathe in many different ways, and all of them influence our speech.
If you have fair bit of anxiety about talking , I would highly suggest you do this, as a starting point.
4:7:8 breathing, using your diaphragm. I would suggest sitting in a quiet spot, with both feet touching the ground.
Inhale through your nose for 4 counts. Hold your breath for 7 counts.
Exhale through your mouth ( silently) for 8 counts.
If the counts are too long, reduce the counts until you are able to extend them. Do this exercise for 5 repeat at least.
This sets you up to breathe using your diaphragm when you are speaking, so you can project from your diaphragm, rather than your chest.
2) Warm up & Enunciate
We often forget that speaking loudly also means you have to articulate clearly. No one can hear you if your mouth is not open enough, or if you mumble your words through.
Great way to think is considering your mouth as an open chamber, where the lips, tongue and jaw are working in union to produce the nice resonant sound that you want to create.
3) Good Posture
Maintain a good posture. Keep your shoulders neutral and your head centered. Do not hunch up your shoulders. Keep the chin in a neutral position, without tucking it in or jutting it out. Ensure you are able to breathe easily and freely in whichever stance you take.
4) Twang it!
This is the most important part of practice. Raising your voice is more than just talking loudly. It is a specific technique. Spectrographically, the energy that you project for Twangs is around 2500- 3500 Hz, the resonant frequency to which the ear is most sensitive to.
Twangs will always sound bright and clear, and you do not have to force it out. We aim for clear twang, which is different to nasal twang.
5) Position yourself
Ensure that you are able to maintain eye contact with everyone in the room, where the eyes travel, the energy in the voice follows. When you look all around the room and make a connection to the very back of the room, you will be surprised how loud your voice actually sounds!