Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice-Over Voice

2021.12.17 – 0351 – Sounds That DrownWhat loudness means‘Authority’ does not mean talking loud. ‘Authority’ comes, as we have seen before, from understanding the story and having the confidence to explain its significance to your listeners, with appropriate vocal expression. The louder you are, the more control of a conversation or of someone you are trying to achieve. That’s not ‘authority’, that’s ‘bullying’. Shouting does not necessarily mean excitement. It does, though, usually mean simply more noise.Sounds that drownIf you were live at a busy event, a party, building site, factory or roadside for example, you’d naturally project your voice so you are heard over the background. So it stands to reason that if you are recording a voiceover where you have background atmos that is either played in as you record, that you also project to similar extent, to create ‘audio authenticity’. (The script may say something like “factory sound effects (SFX)” or could even be more specific, such as “Sacha is loading the machine with wooden planks in the factory”.You need to work with the director or studio producer so you create a mix that is believable - and that of course is tricky if the effects are mixed in at a later stage in the production process, after you’ve gone. You’d also have to rely on having being told that, in the mixdown, you would appear to be ‘on location’, so you’d use appropriate projection in the recording, and are neither yelling or being drowned out.The same goes for a music track (a ‘bed’) underneath your voice: the levels of you and it in the mix need to sound natural to the listener so they can hear you and also be moved by the music, as the director requires.Achieving the best result will be a combination of projection, distance from the microphone, and the recording levels set by the producer or studio engineer. And a good sound will also be achieved by your imagination: whether the effects are being played-in ‘live’ as you record or not, try to imagine that you are in the location indicated by the script. Visualise yourself doing what your character is described as doing, delivering the lines written, and to the target audience that’s been outlined to you, and what they may be doing as they listen. Yes – act!Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.16 – 0350 – Voice Extremes: The Louder VoiceFrom a whisper to a booming voice of a ‘hurry, hurry, buy now, offer ends on Saturday’ commercial, your volume speaks volumes about the message and the character. The ‘size’ and drama of a louder delivery can indicate urgency, importance, confidence, power, resolve or anger. A softer voice can convey a secret, an intimate word, a warmth, discretion, or indeed indiscretion.Getting the volume and energy right can often be the key to the read. Let’s look at the two extremes.Notes on: THE LOUDER VOICE Be careful when projecting that you still have in mind that you are talking to your audience and not at them. Too much volume becomes impersonal; the listener feels that they are not the only one at the receiving end but part of a crowd; that you are broadcasting rather than telling or communicating. Think of the 50s-style American TV and radio presenters who announced (in an affected way only ever heard in such broadcasts) rather than explained or advised or told. Styles have moved on and that kind of volume is not the conversational style that is usually required outside of some commercial voice overs or ‘voice of god’ introductions.“You're just talkin’ loud / And saying nothin’”Lyrics “Talkin' Loud and Sayin' Nothing” by James Brown and Bobby Byrd, 1970https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZkjo3mNmsAAudio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartHe has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.15 – 0349 – Projection And The AudienceThe audienceYour volume will alter depending on how many people are listening, where they are and what they are doing. We have seen some of this already when we discussed vocal proxemics and how you adjust your projection if you can’t see your audience.Let’s develop that a little. What if your audience is captive?Not in a hostage situation you understand, but if they are watching a video presentation such as an online training or webinar as part of their job, most likely by themselves and possibly in an office wearing headphones. In which case, you are talking to them one-to-one, so a softer, more personal voice is one that is used.How, and what platform is the audience listening to you on?If ‘through headphones’ then that requires a personal setting, a Tannoy or ‘in-store announcement’ voice requires something different. You have to be a bit more energised, to cut through the shopping hubbub with news of special offers or missing children. Note, that’s not necessarily volume, but more intensity, focus, more projection or energy – as we spoke about before.So, knowing how and where your content will be heard also helps you set your own ‘control’.Volume versatility means that in these different situations and others, we control our loudness without even realising what we are doing. To be more effective in voice-acting, script reading and presentation we need to identify what we do naturally and replicate it in a the ‘false scenario’ of reading words from a page in studio or on a stage.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.14 – 0348 – Projection And The MessageThe messageLowering your volume has a double effect: it not only makes your voice softer and quieter, but it also becomes more resonant. As we saw earlier, this means the sound is more-full and more pleasant to listen to. Think about it, a loud voice or shout is far from ‘smooth’ or ‘rich’ or ‘resonant’.Therefore, a softer voice may be appropriate for messages that convey trust, experience, maturity and warmth. That isn’t to say you whisper – it’s a fine balance between have ‘warm sincerity with energy’.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.13 – 0347 – Projection And The LocationThe locationWe have already seen how we usually speak louder outside than in, and, obviously speak louder when there are other noises to compete against. But there are other elements which affect the volume we choose to use too. We may speak more loudly when we are trying to excite, and perhaps more softly when encouraging – but I’m sure you may be able to think of circumstances when we do quite the opposite. For instance: the manager of a school sports team may raise their voice to encourage point scoring, in a half-time huddle. That same person in the classroom, may speak more softly to excite students to work through an algebraic equation. And don’t you naturally lower your voice in a church or cathedral, and raise it in a warehouse – even if both are empty and otherwise silent? They are similar spaces, and yet our culture may expect us to speak differently in each.Similarly, your volume may also change when speaking in your office to your staff, versus speaking in your boss’ office amongst other staff of their grade or yours. Similar spaces but different expectations on volume and presence.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.12 – 0346 – Projection And CharacterVolume is a key part of presentation from a script, whether in voice overs, voice acting, reading or presenting, and that volume needs to be appropriate for the character, the location, the message and the audience.The clues to the volume you use will be in the script, the written or studio direction, or in the outline / brief / specs provided by the scriptwriter / agency / client. It is your job to take all the clues and direction and create content that connects with the target audience to make them do or feel something. That could be to buy a certain thing, think a certain way, or laugh, or cry, or become angry and so on. The characterIt’s perhaps obvious that a character written as a bully would be loud and lairy. But think about that for a moment. Aren’t some of the most threatening characters actually rather quiet, perhaps even unassuming? It may have more effect to whisper a threat than shout one. And yes, horror films have sudden loud surprises, but the softer noises can be more scary than soothing.A confident person, you might suggest, would be someone that has no problem sharing their voice at a good, clear volume. But think again, confidence may be shown in a quiet voice because the speaker knows they have the personality and gravitas to command the room be hushed to listen to them. Wasn’t you most effective teacher at school the one who spoke softly rather than shouted?These few examples show that with a bit of thought and direction, you can make your character more 3D than 2D when it comes to portraying them through the use of volume. Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.11 – 0345 – Imagining Your Hidden Audience – Where They Are Summon up an image of where that person will be when they are watching you on tv or listening to you on the radio, will also alter how you talk live, or record a piece of copy. Will it be played on breakfast TV? Is it for an instore commercial? Is it for a podcast? If you are presenting on the radio, you are likely to have a different style of presentation for a breakfast show to a late-night show. Not only will the content be different but also the choice of words, the projection, the pace and the tone: perhaps brighter and faster for breakfast and slower and softer for late in the evening. Each situation may suggest a different style to cut through or complement the activity that your listener is likely doing as they consume your content. If you are a fast-paced Saturday night DJ the scenario you’re painting with the music you are playing is one of a club, so you ‘point of vocus’ would be as though you are talking to lots of people, at a distance, in a club. A ‘late night love’ music presenter would be more intimate in their style, fitting with the music and the atmosphere they are creating, so their point of vocus is nearer to the mic – a close, one-to-one voice. A local radio presenter of events and guests would be somewhere between the two, as might be a newsreader.  Project your voice to an invisible listener across the studio: a visualisation technique to help you successfully talk conversationally, one to one despite seeing no-one.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.10 – 0344 – Imagining Your Hidden Audience – Who They Are Imagining Your Hidden AudienceWho are they?One way to achieve an appropriate ‘point of vocus’ for your projection is by putting a photo of someone at a distance from you in the studio, that you’d imagine an actual listener to be if they were with physically you.So, if the voice-over is personal and intimate then the image would be close to you and the mic, and a louder, announcer read may require a photo the other side of the room, so you can target your projected voice to hit it. If you can’t have a physical photo of someone that you choose as your ‘listener’ then have someone in your mind instead. That should be a real person with whom you have a connection. How do you want them to feel when they hear you?Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.09 – 0343 – The Point of VocusThe Point of VocusPut simply, the microphone is usually positioned in our ‘inmate’ zone 6-8 inches from our mouth. If it was a human ear rather than a mic that we were talking to at that distance, we would be very friendly indeed with that person! Our voice would drop in volume, the tone would change (and so too would the content – but that’s another book).  But it would be inappropriate to read the news or usually to introduce a song in that kind of ‘intimate’ voice, even though that’s where our listener’s ears are. It wouldn’t sound right. We have to change our ‘point of vocus’ and use another ‘voice’. Hmmm.  We chose the voice that we naturally use when we are talking to someone that we know, and like but are not intimate with or distant from. So not, from the barbecue event we looked at earlier, the ‘aunt down the hallway voice’ (as she was too far away to hold a conversation with); not ‘aunt on the bench voice’ as she was too close, and in a personal zone. But more like ‘having a conversation with aunt and uncle in the garden voice’ – that is somewhere between one and three metres away from us.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.08 – 0342 – Vocal Proxemics – Part 2So, you have a different voice when you are with your lover in the ‘Intimate Zone’ (a very soft level that you might use to tell a secret to a friend or whisper ‘sweet nothings’ to a lover), than you use to a room of people in a ‘Public Zone’ (a louder volume used in front of lots of people who may be further away).  Translate that into the studio situation. The ‘Personal’ voice level is one to use when you’re neither making-out… nor want to shout. It’s this voice level that’s best for communicating with people via broadcast, podcast or video. You give the impression you are sharing your thoughts with one single person in the room with you, about 2 metres away – the other side of the studio desk, say. After all, most of your radio or podcast listeners are alone when they consume your content (ok, ‘alone’ but multiplied many times over), so simply speak as though you are in the room with one of them, not all of them.Imagine them sitting the other side of the desk in your ‘Personal Zone’, and talk to them in that voice. Don’t talk to the microphone or to the other side of the room, talk to the empty chair opposite you, and you should get the projection of your voice about right. It’s a bit like the ‘point of focus’ you have when you are looking at an object depending on how near or far away it is. Let’s call it ‘a point of vocus’. Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.07 – 0341 – Vocal ProxemicsVocal ProxemicsAssociated with ‘Human Spacing’ are our vocal proxemics: the kind of voice we use in each Zone. The further away someone is, the louder and less personal your voice becomes. ‘Proxemics’ is a branch of linguistic science which describes the effects of nearness or distance in signalling attitudes.  We all[1] have an inbuilt ‘virtual voice volume’ dial, which we use to adjust our loudness level depending on what we judge is needed. The brain automatically adjusts our projected voice depending on factors such as, for example:·        where the other person is – next to us on the sofa or down the street·        how many of them there are – whether we are speaking one-to-one, to 12 people or 200·        our familiarity to them – in a bedroom or a boardroom·        ambient noise – a silent street or a noisy nightclub·        the content or complexity of the message – to give emphasis: “I said NO!”, to whisper a secret·        our own assertiveness – self-confident people tend to have louder voices·        the urgency of the message – shouting at someone who is right beside us on a pavement “watch out!”·        what we want them to think about us – do we want to appear engaging, entertaining, brave or a bully·        and our own perception of our ‘personal volume’ – we hear our own voice through air passages connecting ear and throat (the ‘eustachian tube’) and also through the vibrations in the bones in our head. So, our perception of our voice quality differs greatly from that of others’. [1] Nearly all. Some people are not able to ‘read a situation’ and therefore may have a loud voice when engaged in a private conversation, or may speak quietly without picking up clues from the listener that they cannot be clearly heard.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartThe podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.06 – 0340 – Your 12-Inch VoiceSometimes people refer to a “12-inch voice”. But what is that? It is the volume required for you to be heard only up to a 12-inch radius around yourself (approx. 30 centimetres). 12 inches is certainly in the intimate zone!Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.05 – 0339 – Human Spacing And Its Part In Projection TheoryHuman SpacingWhat the barbecue has illustrated is Human Spacing, the ideas of anthropologist Edward T. Hall[1] from which we understand the projection needed to speak conversationally[2]. It’s because, as we have seen, there are very specific ‘social rules’ about this social distance[3]. The Public Zone This is generally over 3 metres. That is, when we are walking around town, we will try to keep at least this distance between us and other people. The closer others get, the more we become aware and ready ourselves for appropriate action. The Social Zone Between 1.5 and 3 metres we start to feel a connection with other people: we can talk with them without having to shout, and is a comfortable distance for people who are standing in a group but maybe not talking directly with one another.  The Personal Zone In the personal zone of .5 to 1.5 metres the conversation gets more direct, and this is a good distance for two people who are talking in earnest about something.  The Intimate Zone When a person is within arm’s reach or closer (under .5 metres), then we can touch them in intimate ways. We can also see more detail of their body language and look them in the eyes. When they are closer, they also blot out other people so all we can see is them (and vice versa). Romance of all kinds happens in this space.[1] ‘Culture and Environment’ By Irwin Altman, Martin M. Chemers: http://tinyurl.com/kvcd6n [2] There’s a whole chapter about speaking conversationally later in the book.[3] This is true in the ‘developed Western world’; other cultures have other norms.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartMusic credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.04 – 0338 – The Anniversary Party Analysis VOCAL PROXEMICS AND THE FOUR VARIETIES OF VOCAL VOLUMEYour natural volumeWe are not ‘prehistorically programmed’ to speak to people that we can’t see, let alone speak to millions of people all at once but supposedly in a friendly one-to-one conversational way. The two elements are in dichotomy. So, we try and manipulate our mind to create a false version of reality.  Let’s take a step back, and consider what we do naturally. Picture this: your lovely uncle and aunt who you’re very fond of (and they love you back) have invited you for a barbecue to celebrate their wedding anniversary, and you knock on the door and step back as uncle opens it. You say hi and also say hello to your aunt down the hallway you’ve just spotted. You are shown into the garden and you chat with them both for a while. Your uncle moves away to the barbecue and calls over asking what you’d like, and you reply. Then your aunt suggests you get out of the sun and carry on chatting on the made-for-two garden bench, where she whispers the surprise gift that she has got for her husband. Later you talk with some of their neighbours you have met for the first time, who ask you to repeat a funny story one of them had heard about you, and then you make a speech to the whole gathering to honour your aunt and uncle’s anniversary. Now think of the different voices you used in those few minutes:·        To uncle as he opened the door·        To aunt who you spotted down the hallway·        To them both as you stood in the garden·        To uncle over by the barbecue·        To aunt as you sat together on the garden bench sharing a secret·        To the neighbours ·        And then to the ‘whole garden’. Now consider what changes to cause you to alter the volume and tone of your voice:·         To uncle as he opened the dooro   You know him, he was alone, probably about a metre away, it’s the start of a fun, social day·        To aunt who you spotted down the hallwayo   You know her, she was say, six metres away, by herself but beyond your uncle who is close beside you, it’s the start of a fun, social day·        To them both as you stood in the gardeno   They are together, you are outside, each of them is probably half a metre away·        To uncle over by the barbecueo   He’s outside say, three metres away, behind the barbecue·        To aunt as you sat together on the garden bencho   As it’s a made-for-two bench you are right next to each other and indeed touching, and you have a conspiratorial conversation·        To the group of neighbourso   Each of them probably about a metre from you, further than your aunt and uncle stood as you are less ‘personal’ with them, and there are several of them, standing outdoors and you are trying to ‘impress’·        To all the guests at once when you thanked and congratulated your hostso   There were more people, at a greater distance, and you are trying to engage and entertain. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.03 – 0337 – Projection Advice to BBC Presenters On 2nd January 1928, 5XX (the forerunner of the BBC) broadcast its first ‘Daily Service’ from Savoy Hill in London, with The Rev H.R.L Sheppard C.H., D.D. A booklet “Hints For Preachers” was published for those who would be speaking on this new medium and were unsure how to ‘use it’. The advice: “Remember that your vast audience isn't a crowd or congregation,but various individuals to whom you are speaking in the intimacy of their homes.” Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.02 – 0336 – The Feedback Loop – Part 2When we are in a studio, we don’t have this verbal and non-verbal feedback loop because the audience is unseen: we can’t see their nods of agreement, or hear their “uh-huhs” of understanding, and so it’s tricky for us to adjust our mode of delivery, and therefore to sound natural. We need to create a construct of conversationality while reading a written text aloud. You know what it’s like when you’re talking to someone at a barbecue or business gathering, and they are looking over your shoulder distracted by someone else they’d rather be talking to? What you are saying just peters out. Perhaps you’ve been in the situation with your kids or partner – you are talking and feel as though they’re not actively listening. If the feedback loop exists at all its maybe just “uh-huh”, “yeah”, “I see” … You may even have said something totally outrageous to check that the loop isn’t entirely broken “… and then I thought I’d run stark naked through the church ladies reading circle” to jolt them into attention and authentic reaction. In summary: When you are talking to someone in front of you, you see their reaction: they lean in to show their interest, they look away and are distracted by something else, they nod in agreement … the relationship is two-sided and reciprocal, and leads you as the message-deliverer change your style to further engage them.  But you do not experience this in a studio environment. And that’s why it’s tricky. And we’ll look at the tricks to overcome this trickiness over the next short while.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.01 – 0335 – Mouth Open, Eyes ClosedI once knew a man who spoke in a very loud voice. He commanded the conversation both with his volume and also with his body language, because when he spoke in his overbearing, bumptious tone… he’d close his eyes. What he was doing was shutting out all external signals that would have told him to cede the floor: he would not see someone stepping back, looking away, shaking their head and so on, which meant he could continue barking until he had finished what he wanted to say. It may come as no surprise that the arrogant man was a local politician.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.30 – 0334 – The Broken Feedback LoopIn a face-to-face or even voice-to-voice conversation (such as a phone call), most people constantly monitor their role in relation to others:·        taking turns so they don’t monopolise a conversation·        the speaker adds verbal checks to confirm that the other person is listening and understanding (“you know what I mean?”)·        the listener adds verbal confirmations back to the speaker to show they are listening and understanding (“Go on…”, “oh yeah?”) or negative feedback to signal a desire to end the conversation (“O-kaaaaay”, “Right!”) or to hurry them on (“uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh”).·        there’s non-verbal feedback such as nodding, holding eye contact as a way to encourage and engage… or folding arms and looking away to signal boredom and a desire to escape, or stepping back if someone is too loud and imposing·        and so onAudio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.29 – 0333 – The Big Projection ProblemThe big problem is that in our line of work - broadcasting, podcasting or voice-overing – we are in an ‘unnatural situation’. A million years ago, our prehistoric ancestors would talk, live, to a handful of people who were standing nearby. Then as communities grew, people would talk live to larger crowds standing in front of them. Today, we sit alone in a room, and talk to far greater numbers of people, who we can’t see but who are all listening alone rather than together, and indeed may not be listening live at all – but at some point, further in the future…Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.28 – 0332 – Presenting Projections on TV and RadioIn television a conversational projection is more appropriate because the reader has an illusion of eye contact with the audience, and television audiences offer more of their undivided attention than do radio listeners.Radio presenters have to work harder to cut through distractions and background noise before reaching the listener, especially if you are being heard on somebody’s car radio or in a living room full of hyperactive two-year-olds. Yelling is not the way to make sure every syllable is heard – clear diction is.Podcasters are perhaps slightly different again – you are often going into someone’s ears via headphones or earbuds, so there’s no background noise to cut through, and so a more focussed delivery may sound too strident.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.27 – 0331 – Interpretations of Projections Loud speakers can come over as assured and energetic - or aggressive or bumptious, full of themselves, larger than life, maybe a bit of a bully. They can’t or won’t monitor how their message is being received – and so don’t dial back from 11, and leave the listener feeling attacked and wanting to disengage from the message.  Softer speakers can seem meek, mild and unsure of themselves or their content. A listener may consider they have less credibility and so lower their expectations of their performance or professionalism. Or they may think that the speaker is calm and assured.  It is therefore a good idea when speaking one-to-one to consider whether how you speak is making other people feel uncomfortable. Are they having to lean in to listen, or backing away from the force of the voice? Using an appropriate volume makes a big difference in how we are perceived by others. But if you use loudness or softness inappropriately in your presentation, your message will be confused and you may be perceived as peculiar. Having said that, varying your volume (and intonation) will help aid attention and give communication clarity. With so much about your voice and professional presentation, there’s a balance.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.26 – 0330 – Why Various Voice Volumes Are VitalWhy ‘Various Voice Volumes Are Vital’So why is cranking the dial up or down so useful both with scripts and adlibs? In natural English-presentation, more volume and projection are used:·        to add emphasis to important content·        when we are excited about the content·        when we are speaking with a several people, or those who are further away·        when we are angry·        when we consider the listener doesn’t understand the message. In natural English-presentation, less volume and projection are used to:·        suggest intimacy or privacy or trust·        entice people to listen more carefully·        give an impression of Halloween creepiness, that is quiet, understated threatsAudio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.25 – 0329 – What Is ‘Energy’?Energy (or ‘presence’)This is slightly different from both volume and projection, but does have elements of those within it. ‘Energy’ is subtle and complex, and is a mix of various elements of your body and mind. So, an ‘energetic presentation’ might be a mix of varying degrees of:Your Body·        Volume – but you’re not shouting·        Projection – but you’re not too intense·        Pace - but not like an action-packed livestock auctioneer·        Resonance – from your foundation in better diaphragmatic breathing which we studied in some depth previously·        Pitch – it is difficult to be very energetic for very long with a high voice because of the strain on the vocal folds. (As we saw earlier this is not necessarily a male/female issue: a higher pitch can come about through nerves, poor breathing and so on)·        Intonation – an energetic performance is likely to have a degree more modulation in intonation, more ‘voice variety’. Elements of your energy will also come from how you think and feel about your presentation:Your Mind·        Knowledge, passion, enthusiasm and conviction – that is, speaking with focus and intention, turning off the ‘autopilot’ and being connected to your content. You can do this by imagining that this is one of the first times you have explained this story or sold this product, visualising what happened, picturing the people involved – almost experiencing what you are saying along with the audience.·        Being ‘present’ – giving your full attention to your script or presentation, not allowing yourself to be distracted by kids or to-do lists, emails or voicemails. Focussing in and not ‘phoning it in’, reading the room rather than reading a script.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartThis podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.24 – 0328 – The Shower Head AnalogyProjection is ‘your voice with focus’. Think of the settings on a shower head: one may be a wide ‘rain shower’ spray, another a ‘full body’ spray covering a smaller area, and then a ‘intense jet’ that uses the same overall force of water but concentrates it in a smaller more-clearly targeted area.So, think of the soundwaves leaving your mouth as being more intense in their focus, but with little or no additional volume. Flick the setting and have the water (sound) travel up your hose (pharynx), and then feel the vibrations as the sound enters the main shower head (mouth) and leaves from the jet-holes (between your front teeth).Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.23 – 0327 – What Is ‘Projection’?Projection – There is a subtle difference between ‘volume’ and ‘projection’, where the latter is a more nuanced way of ‘throwing one’s voice’ when speaking on mic in a studio to ‘reach out’ to those who you cannot see. Projection is more about the power of the voice rather than the volume. It suggests intensity and focused strength. Like a focused laser beam rather than a strong, wide torch beam. Yes, projection involves ‘loudness’ but it is less to do with, say emotion and more to do with location and your relation with the listener: as a speaker you gauge the distance to be covered by your voice, who you are talking to and how many people there are, and you adjust your sound production accordingly … in a way you don’t do with volume alone.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.22 – 0326 – What Is ‘Volume’?DEFINITIONSVolume – is a basic degree in softness or loudness of your voice along the path from whispering to shouting (or ‘raising one’s voice’). Sound is measured in decibels (dB). A whisper is about 30 dB, normal conversation is about 60 dB (a motorcycle engine running is about 95 dB).Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.21 – 0325 – How You Naturally Pump Up The VolumeHow You Naturally Pump Up The VolumeAs we saw many chapters ago, your voice is produced by air from the lungs moving over the vocal cords in the larynx in the throat. As the cords’ combination of muscle and cartilage contract and relax, the space between them increases or decreases, and the tone and pitch of the voice changes.  But it’s the force and speed of air passing over them which changes the volume. Think about a shout: Don’t you naturally take a deep breath first? (We’ll look a bit more at projecting a loud voice, in a while.)Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.20 – 0324 – A MIx Of Modulators Of course, volume and projection are part of the overall ‘mix of modulators’ which combine in varying degrees to give you your unique voice that you use in different situations. They are perhaps more closely related to ‘tone’ which we spoke about earlier, and that in itself is related to the content of a message: you rarely shout “I love you” but say it in a softer voice. Similarly, at a sports event you’re unlikely to whisper “C’mon you Reds…”.  And they’re also both linked with ‘intonation’: we saw previously how lifting a word to signify its significance involves a subtle blend of pause, pitch… and projection.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.19 – 0323 – The Volume of Your Voice – plus a shout out to projection and energy “The mouth is a true index of character.It is through the mouth and eyes that all emotions are expressed”A.A. Milne In this chapter we’ll look at how loud you sound.  There’s a section on vocal proxemics, the times you may use a softer or louder voice and a bit on mic technique too. Plus, your vocal health when it comes to both whispering and straining when projecting. Everything from intimate to ‘declamatory’ … from laid-back night time radio to an energetic breakfast show, from a soft sell to a hard sell.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter StewartThrough these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.Look out for more details of the book during 2022.Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_StewartPeter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.18 – 0322 – In SummaryA common failing of script readers is banging out every, say, fifth word, like a beat on a drum.Or banging out unimportant words, the ‘grammar glue’ that simply link a sentence together, rather than the words which do the ‘heavy lifting’ and help explain the story. (Here I have underlined the correct ones to lift!)Having this kind of intonation gives the impression that you don’t understand the story – and of course it is your job to explain it. Intonation exists to bring out meaning. And to get the meaning over to someone else, you have to know it yourself first.So we lift (by varying degrees) the words and phrases that help make the story the story. To lift other words can at best confuse the listener and at worst make you look foolish, or land you in trouble. An example: ‘The police chief says he WASN’T speeding’ is a flat denial reported by an impartial newsreader. ‘The police chief SAYS he wasn’t speeding’ suggests that you think he’s lying…As I say in my seminars: Use your inflection and intonation to extract the information from your stories, with your voices. Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envisionLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tid

2021.11.17 – 0321 – Final Intonation ConsiderationsOnce you have pre-read and rehearsed and are confident in what the sense of the script is, don’t necessarily read it exactly the same way each and every time. To sound convincingly conversational, you need to ‘feel’ the words each time your eyes see them, as though the thoughts are just occurring to you. As long as it’s true to the intended meaning, each time should sound like it is the first time.Intonation is important: highlighting one different word can change the meaning of the sentence. Stumbling through a script can leave it sounding illogical to the listener.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envisionLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tideLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-

2021.11.16 – 0320 – What Am I Talking AboutWhat am I talking about?“She is a miniature horse breeder and is married to an English professor.”Is she a horse breeder who is small in height, and married to a woman who is English and teaches science? Or does she breed miniature horses and married to a German who tutors in the subject of English?“The new solicitor was very concerned about his brief case and allegations about his clients’ milking machines.”Is he worried about his bag and the fate of his client, a farmer? Or a short court hearing about several people who face allegations of defrauding pinball machines?Intonation is everything.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envisionLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tideLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesomeLicense: https://fi

2021.11.15 – 0319 – Intonations In Different Languages INTONATIONS IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGESEach language has its intonation and some are more musical than others. In English, a wide range is used. In some instances, intonation carries the meaning of a phrase. For example, in question tags the intonation used can indicate whether the speaker is looking for agreement. It is important for speakers of other languages to be aware of intonation. If their language does not have the same range, they can sound monotonous or even bored when speaking English. Misunderstandings can also arise between speakers who are not aware of the intonation of the other person's mother tongue.  EXERCISES A series of scripts for you to use to exercise your marking up and intonation skills.·        A centre-left think tank has proposed that a levy on frequent flyers should replace air passenger duty, which is charged on each ticket. Under the plan, a passenger's first holiday flight of the year would incur zero tax. But second and subsequent flights would attract progressively higher taxes. The New Economics Foundation believes this would not only curb emissions, but also make holidays cheaper for poorer households. ·        England's women beat India by 18 runs in last night's T20 match at Northampton. Today - England's men face Pakistan in the 2nd one-day international at Lords. ·        Three people have been killed and several injured in a church in the French city of Nice in what officials say was a terrorist attack. The attacker, who was shouting 'God is greatest' in Arabic, was shot by police and is being treated in hospital. The French authorities have raised the terrorist alert level.·        The government says it has no plans to follow France in imposing a second national lockdown, despite evidence of a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases. Scientists at Imperial College London say the number of people in England catching the virus is doubling every nine days and is now around 96-thousand a day. ·        New figures show sixty per cent of contacts provided to NHS Test and Trace in England were reached and asked to isolate last week -- a performance unchanged from the previous week’s low point. Performance for outbreaks managed by local health protection teams remained high at 97 per cent.·        Rail companies are calling on the government to cut taxes on the electricity they use to power trains - and raise fuel taxes for airlines and motorists instead. They say this would encourage travellers to make greener choices because rail journeys cause less harm to the environment. Airlines say they're already paying the highest rate of Air Passenger Duty in Europe.·        The Education Secretary, Gavin Williamson, has made last-minute changes to the way A-Level and GCSE results in England are to be decided - following the outcry in Scotland over estimated grades. He's to allow students an appeal so they can use their mock exam results for university places or jobs if they're better than their official grades. They can also opt to sit the exams in the autumn.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may h

2021.11.14 – 0318 – Prick Up Your EarsThis ‘skeleton script’ comprising of just the meaning-full words, are the ones which are lifted and if you only heard these ones perhaps on the radio in the car when the kids were chattering, you get a gist of what the story was. Like catching your name being said amongst the hubbub of a party, they are the ones which prick up your ears.It’s like, as a child, listening from the upstairs bannisters to your parents talking downstairs. You can’t get every word of what they say but the key words, lifted for emphasis in their conversation, travel more clearly and you can still make out what it is they were talking about.Or, think of intonation in terms of lighting your main living room at home.A successful lighting scheme is a balance between background illumination, lights drawing attention to specific features, and those used to illuminate activities. Using three types of lights creates visual texture. You need audio texture: the ‘background lighting’ of your voice with the overall tone and clarity, and specific intonation to light up certain words and phrases. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.11.13 – 0317 – The Magic SkeletonYou have to be careful with intonation of course:·        If you lift the wrong words that you begin to sound like a bad robot and thus not conversational or natural·        If you lift the wrong words, it can actually change the meaning of a sentence, and may even land you in trouble legally·        If you lift too many words then the whole sentence or paragraph will be lifted, and be akin to a constant shout rather than a well-modulated, meaning-rich presentation. That for the listener is difficult to listen to and confusing to interpret.The magic trick is, when you have underlined each meaning-laden word in your script, to then go back and, tah-daaah!:·        First, only read the words which you have not underlined. All the less-meaningful words, the ‘glue’ in the sentences, the words that are there to hold the others together.o  You will find when you do this that what you read is pretty much nonsense and you get very little understanding of what’s going on at all.·        Now, only read the words that you have underlined: the meaning-full words. These are the ones that you will lift both in conversation and also therefore in a script. They are the unusual terms that help make the story, the story. They are the skeleton words that give the story its structure.o  You will find that even though there is not an overall context to the story, you will get a better understanding of what is going on than in the first exercise above.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmm

2021.11.12 – 0316 – Hearing Your Own IntonationIt is difficult to be aware of the exact intonation of your own presentation, partly because of how we hear ourselves ‘inside ourselves’ through our own sound passages and vibrations. And also, it’s because we know our ‘intention of intonation’, and therefore it’s difficult to judge how exactly that message has been received. To put it another way, we hear what we said, not what others have heard and have understood by it.Those who speak in a monotonous style truly believe they have variety, intonation and emphasis…But even the most powerful prose or meaningful monologue will fail to engage and inspire if the delivery is as flat as a Coke with the top left off.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envisionLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tideLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Wholesome" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link:

2021.11.11 – 0315 – The ‘Question Intonation’Those who have a ‘sing-songy’ voice which goes unnecessarily up-and-down in tone (the ‘sea-sick syndrome’), can come over as patronising. It may sound ‘up and bright’ to them but to the listener it sounds cheesy and as though the presenter is on ‘auto-pilot’ without a care for the content of the message. Other presenters go up at the end of every sentence? Like this? Whether it’s necessary or not? Are they really asking a question? Or have they got into the habit … of really annoying their audience? This is called ‘up-speak’, everything becomes a question and can make you sound insecure, and insincere, that everything you say needs validation. Some people use it too much, as though they are constantly asking questions, and that affects their authority.  Incorrectly using a ‘question inflection’ triggers confusion in the mind of a listener: the sound of what you are saying is contradicted by its content. Doubt about your delivery disrupts the effectiveness of your message.  So if you are a presenter encouraging phone calls or a YouTuber requesting comments under your video, you need to use a rising inflection… where appropriate. A question will engage your audience more than using a straightforward statement.Statement: “Many people are struggling today by not making enough money as an entrepreneur.”So turn that into a question: “Are you as an entrepreneur, making enough money in your business?”Or: “are you one of those entrepreneurs who…?”A question draws people in, it involves them much more than a statement. A question creates attention. Hmmm do you always go up at the end of a question? No! So called ‘interrogative’ Yes/No questions (those which can be answered with one of those words) are often ended with a down-tone: “So, you’re going to go by train?” Usually, so too are those to which you already know the answer: “Our reporter Peter Porter was in court, can you tell us what happened?” – it would be odd if Peter replied “no!”! Another situation is when you answer your own question: “Have you ever thought about getting a tattoo? I know I have…”Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.&nbsp

2021.11.10 – 0314 – Circumflex IntonationBut the human voice is capable of much more intonational gymnastics! Within some words we can go down … and then up and then down again. Or up, down, and up again. And these intonation alterations give additional clues to the listener as to what we mean.Down > up > down (            ) This is often a sneery tone, or used to signify uncertainty. ·        “I don’t think you doooo!”Up > down > up (              ) Suggests that we haven’t finished talking , or us used at the start of a contrast·        “I’m not going to Antigua… I’m going to Bermuda”               What circumflex inflections would you use for these phrases, and what would they mean?·        Stop worrying.·        Don’t go.·        Please come back.·        Give me a call soon.·        Stop trying to trick me.Listen to how you and others talk in every day conversations: “He did what??!!”, “Yeah, su-u-u-u-u-re you do...!”, “aaaaand…”.  Then try and reproduce these techniques on air to make your intonational sound increasingly natural and ear-catching. Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed

2021.11.09 – 0313 – The Flat IntonationAnd in some situations, I may just have an almost flat intonation (with a slight raise) on a word, to signpost a meaning to the listener. For example, if I am talking, it’s the way that I would say that I’m in the middle of my sentence, and I don’t want you to interrupt me yet because I’ve got more to say about this subject, but when I have finished what I’m saying, I’ll finish and go down.Let’s take a look back at that: “So, it’s the way that I would say that I’m in the middle of my sentence / and I don’t want you to interrupt me yet / because I’ve got more to say about this subject / but when I have finished  what I’m saying / I’ll finish and go down.”[1] If you go down on your intonation early, you give the impression you have finished and the listener may jump in as you are no longer ‘holding the floor’. [1] From https://englishpronunciationroadmap.com/ielts-speaking-test-tips/ Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envisionLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creat

2021.11.08 – 0312 – The Downward Circumflex Intonation Within A Word   This is, unsurprisingly, a word said in a higher pitch followed by a lower one, and as you might expect often signifies closure, certainty, finality – and is what we often use at the end of a sentence, as well as:·       Usually for straight questions expecting more straight answers – “Is the team playing today or tomorrow?” / “Tomorrow.”·       “What will Professor Harris say?” ·        “Why is she so upset?”  ·        “Why are you complaining?”  ·         “Where could you send the students?”  ·        “Who knows what he did?”  So, in natural spoken English, we are brought up to understand that a downward inflection suggests the combined attributes of credibility and closure.  I was recently helping my goddaughter Corey and her boyfriend Dan move house. Because I could only give them til 2 that afternoon before I was due at another engagement, I was given a specific task of cleaning the kitchen cupboards and stocking them with crockery, cutlery and cookware. Nearing the end of this time I said: “Right, I think I’m done here”. Say that sentence with an upward inflection and it suggests some doubt in whether I had finished to their satisfaction, or maybe that I had a few more minutes in which I could do something else for them. With a downward inflection it says the opposite: that I know I have finished, I have run out of time and am unable to do anything else. It sends a ‘tonal signal’ to the listener of the underlying intent of the actual words and is used, for example, to avoid explanation or confrontation. In presentation situations, a newsreader’s inflection will go down at the end of a story to signify not only that the item has come to an end, but also the credibility of what has just been said. We tend to go down to signify being emphatic, when saying a statement or command or exclamation.·        “I’ve got to go to work”·        “That’s wonderful”·        “Put that down!” Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your targ

2021.11.07 – 0311 – The Upward Circumflex Intonation Within A Word  This is when you start saying a word in one tone, and then end it on another, giving the word an upward tonal spin from one syllable to another. It suggests a wavering lack of finality as well as: ·        Doubt – “I’m not sure what I think about that…”  ·        Worry – “Will you finish now?” ·        A simple question that expects a simple answer – “Did you ever visit Paris?” ·        Do you think I care?  ·        Should I send you an e-mail? ·        Would you finish this today? As we have seen before, we also use a rising intonation when we’re asking a question. “Do you want another beer?” As the tone is unresolved, it’s used as an ‘intonation invitation’, a way of inviting a response to the question. It can also be used in lists. So your friends have said yes they do want another beer, and you go to the bar: “I’ll have a Heineken, a Budweiser, a Coors and a packet of crisps”. Each different item, or beer, is often said with a rising intonation, but with a falling intonation, on “crisps” to indicate that we’ve finished.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envisionLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license 

2021.11.06 – 0310 – The ‘Intonation Circumflex’But one doesn’t always merely ‘push’ a whole word, sometimes by changing your inflection within a word it carries another meaning. This is the ‘word-wobble’ or ‘circumflex intonation’, denoting doubt by the reader. Consider the statement “the Moon is made of cheese” and the reply “Really?”. That reply could be said:·     Really? – a matter-of-fact slightly disbelievingly, with a low, emphatic tone·     Really? – a slightly more intrigued answer, as though there could be something in the claim. Said in a typical questioning way·     Really?? - more questioning tone, possibly with a three-tone change within the single word:o  re – said as a high-toneo  le – as a lower toneo  leee? – as a rising tone·     Really??? – said in a way that suggests desperation with the speaker, and said with a frown and grimace.Another example from the newsroom: “The police authority said ‘no-one was available to be interviewed this week’…” A ‘word-wobble’ on “available”, indicates your suspicion that their claim is unlikely.  So far, we have looked at intonation on a simple colouring (or un-colouring) of a word by a degree or two. But of course, in conversation we do more than simply raise or lower the intonation on an individual word. Although as we saw earlier, intonation is itself a complex combination of tone, pause and projection, when talking naturally we do something else a little more complex.Welcome to intonation circumflex - the change of the pitch of a voice within a word or within syllable. And even though that sounds complicated, as you will see, it’s what we do very often without realising, and in doing so it gives the listener even more information about our meaning than the words themselves.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.

2021.11.05 – 0309 – Intonation for ComediansOK this is a bit off topic, but let’s spend a moment looking at intonation in respect of the delivery of a joke. One of the reasons something is funny is because it is unexpected. And that may mean you have to change your intonation to signpost the humour. So (and this is not the joke!) what do you call the situation when lots of cars are filling a road and none of them are moving? A ‘traffic jam’ right? And you would naturally put the colour on the word “traffic” yes?  Ok so look how you have to say that phrase when it appears as the punchline to this kids’ joke: “Why did the girl smear peanut butter on the road? To go with the traffic jam!” To make it funny (?) you had to stress (and yes, I probably do mean to use that word here!) the “jam” part, so it balances with the “peanut butter” reference.  Here’s another example: “What musical instrument is found in the bathroom? A tuba toothpaste.” Here you say the punchline with the colour on “tuba”, whereas in the phrase “a tube of toothpaste” you’d highlight “toothpaste”. In a joke or witticism, surprise is partly because of the use of synonyms, say here: “My wife just ran off with my best friend. Oh boy do I miss him.” The punchline is the very last word, itself a synonym for “best friend” In this ‘intonation misdirection’, the comic plays down the first reference to something so as not to draw attention to it. The new information is, contradictorily, left un-coloured so the second mention can be more of a surprise and the punchline funnier. This misdirection is because the comic is giving the impression that the gag is being adlibbed – that they themselves don’t know the punchline and so they don’t know to lift what later turns out to be significant details in it. Many good lines are ruined because the teller lacked the act of seeming to be spontaneous in their presentation and intonation. And a slightly more risqué example from the BBC Radio 4 series “I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue”: “Colin [the pianist on the panel show] tells us that it was Johnny Cash that helped him buy his first piano. He says back in the 1970s those condom machines were a licence to print money”. Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, alt

2021.11.04 – 0308 – How Mis-Intonation Can Cause Mis-DirectionNot intonating the correct words can completely alter its meaning and tone, leading to a completely different message given to the listener. He said their action had made a walkout inevitable. Stressing the word “he” might suggest there are others who would disagree with this statement. He said their action had made a walkout inevitable. Emphasising the word said casts doubt on the truth of the statement, implying there are grounds for disbelieving it. He said their action had made a walkout inevitable. The speaker now sounds as though he is pointing a finger in accusation at another group of people. He said their action had made a walkout inevitable. This has an intriguing double-meaning. Does had suggest the possibility of a walkout was true earlier, but is no longer the case, or is the stress on “had” a rebuttal, as though denying a suggestion that the action would not lead to a walkout? Think about it. The answer would probably become obvious from the context, but it highlights the importance of having a clear understanding of the item before attempting to read it on air.[1] [1] Adapted from “Broadcast Journalism”, Focal Press, Peter Stewart Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envisionLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp:/

2021.11.03 – 0307 – 13 – A Brief Bit on Brackets (or ‘A Pause for a Part on Parentheses’)You will be unlikely to find these in news or commercial reads (although sometimes you might), these are clauses which may appear with brackets around them, or – just like this – with dashes… or maybe ellipses. On other times, depending on the style of the writer, they may appear inside commas. As bracketed phrases (or those in parenthesis) may appear in an ebook narration, let’s spend a few moments looking at these structures. These constructions are like an ‘aside’ to the reader, an added bit of information or clarification on what has just been said. Using them leads to a script which is rather more formal and flowery and this naturally disrupts the flow of a read. Usually such clauses can, with permission, be put into another separate sentence or omitted completely. I have used several clauses with this construction already in the three paragraphs above. Take a look back and read them out loud and you will hopefully, either take a slight pause either side of them or drop your pitch as you read them. You may do both. Again, think of them as asides, but not complete sentences in themselves, so don’t go down at the end of them as you have the rest of the sentence to finish reading! “The fire was, the witness said, started at about 5am”. “The witness said” is a clarifying clause and so can be dropped in tone.   Let’s look at this sentence from the same trial:“The defendant, wearing a white blouse and blue skirt, entered a plea of not guilty”. OK her attire is new information, and you can slightly colour “white blouse” and “blue skirt” with a slight pause either side.  Why only slightly colour? Yes, it’s new information but it’s not germane to the understanding of the story, it is literally colour, and added ‘fun fact’. If you left it out it would make no difference to the sentence – nothing would be lost in the understanding or the telling of the tale. “The fire, which killed more than a five hundred pigs, broke out at Old McDonald’s Farm, last June.” Ah. Now we have new information that’s both significant and surprising, so this deserves to be coloured rather more, and with a pause either side too. Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / B

2021.11.02 – 0306 – 12 – Positive Intonation About Negative InformationRemember earlier we looked at the fulcrum of facts in a story or sentence? That is, ‘this person says this and that person says that’? Well that can be developed into situations when ‘that person says this happened and that person says it did not’. In other words, negatives, opposites, contrasts and contradictions. Words such as “didn’t”, “disagreed”, “refused”, “never”, “hadn’t”, “not”, “no” and “none” are usually key words because they point to what the sentence, story or script is about. The same goes for words which have a similar job in a sentence, “should”, “ought”, “may” and so on. Colouring such words then, highlights an actual (or implied) view which is opposite. “The moon is not made of green cheese” suggests that someone has just said that it is. A great place to look for examples of this sentence and intonation construction is in a court room – as what happens in there is very much a case of opposing accounts. “One witness said it was a man in a green hat, another said it was a woman in a red one”.  So if you started a story with “The trial of a police officer accused of murder, has heard claims that he did not set fire to the hostel where seven people died” then it would be natural to highlight the word “not”. “The officer was asked whether he had a can of fuel with him on the night. ‘I did not’ he replied”. “The prosecutor said ‘You of all people should know that carrying fuel is disallowed’” Well, here we have another type of negative in “disallowed”. Unlike “didn’t”, “hadn’t” “couldn’t” in which the negative is a suffix to the main word (did > did not and so on), disallowed (along with its cousins, disorder, disappear, disadvantage, non-essential, non-fiction, unable, unhappy, untidy, unlucky, unusual and so on) has a ‘negative prefix’ to the main word.  Look back at that list and say them to yourself. Don’t you naturally lift or colour the main part of the word rather than its ‘negative prefix’?  “The cat disappeared”, “where is the non-fiction section, please?”, “she was deeply unhappy” and so on. That’s apart from when we introduce our old friend ‘contrast’ again. If those sentences above were contradicting known or implied information then you would colour the prefix: “The cat loves playing in the cardboard box. It appeared and then disappeared”, “I can see the fiction shelves, but where is the non-fiction section, please?”, “He was overjoyed, but she was deeply unhappy”. Talking of negatives, and as I mentioned previously, be careful with the words “can” and can’t” as in some accents they may sound very similar (with my south east England accent I pronounce them ‘can’ and ‘carnt’, but in more northern areas it’s ‘can’ and ‘cant’). “Police say you can’t drive on the new road” – may be open to misinterpretation unless you say “cannot”.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal

2021.11.01 – 0305 – 11 – Positive Intonation About Positive InformationThe ideas about highlighting contrasting and new information join together, when we look at ‘positive’ words such as ‘any’, ‘all’ and ‘always’. “Police found a body in a house on Devilgate Drive, and they didn’t allow anyone to walk up there.” Remember our shades of colour in intonation. The fact that they didn’t allow anyone up the road, is new information and “anyone” may be lifted slightly. But in the following sentence the same word is not only new, but also contrasts with information earlier in the sentence: “Police found a body in a house on Devilgate Drive, and they didn’t let residents to get back home, in fact they didn’t allow anyone to walk up there.” In this example one would naturally lift “anyone” slightly more, because of those two reasons. Similar structures can be found with “any”: “I wasn’t allowed any sweets” (a slight lift on “any”) and “I wasn’t allowed the bar of chocolate. I wasn’t allowed any sweets” (with a greater lift on “any”).   So these words are rarely coloured unless they are strongly contrasting with what has gone previously. Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envisionLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70Licens

2021.10.31 – 0304 – Grammar Glue Part 2or – and and or are often two sides of the same coin. “And” is often giving additional information, whereas “or” usually suggests options or alternatives are available.In a simple ‘either/or’ phrase, the “or” is often subdued, to allow the basic options either side to be coloured. “You can have chicken or fish”. But in a more complicated sentence, when there are two sets of options compared with two more you may want to highlight the “or” to be a ‘pivot point’ in the options. Remember our holidaying friends who are working out where to go? “So if you want to go to the museum now I will meet you there, or come with me to the shop and we will go to the museum together”. of - “Some of the oil refineries in the Gulf have shut down ahead of the arrival of the hurricane.” [1] Hopefully, with what you know so far, you lifted “oil refineries”, “Gulf”, “shut down”, and “hurricane”.  Now read this: “Emergency services in southern American states are bracing themselves for winds of up to 80 miles an hour, as Hurricane Pete heads their way. Ships in the Gulf of Mexico are in particular danger. Some of the oil refineries in the Gulf have shut down ahead of the arrival of the hurricane.” All I’ve done is added an extra two sentences to the start of the report, so some of what you previously highlighted as new information may now be old information, and so your intonation will change. If you lifted “Oil refineries”, “shut down” and “arrival”, but didn’t stress “hurricane” or “Gulf” (old information), well done.  Some people though will lift other ‘glue’ words instead, such as “in” and “of” as in “Some of the oil refineries in the Gulf have shut down ahead of the arrival of the hurricane”.  The thinking seems to be ‘I’ve talked about the hurricane and the Gulf, so I cannot stress those words again. I know, I’ll stress the ‘in’ and the ‘of’!’  And sorry to say, after a while, the thought process is no longer necessary, because stressing prepositions becomes second nature. This is wrong. [1] Adapted from https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/here-is-the-news-im-stressed-out-hk9sccfdgsb and https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/are-bbc-newsreaders-guilty-of-mispronunciation-xn3n8d0r8jj Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English

2021.10.30 – 0303 – 10 – Grammar GlueConsider a dodgy phone connection and you can only hear some of what a friend is saying. You get the gist of the content from the meaningful words in the sentence: the words which actually are full of meaning, give detail and context and move the story along.Some words in a sentence don’t add much information, they are there to give it structure and hold the important words together. They act as grammar ‘glue’. You can usually dampen down these delete-able words as by definition they are usually unimportant. Let’s go through some of them.and – Some people see this word and highlight it every time. Go back and look at that sentence again and colour the word “and” and you’ll realise how daft this is. Drawing attention to ‘and’ gives the impression that each of the two words or phrases either side may be mutually exclusive, or the listener should presume that they usually are.“After the crash, police swept the road and opened it to traffic” – highlighting “and” gives the impression that the officers may usually do one of these jobs or the other, but not usually both.On occasion you do want to draw attention to ‘and’ as we see from our airline example: “You cannot have chicken, fish and pasta” – but does this mean you could have both chicken and fish on the same plate...?Note that prepositions, words which describe a relationship between one item and another, are coloured very rarely. You do not order breakfast by asking for “egg and bacon, beans on toast and a cup of tea” but some readers use exactly that intonation.  In this case the intonation goes hand-in-hand with the pronunciation of that three-letter word “and”:·        The uncoloured, throwaway version is said ‘nd’ or ‘n’ – “Do you want bread n butter with your fish n chips?”·        The coloured pronunciation rhymes with ‘sand’ – “My friend is just having soup n a roll but I’m having soup n a roll and fish and chips”.It’s the same with other words where colouring them changes how you say them: “Hey I said you could have a chip, not all of them” (where “a” is said “ay”) vs. “He went for a walk” (with “a” said like a short “er”), and it’s similar with the word “an”.“The” can be said “thee” when you draw attention to it (“The presidents of the state’s Rotary Clubs met thee President at the White House today”) and also perhaps uniquely changes how you say it depending on whether the word that follows it is a vowel or consonant.“The army and the navy are combining in a show of strength this weekend…”Didn’t you automatically say “thee army” and “thuh navy”…? Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a sugg

2021.10.29 – 0302 – 9 – By Super-Stressing One Insignificant Word, You Downplay The Sense Of The Sentence“Christmas is the best time of the year.” It’s a short, straightforward sentence: this speaker loves Christmas! It is simply the best! Therefore, the words that are most-coloured are:·        Christmas ·        BestAnd slightly-coloured:·        Year “Christmas is the best time of the year.” But some people fall for the temptation of saying: “Christmas is the best time of the year.”  By highlighting “the” (possibly with a change of pronunciation from ‘thuh’ to ‘thee’) you downgrade the key word of the whole sentence, “best”. And that doesn’t make sense because “best”, if it’s not lifted-and-projected, it could be swapped for “worst”.So words such as “the” are very rarely highly-coloured, and if you catch yourself doing so, look closely to see what other word you should be highlighting instead, or as well as.Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection andprojection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a careerspent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode! And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTERBROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE. Look out for more details of the book during 2021. Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists. He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”. Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls. The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience? This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects. Music credits:"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demoLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flowLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envisionLicense: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license "Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons