0964 - Stumbling

2023.08.22 – 0964 - Stumbling

Stumbling

Symptom: Verbal mistakes in adlibbed conversations or more likely, when reading as script: restarting words, mispronunciations, mis-intonations, repeated corrections and generally losing your way in a sentence. I outline some more of these in the episodes after 650.

Prescription: Give your mouth and mind a chance to get things right!

·        Relax and warm up to remove any held tension in your vocal apparatus. Have a good rest before a recording (episode 108 and the ones just after).

·        De-stress mentally so you are not distracted. Have confidence in what you have been asked to do, your knowledge of the topic and your experience.

·        Review and rehearse your script or make notes if you are adlibbing (ad-libbing is in episode 485 and 633 amongst others). Knowing your topic will help you with intonation, checking pronunciations (episode 138 onwards) will help reduce guesswork and inaccuracies. Reading through and good sight-reading (episode 590 and 642) will give you familiarisation that will reduce on-air or on-tape surprises. Practice this ‘cold reading’ to improve your confidence.

·        Open your mouth enough to allow your tongue to properly form the words (episode 72)

·        Hydrate to allow your tongue to slip around your mouthy easily (episode 751)

·        Sitting properly will lead to better breathing, which will calm you and lead to better resonance and calmness and accuracy, in a ‘virtuous circle’

·        Adjust the script (if you are able to) to make it easier to read: maybe the words used, sentence length, font size or layout. We looked at this in episode 174.

·        Slow down if stumbles are caused by your mind working faster than your tongue (episode 379 is a good one on ‘fast talking speed traps, also 646 and the ones just after).

·        Remove tongue or lip studs that may reduce tongue manoeuvrability 

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