2021.09.15 – 0258 – The Goldilocks Rules Of Intonation
Nuanced and natural
The first thing to stress (!) is that intonation is usually a subtle blend of various vocal elements, nuanced and natural. It is usually not ‘stressing’, ‘emphasising’, ‘barking’ or ‘shouting’, all of which are the vocal equivalent of a thump on the table. And although we use CAPITALISATIONS to or underlining to mark our scripts and where to lift, we do so for practicalities’ sake. But in your mind, instead of emboldened words on a single line, think of the lifts and suppressions of words and phrases as something more like a melody line in sheet music.
VOICE BOX
The Goldilocks Rules of Intonation
· Too little intonation and you will sound monotonous, dull and boring.
· Too much intonation and you will sound crazy, or patronising.
· Too much repetitious intonation and you will sound ‘sing-songy’.
· The right intonation in the wrong place, or the wrong intonation in the right place will make you sound ill-informed.
· Good speaking is getting the intonation ‘just right’ – like the temperature of a bowl of porridge – to give the meaning without being misleading.
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 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 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 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
\"Beauty Flow\" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
\"Envision\" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
\"Limit 70\" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
\"Rising Tide\" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5027-rising-tide
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
\"Wholesome\" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5050-wholesome
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license