Stephanie was recently exploring the content of Vinh Giang, a peer in the communications space. One of the points that he made that really struck a chord with Stephanie was the concept of a voice being an instrument rather than a tool. Giang says, “We use tools, but we play instruments,” and he goes on to explain how voices have qualities that can be honed and practiced to maximize communication effectiveness.

Voices have rhythm, beats, texture, and timbre… all qualities of music. By thinking about our vocal cords as if they’re instruments to practice playing, we can open up an entire world of vocal delivery techniques that are both learnable and measurable in their impact.

Where we often recommend starting is with what we call the 5 Ps of Influential Delivery. The two we’ll focus on in this article are pitch and pace. Pitch is the relative highness or lowness of the voice… think of it as the notes or melody of the music. Pace is the rate of delivery… think of this as the tempo. Pitch and pace are “sister Ps” because they work hand in hand. When pitch goes higher, pace increases in tandem. When pitch drops, so too will the rate of speech.

What’s particularly powerful about pitch and pace, is that they’re wildly effective at communicating the emotional context of the words. In fact, even if we don’t intentionally consider our pitch and pace when speaking, they’re there nonetheless, and our audience will interpret something about the emotional subtext whether we want them to or not.

At least for most non-tonal languages, higher frequency pitch and faster pace communicate the high-frequency emotions (be they pleasant or unpleasant) like anxiety, excitement, anticipation, or anger. Low frequency pitch and a slower pace convey the lower-frequency emotions like sadness, contentment, resignation, or forgiveness.

When we deliver our Influential Storytelling workshop, we often orchestrate a demonstration of pitch and pace by bringing up two random volunteers from the room. We give both of them the following script to read aloud, but the first volunteer is asked to read it as if she’s feeling anxious, and the second volunteer is asked to read it as if he’s bored and annoyed:

I had to write the script, put together the deck, vet it with my manager, rehearse, rehearse some more, record myself...and have it all done before the end of the week. 

The first volunteer usually speaks rapidly and at a high pitch, running words together and sometimes even stumbling over them. The second volunteer speaks a lot lower and slower, and may even throw in a few outright pauses. The rest of the participants don’t know the emotional subtexts the volunteers are asked to convey, but invariably—even with “amateur” volunteers from the group—the audience is able to pinpoint them right away.

Learning to master the instrument of your voice is a crucial part of what it takes to be an effective communicator. The wider your range of pitch and pace, the greater breadth of emotion you can effectively convey, and the more impactful your messages can be.

Join us on March 1 for a free Story Hour that will specifically explore pitch and pace as storytelling delivery strategies.