The 5 Vocal Foundations of Great Communication | Vinh Giang on UNSTOPPABLE

Summary

In a recent episode of the Kerwin Rae Podcast Clips, Vinh Giang dissects the five vocal foundations crucial for impactful communication. Giang emphasizes the importance of modulating your rate of speech to maintain listener engagement. Volume, pitch, melody, and tonality are equally instrumental in conveying confidence, creating memorable messages, and evoking emotions. By harnessing these vocal elements, speakers can transform their communication skills, ensuring they connect with their audience on a deeper level. This insightful discussion is a must-listen for anyone looking to enhance their speaking prowess.

Highlights

• Vary your speech rate to keep it exciting and engaging! 🕺
• Boost your volume for more authority and confidence! 🔥
• Use melody and pitch to make your words unforgettable! 🎶
• Express emotions through tonality to captivate your audience! 🎭
• Pause strategically to help your audience absorb your message! 🤔

Key Takeaways

• Varying your rate of speech keeps listeners engaged and prevents boredom. 🗣️
• Increasing your volume can assert confidence and authority. 🔊
• Pitch and melody help make speeches memorable and emotionally resonant. 🎵
• Utilizing tonality can express a range of emotions, making communication more authentic. 😃
• Incorporating pauses gives listeners time to process and comprehend information. ⏸️

Overview

Vinh Giang kicks off the episode by highlighting the importance of modulating one's rate of speech. Too fast, and you can lose your listeners; too slow, and they might nod off. It's all about finding the sweet spot that keeps your audience hanging on every word. Meanwhile, upping the volume can imbue your message with confidence and authority, making sure your points hit home.

Next, Giang delves into the world of pitch and melody. He explains how these musical elements can make your communication both memorable and emotionally powerful. Just like a song sticking in your head, a well-pitched speech can linger long after it's over. He draws parallels to music, urging speakers to think of their voice as a piano, filled with 88 keys while most people only play a few.

Finally, Giang explores the magic of tonality and the power of the pause. Using facial expressions to unlock a range of emotions, speakers can ensure their messages are not just heard, but felt. Pausing, on the other hand, not only helps your audience process information but gives you a moment to breathe and think about your next key point. By mastering these vocal foundations, anyone can become an unstoppable communicator.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Rate of Speech In the chapter 'Rate of Speech', the importance of varying speech pace is emphasized. Many people do not consider their speech rate, leading to monotonous delivery which can bore listeners. The chapter suggests modulating speech rate as a method to maintain listener engagement. Speaking quickly can convey passion, while slowing down can signal emphasis on important points.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Volume The chapter discusses the importance of volume in communication. It highlights that volume can convey confidence and authority, suggesting a speaker's belief in their own message. The chapter contrasts a speaker with a strong, confident volume against a speaker with a lower volume, pointing out that a lower volume may not instill the same confidence or belief in the message being delivered, regardless of the speaker's level of expertise.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Pitch The chapter "Pitch" discusses the common issue of speaking volume in communication, particularly among leaders and CEOs. The author recounts their experience coaching CEOs, including Dave Long from Orange Theory Fitness, on improving their speech volume. They explain that individuals often underestimate their speaking volume, perceiving themselves as too loud when asked to increase it. The emphasis is on the importance of speaking at an adequate volume to project authority and presence effectively.
• 02:00 - 03:30: Melody This chapter titled 'Melody' focuses on the elements of charisma, energy, confidence, and authority in speech. It particularly emphasizes the volume and pitch aspects when speaking, noting how a level 5 volume is significant. There is a fascinating exploration of how pitch influences speech. The speaker connects these concepts to the idea of recalling content from books, challenging the listener to think about a book they've read multiple times and considering whether they could recite a page from it accurately. The chapter probes the relationship between memorization and how speech delivery can affect communication and retention.
• 03:30 - 06:00: Tonality The chapter discusses the concept of familiarity and memory in music. The speaker humorously engages with someone named Kevin, stating that if one knew a song too well, it might make them a 'freak.' Kevin admits he cannot recite the lyrics to any song, humorously ruining the speaker's example. The conversation touches on songs that resonate personally, using examples such as a song that Kevin's son enjoys repeatedly. The speaker encourages listeners to think of songs they love and potentially know well.
• 06:00 - 08:30: Pausing The chapter titled "Pausing" discusses the reason why people can easily memorize song lyrics compared to a text from a book. It highlights that songs are more memorable due to their melody. The chapter suggests that incorporating melody into spoken words can make them more memorable.
• 08:30 - 10:00: Conclusion In the conclusion chapter, the speaker reflects on the concept of communication using a metaphor of a piano with 88 keys. They emphasize that most people tend to 'speak' using only a limited set of their available 'keys' or expressive potential. The speaker recounts an experience with their first singing teacher, whose methods taught them to become a more effective communicator by utilizing the full range of their expressive abilities. This approach was not about singing itself but about expanding one’s communication skills to engage more dynamically and comprehensively.

The 5 Vocal Foundations of Great Communication | Vinh Giang on UNSTOPPABLE Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 the first thing is your rate of speech a lot of people put no thought behind their rate of speech but if again for those listening to this if i get stuck in a consistent rate of speech now and i stick to this right of speech and i don't vary from this rate of speech what happens to you as a listener yeah it starts to get boring right so we have to modulate it we have to vary our rate of speech and if i sometimes go quickly and when i'm going quickly it shows passion but then when i slow down cohen i'm saying nothing important here
• 00:30 - 01:00 but it seems so profound nothing important has been said yet it seems profound right so rate of speech is its own beast the second thing is volume volume shows confidence authority that you believe in what you're saying so if i switch off my volume let's say i speak like this now and i come in but i'm truly an expert in what i'm talking about it doesn't seem like i believe in what i'm saying doesn't seem like i'm confident in what i'm saying it's a shame most people speak at a
• 01:00 - 01:30 volume that is a bit too quiet and then when you tell them to a rating from one to ten they usually speak at about a three you tell them to speak at a five they go oh i think i'm being too loud you know each year i coach three ceos right now i'm coaching the ceo of orange theory fitness dave long massive shout out to dave awesome human being but he speaks at a level three volume i tell him to speak at level five what we're doing now and he goes oh van i think i'm being too loud okay dave that's crazy you're not you're losing out on a huge amount of authority
• 01:30 - 02:00 charisma energy confidence and authority because you don't speak at a level five volume third one is pitch pitch is fascinating because for the listeners who are listening right now think to a book you've read maybe you can even think to a book you've read cohen a book you've read more than 10 times right have you got one that you've read a lot yes maybe not tensions but let's say you know i've got like many of you got one yeah if i asked you to recite for me a page in that book word for word could you do
• 02:00 - 02:30 it no good otherwise you'd be a freak [Laughter] now let me ask you another question is there a song that you sing quite often that you enjoy there's a song that my son loves to play right over and over again yeah right but if i asked you to recite for me word for word that song could you recite the song oh and there's not one song in the world that i know the lyrics to oh no okay so you're a terrible example for this but for the listeners you totally ruined my example thank you kevin but for the listeners for listen surely you could think of a song that you love right yeah
• 02:30 - 03:00 and generally most people can watch i can think of one song that i actually know the words of okay you never close your eyes anymore when you're the top gun top gun right right yeah of course yeah no no why can't okay so a song has roughly 280 words right a page and a book has roughly 280 words yeah right why can you recite a song yet not a page in the book that's so interesting music has melody so if you speak with more melody what you say becomes more memorable what you say becomes more memorable
• 03:00 - 03:30 whereas most people use two notes when they speak whereas i use the philosophy and i use the mindset of each person every one of you that's listening to this right now you've got you've got a piano of 88 keys right and most people speak with a couple of keys and i remember my first singing teacher when i met her and i didn't do this to become a singer i did this to become a more effective communicator when i walked into a room i remember this she didn't even look at me and she'd play one key over and over and
• 03:30 - 04:00 over again for three minutes it was like something out of the exorcist and they should stop and she'd go how do you feel young man i'd say i i don't know this is kind of scary awkward nothing and then she played this beautiful song called romance three minutes unless you turn around she goes how do you feel young man is that actually quite sad to be honest that was quite a sad song she goes vin most people go through life speaking like this one key i'll teach you how to speak like this wow melody
• 04:00 - 04:30 so melody right so again melody third foundation because because here's the thing let me give you this example too you could hear a piano song and feel sad you could hear a piano song and feel happy you could hear a piano song and feel inspired you could hear a piano song and feel scared there's no words how do you know how to feel so there's a backing track underneath every voice there's a backing track under every voice when people say oh when this person walks into the room
• 04:30 - 05:00 lifts the energy of the room what is that that's the backing track of their voice there's people who walk into a room and you feel incredibly heavy like i come in and i talk ah cohen it's it's monday can't believe it's five days till friday and there's a backing track behind that so melody that's melody that's pitch the fourth one is tonality and tonality is the emotion that lives underneath your words
• 05:00 - 05:30 without without realizing and this is where the world of theater and the word of singing come together but body language your face is the remote control for the emotion that lives underneath your words and most people without knowing are walking around with what is otherwise known as a resting face and if you've got a resting face you've got a tone so if you just slightly smile it brings more melody into your voice because a smile controls the emotion underneath your words
• 05:30 - 06:00 and again if i make a disgusted face for no reason i'm not talking about anything disgusted but i sound disgusted the six core human emotions you got happy sad disgust fearful angry and surprised you've got to be able to show those six tonalities at least if you want to be an effective communicator most people don't most men don't most men neutral face and as a result neutral tone most people are afraid of a monotone voice yet do not know that a monotone voice comes from a monotone body
• 06:00 - 06:30 and your face is a part of your body so this is a huge one in my classes when i teach just to get men and women in the corporate world who are so stoic in their facial expressions just to break out of their mouth and show me some emotion damn it and when they do they come alive and authenticity is now radiating through them so that's that's the big one and the fifth one is pausing just this
• 06:30 - 07:00 and for the listeners who listen to this just as we pause it's so powerful it gives them time to comprehend what we're saying it gives us as communicators time to listen and to process and these are important foundations when you're playing your instrument and if you listen back to this podcast or any great speaker these are the five things they're modulating and any speaker who you deem to not be a
• 07:00 - 07:30 great communicator they're just not modulating one of these things and they've stuck they get stuck in a default volume stuck in the default rate stuck in a default pitch stuck in the default tonality you modulate these five things you master these five things now you play beautifully with your instrument yeah it's just these five things mate that you've nailed it there you have it guys thanks for tuning in to unstoppable with me your host cohen ray and please do not forget to subscribe to our youtube channel we get to see all of these interviews in the flesh share this
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