0952 – The ‘Monotonous’ Voice

2023.08.10 – 0952 – The ‘Monotonous’ Voice

Monotonous voice

Symptom: Spoken tonal delivery which has little variation, with a perception of a single (or ‘mono’) tone. Such a delivery gives the impression that the speaker is bored or tired, that the topic is boring, or if reading from a script, that they have not understood the content enough to feel confident giving correctly-placed intonation.

Some people deliberately adopt a flatter-sounding voice in the (mistaken) belief that it makes them sound authoritative, as they are keeping their emotions under control. A listener could mentally turn off from such a ‘drone-like’ delivery. Catch up with episodes 217, 221, 258 and 316 for more monotonous content (if you see what I mean!)

Prescription:

·        Presentation is a performance so think about what it is about your situation that may make you sound bored or distracted: are you fed up doing podcasts, or this particular topic again? Perhaps it’s something outside the reading: do you feel stuck in a rut in life or your marriage? Maybe you (maybe unknowingly) feel you should be paid more and so will not give 100% until you are…. (Episode 890, if this sounds like you…)

·        A slight monotone may also be as a result of feeling less than comfortable in a current situation, perhaps working with new people or in a new studio or with new, unfamiliar equipment (episode 897 and those around it for more on this).

·        Remember the need to ‘turn up the personality’ a bit when appearing on radio, tv or stage to achieve ‘cut through’ a some of your energy is ‘lost’ in transmission. (I explain more in episode 332.)

·        A monotonous voice may be because of tiredness and is sorted rather more obviously: more rest and less stress, better breathing and eating and so on.

·        If you don’t understand your script, you may keep your intonation in a limited ‘safe zone’[1] this sometimes happen when you have to sight-read. Although this reduces the chances of not misplacing an emphasis too badly, it also inevitably creates less variety in the voice range leading it to sound boring, flat and lifeless. Explanation, rehearsal and marking-up a script will help. Better sight-reading for say newsreaders, usually comes from a background knowledge of current affairs so you immediately understand the significance of what it is you have just been handed and can show that in your colouring of words. Episode 720 is a good place to learn more about sight-reading and there’s a whole series on marking up a script from 177.

·        Be more conversational in your delivery. Imagine talking to one person across the room from you and telling them a story (episode 464 onwards), and using gestures (episode 430 onwards) as you do so.

[1] A ‘safe zone’ may lead you to fall into a repetitive pattern of delivery: starting or ending each sentence in the same way, punching every (say) fourth word. 

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