There is a concept called vocalism, or the study of the voice. Put simply, it is the way we speak – the volume of speech, the specific rhythm and tone. Vocalism includes tone of voice, pitch or loudness, rhythm, quality and inflection.

• Tone of the voice

It reflects a person’s level of enthusiasm, excitement, or simply interest in what he or she is saying. The tone can be high if the speaker is excited about the topic he is talking about or low if he is weary and bored.

• Volume

Also called amplitude, it is nothing more than the power of our voice. Low volume is usually the result of shyness or speaker stress. Loudness is a sign of self-confidence.

For listeners, the best sound is moderate volume, because too quiet will put them to sleep, while too loud will arouse anxiety or annoy.

• Rhythm

In other words, it’s the pace of speaking. Interestingly, it depends not only on personality factors, but to a large extent on the language, culture, and place of residence. Theoretically, it should be between 125 and 150 words per minute, but each of us has a slightly different pace of speech.

A change in rhythm during speech may indicate, for example, a lie or an attempt to cover up some information.

• Pause

In the rhythm of speech, it is worth mentioning the pause. It is simply a pause (thoughtful, planned, intentional) that the speaker takes at some point in his speech. Pauses help a lot in emphasizing the meaning of certain phrases, because they organize the message by attracting the attention of listeners.

• Articulation

It’s a different pronunciation – the way we pronounce it. It is the process of shaping the sound, or simply speaking, pronouncing sounds.

A speaker having a problem with articulation, pronouncing sounds indistinctly may be accused by the listeners of a lack of attention to the utterance, not to say sloppy.

• Inflection

It is an inflection of words (formally a set of grammatical forms) used to denote relations between words in a given sentence.

A man with his voice can tire listeners, weary them, put them to sleep, or, on the contrary, wake them up, motivate them, kidnap them.

When both the theme and the message (tone, rhythm) resonate with the crowd, the speaker can have a real impact on the minds and actions of listeners. History knows examples of extremely inspiring speakers who were able to control people and inspire them to concrete action: Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Franklin Roosevelt, Mahatma Gandhi, Oprah Winfrey.

When we speak, our words are accompanied by clues that help listeners interpret the message correctly. It is good to use these tips carefully.

Effective vocal patterns are:

• Thought groups

In other words, phrasing is the semantic modules into which we divide a sentence. By dividing the whole sentence into smaller semantic segments, we strengthen our message and help listeners catch the most important information from our point of view.

• Prosody

This so-called voice identity, i.e. a unique and characteristic set for each speaker, consisting of accents/volume, intonation and rhythm/pace.

Outstanding speakers use their voices so skillfully that they establish strong contact with the audience and make their stories not only interesting, engaging and inspiring, but also make listening to them a pleasure.

Someone once said that „The human voice is the most perfect instrument” – so let’s use this instrument skillfully!

Source:https://poradniknegocjatora.pl/wyzysknie-glosu-wokalizm/

Supported by Norway through Norway Grants 2014-2021, in the frame of the Programme “Social Dialogue – Decent Work”.