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So recent brain scan studies have

shown that your brain works harder and remembers more

when listening to a human voice versus an AI one.

We're going to break down why that is

and how you can use that science in your own episodes

and instructional content.

Now, in the last episode, we talked

about the speed that you speak at and how

to figure out your own words per minute or WPM.

That information will be useful for some of the exercises

I describe in this episode.

So if you missed it, you might want to check it out

and then come back to this episode.

I'll put the link in the show notes.

Biconsciously and skillfully using the elements of your speech,

things like your rate and cadence and pitch and volume,

you can cut through the digital noise

and then form a bond of trust that algorithms cannot replicate.

It's your most effective instrument

for reclaiming a fundamental part of our humanity online.

We now have scientific proof that our brains respond differently,

like more intensely, to a human voice

than an artificial one, at least for now.

In this episode, we're going to talk about vocal expression

and the musicality of the voice.

And how it affects those listening to it.

We will deconstruct the technical components of speech.

And I'll offer a really useful toolkit,

I hope, of exercises that you can use to practice.

And I'll also help you set up a way to analyze your own work.

Now, before we go too far into this topic,

the words you say, like the information itself,

those things are very important.

For example, the research on improving learning effectiveness,

the research says things like reducing complex and long words,

avoiding really long sentences.

So the content of your message is the foundation

for all of this in general.

But in this episode, we're specifically focusing

on how you say those words.

So the tone, the pitch, the speed, the rhythm, the pacing.

So we're going to get to those practical exercises,

but first we're deconstructing the different parts

of vocal musicality.

Understanding these components is the first step

towards controlling them.

So let's break down the components

that make your voice expressive instead of robotic monotonous.

So the first one of those things is speech rate.

So this refers to the speed at which you speak.

And we discussed in the last episode one way to measure that,

and that's in words per minute, or WPM.

For those of you who script your work, WPM

is also a really useful way to measure your pace,

because you can work out your transcripts,

how long it's going to take you to give a performance,

for example.

Next we have cadence.

So speech rate is the speed, and cadence is the rhythm.

Cadence is like that rhythmic flow and pacing of your words,

and this can create a sense of melody as well.

Each language has its own natural rhythmic patterns.

And mastering this, getting cadence right down,

is essential for delivering performances

that feel really authentic and human and engaging.

Next there's prosody.

This is a really broad term for the rhythmic

and tonal features of speech that go way beyond individual

sounds like the vowels and consonants of a word.

So prosody includes the intonation, stress, rhythm,

loudness, duration, the intensity, and the pitch.

And prosody is what gives your words

that sort of nuanced meaning that we kind of just

understand without it being spelled out,

like your emotional state or your attitude, what

you're feeling towards the subject.

Prosody is how you communicate things like sarcasm and irony.

And it's how you distinguish a question

from a statement of fact.

Finally, we have intonation.

So that's technically part of prosody.

You might have heard me say that.

But intonation is so important that it's kind of worth calling out

on its own, because it's that melody of a sentence

in particular.

So the rising intonation at the end of a sentence--

in Canadian English, this is typically a yes or no

question that I'd be asking.

While a falling intonation means I'm

making a statement of fact.

This can be different region to region

and even within the same language.

So you also use intonation to convey emotions and attitude

and to draw attention to important words.

These things all go together to create the music of your voice.

So putting it all together, speech rate, overall tempo,

how fast or slow the piece is played.

Intonation is that melody, like the sequences of high and low

notes.

Volume and stress are the dynamics of your words.

These are like the variations in loudness that create emphasis.

And cadence is the resulting rhythm of your words.

The characteristic pattern that emerges

from the combination of all these things together.

So the musicality of your voice is so important when

you're educating and presenting or you're acting and doing

a character, because they're all different character

to character.

So I first started thinking about this a lot

after I read a book by Armory Schaefer,

and that book was called "When Words Sing."

Schaefer was a composer who saw all sounds,

including the voice musically in a music context.

He taught that we should listen to the pitch and the texture

and the rhythm of words.

We should feel them and express them.

He wanted to listen to words like music.

So here's a quote from a paper by Schaefer.

"What I mean by acoustic design is

to regard the soundscape of the world

as a huge musical composition unfolding around us ceaselessly.

We are simultaneously its audience, its performers,

and its composers."

I found that just gorgeous.

And I read his book a few decades ago

when I was at university, and it just completely changed

my mind on listening to the voice.

I started listening to the voice as a musical instrument

just while it talked.

An example I remember from the book

was listening to the sounds within a coffee shop,

which he called "Soundscape."

So he saw those as full, orchestral-like pieces of work.

He suggested that you could listen to them creatively

and artistically like a symphony, all the voices,

and the other sounds in that coffee shop.

So the book and his recordings,

he had recordings of this stuff,

really changed the way that I listened.

And it changed the way that I spoke too from that point on.

Now Schaeffer's emphasis on this inherent rhythm of words

connects directly to cadence and prosody.

He talked about how vocal variety is what we use

to sustain an audience's attention.

So monotony means boredom,

and that feeling translates directly to your listener,

whoever's listening to what you say.

And as a side note, after reading this book,

I had to give a presentation on my report

when I was at university.

And I was so excited because this had just like

blew my mind thinking about these topics,

but I have never seen such a bored audience

in my entire life when I gave that report.

Even though I felt super excited,

obviously it didn't translate to my voice,

my delivery, I think went completely against everything

that I learned in the book.

Here I am gushing about this book decades later still,

and hopefully you're a little bit less bored

than my audience back then.

Hopefully that's true,

but you can let me know in the comments

or send me a message if you're listening to the podcast.

You can say, no, I'm still incredibly bored

by that whole Schaeffer thing.

This script, the content of your message

is just one layer of what you're putting out there.

So how you say things can completely change the meaning

of the words that you're actually saying.

And this can change the impact that you have

on the audience, your students,

whoever it is listening to you.

And this isn't just a feeling or a philosophical idea

that I have, it's actually something

that we can now measure.

So a recent study that was published

in the journal Frontiers in Psychology

looked directly at this issue.

Researchers used an EEG to monitor people's brain activity

while they listened to both human

and AI-generated newscasts in China.

As a result, they found out that the human voice

triggered significantly greater brain activity

than the AI voice.

Specifically, it targets the parts of the brain

that are associated with processing,

comprehending, auditory information, and working memory.

Those were all a lot more active

when they were listening to a human.

This data suggests that the subtle,

natural human variations in our voices

that musicality or prosody would be involved

are more than just the noise of the words coming out.

That it's like not a benign thing.

What you add as a human being are signals

that can help your listeners,

their brains engage and understand

and remember the things that they are hearing from you.

So the psychology of you being heard is real.

It's a biological response that can be measured

by an EEG at least.

So I'll put a link to that study in the description

if you want to check it out.

So the human brain is tuned to decode this rich stream

of social and emotional information

that's baked right into the human voice.

Listeners, your audience subconsciously use

these vocal cues that you put out

to construct a mental model of the speaker, you,

and they make judgments about identity and personality

and confidence and intent.

I'll talk more about how your volume and tonality

add elements of persuasion and motivation

in the next episode.

I want to spend the rest of our time today

on how you can analyze your own recordings

and then get into some practical exercises.

So in the last episode,

we talked about how variability is important.

You need a range of speeds and delivery styles

to just suit your content and your platform.

Variability is really important.

This makes your delivery feel natural

because it's what we just do day to day as humans

when we talk to other humans.

It also naturally keeps human attention.

So here's a checklist that you can use for your analysis.

Compare your words per minute between your videos.

Look at the WPM between different episodes

and especially between different sections of the same episode.

Like when you tell a story versus when you give a tutorial.

Next, you want to listen for vocal variety.

So is your delivery monotonous?

Does your pitch go up and down?

Does it stay all on one note?

Is your volume dynamic?

Does it change or is it flat?

Next, you want to consider filler words.

So you might want to count them up if you want

or just listen for particular repeated filler words

that you tend to use like um or like or you know, that's mine.

So some of these are fine to leave in

for a conversational feel.

Like we have a reason as humans to use filler words.

Like I'm not finished speaking yet.

So you kind of put that filler word in

because it signals to another human

that you've got something more to say.

But in a video, we don't need to do that

'cause I have the control of the room here.

I'm editing this thing.

So too many of them might be distracting

because they're not needed.

The last one here is check your articulation and clarity.

So is every word crisp and clear

and easy to understand

or are you mumbling or running words together?

The articulation can make you sound unprepared

and it's also harder to edit.

Now that you've listened to your recordings

and you have kind of an idea about what you want to work on,

here are three exercises that can get you started

on that work.

And I'll also have some bonus exercises

available on my website.

So go to humaninternettheory.com

and you can grab the vocal expression booklet

on the front of the website there for free.

So exercise number one is about pace and rate control.

Bring up a paragraph to read.

It might be something that you've written

or content similar to what you produce.

And you're going to read this paragraph

allowed three times in a row.

And I have a link to a bunch of public domain resources

and scripts in that PDF if you want to use that.

At first, read it as quickly as you can

while staying perfectly clear.

So focus on that clarity.

And next, do it the opposite.

Read it very slowly and deliberately,

exaggerating and enunciating every single word.

And for the last read,

just find a middle ground between those two.

Vary the speed as you see fit, as is appropriate,

reading some parts faster and other parts slower.

All right, so the next is about cadence and rhythm.

So one of my favorite tools is the pause.

I love using it and character work and acting especially.

So for this exercise, take a script

that's a little bit longer than a paragraph,

maybe a few paragraphs,

and practice inserting pauses for emphasis.

So add a one or two second pause right before

or right after keywords and phrases.

As you read, scan for what's important

and needs that extra emphasis.

And exercise three is all about pitch and tone.

So for this exercise, you want to choose a simple phrase

and say it in as many different ways as you possibly can.

So you'll be thinking about your pitch,

your volume, your intonation,

and all the different ways to enunciate the phrase.

Think about different emotions for this one.

And the free PDF download will have a long list of prompts

that you can use for this.

So you might have a simple, non-emotional phrase

like damp basement or two bright lights or long tabby cat.

You're gonna say one of those phrases in different ways

to convey different meanings and emotions,

realizing that there's a lot of ways

to deliver the same words.

Again, you can use these exercises

and more from the Vocal Expression booklet,

which you can grab at humaninternettheory.com.

Now that you have a framework

for understanding the musicality of your voice,

a method for analyzing your own delivery,

and three exercises to start practicing.

Now your voice, think of it as an instrument.

And like any instrument, it requires practice,

those reps.

Next Thursday, we'll get into the psychology of being heard

and a delivery style,

the conversational, presentational model.

So I'll be back next week for another episode.

Bye for now.

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Episodes are written, directed, edited,

and produced by Jen of StereoForest.com

Find out more about this podcast

and join our free newsletter for additional resources

at humaninternettheory.com.

Find additional videos at the YouTube channel

called Human Internet Theory.

Links are also in the show notes.

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