Controlling Your Pace and Pitch

Recently, a couple of our readers wrote in with questions about their speech delivery. Both have issues they want to correct.

My speaking speed is often uncontrollable. How do I control my pace?

—Jegajothi Pandiyaraj; Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

This is an important question because a swift pace can negatively impact the effectiveness of your message.

It is common today for people to talk swiftly. In any group you will find those who follow easily when someone talks quickly, but also an equal number that do not. So, the first problem is that you risk losing a chunk of your audience.

However, a more significant issue is losing the emotional connection. Saying the words is only part of communication. How you say them drives those words home because that conveys emotion and moves your listener to take action. Emotion is primarily carried in vowel sounds, and when you speak swiftly, the vowel sounds are compressed, shortened, and do not contain much emotion.

To control your pace, I suggest that you do not focus on your speed. Instead, focus on communicating emotion. This can be done through volume, pitch, pace, and pauses. If you concentrate on effectively communicating the emotion of your message, you will focus more on helping your audience truly understand your message. And that, hopefully, will slow you down.

Additionally, practice varying your pace for effect. Use pauses and practice stressing the important words in your message. You can’t do this without slowing down.

Another technique is setting a time limit. If a particular chunk of your message takes you 30 seconds to say, try saying it in a minimum of 40 seconds and get used to that pace.

I control the pace of my speeches by focusing on the drama of the message and using pauses. My suggestion is to start there and see where that leads.

Evaluators have told me the pitch of my voice rises at times. How can I prevent my voice from “squeaking” unnaturally?

—Phyllis Nielsen, DTM; British Columbia, Canada

Your problem is not one that I hear all that often, but it does happen. A number of years ago, I remember hearing a TV commercial where the spokesman finished with the line, “It’s the ultimate.” He squeaked on the first syllable of “ultimate.” So you are not alone.

I suspect that your squeaking happens when you are emphasizing an important word in your message. One way we emphasize is by raising our pitch. Let’s say that your effective pitch range is from 1 to 10, where 1 is a low voice and 10 is the high end. When you are emphasizing a word, you may raise your pitch to a 10. Your voice, however, may go into overdrive and jump to an 11 or 12, causing the squeak.

This could be caused by nerves, in which case more practice may help you. But let’s look at a couple of other techniques.

Hopefully, you can sense the situations where you squeak. If you can, try to pitch your voice a little lower. Aim for an 8 on that scale. This will still produce the contrast that aids in the emphasis but avoids the danger zone.

You could also work on emphasizing your points in another way. Instead of changing your pitch, give the word more volume. This would have the same emphatic effect but keep you in a safe zone to avoid squeaking.

Hopefully that gives you some direction. Let me know how that works out.

EDITOR’S NOTE: If you have a question for The Answer Man, email it to magazine@toastmasters.org for a chance to be featured in an upcoming column.

Questions are occasionally edited for clarity and brevity.

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