VOICE EFFECTIVENESS DRILLS
Because speech delivery is so important, there is ample reason for spending time on voice
and articulation practice. Perhaps the best way of practicing and testing appropriate vocal
patterns is through reading exercises. The following pages are especially prepared so that you
can download them for in-class use.
Testing and Increasing Volume
Increased volume comes from increasing the force exerted by the stomach muscles during
exhalation. The following reading is especially good for testing volume and for practice in
increasing volume.
Beat! Beat! Drums!
Beat! beat! drums!—blow! bugles! blow!
Through the windows--through the doors--burst like
a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,
Into the school where the scholar is studying;
Leave not the bridegroom quiet--no happiness must
he have now with his bride,
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, plowing his
field or gathering his grain,
So fierce you whirr and pound you drums--so shrill
you bugles flow.
Beat! beat! drums!--blow! bugles! blow!
Over the traffic of the cities--over the rumble of
the wheels in the streets;
Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the house?
no sleepers must sleep in those beds,
No bargainers’ bargains by day--no brokers or speculators-would they continue?
Would the talkers be talking? Would the singer
attempt to sing?
Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his case
before the judge?
Then rattle quicker, heavier drums--you bugles
wilder blow.
Beat! beat! drums!--blow! bugles! blow!
Make no parley--stop for no expostulation;
Mind not the timid--mind not the weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,
Let not the child’s voice be heard, not the mother’s
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entreating,
Make even the trestles to shake, the dead where they
lie awaiting the hearses,
So strong you thump, O terrible drums--so loud you
bugles blow.
--Walt Whitman
Contrasts in Speaking Rate
Whether you talk more rapidly or more slowly than average, the true test of rate
effectiveness is whether you can vary rate to create different moods. The following two
readings give you an opportunity to show variety in rate and create contrasting moods.
The first passage is one in which a slower than normal pace is required. Concentrate on
trying to create a somber mood. Time your reading of this 245-word passage.
Excerpt from
The Fall of the House of Usher
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the
clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing along, on horseback,
through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of
the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it
was--but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded
my spirit. I say insufferable: for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that halfpleasurable, because poetic, sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the
sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me-upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain, upon the bleak
walls, upon the vacant eye-like windows, upon a few rank sedges, and upon a few white
trunks of decayed trees--with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no
earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveler upon opium: the
bitter lapse into everyday life, the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness,
a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no
goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the sublime. What was it--I
paused to think--what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of
Usher?
--Edgar Allan Poe
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Some material requires a faster than normal pace. In this reading, try to capture the mood by
slowly increasing the pace of the reading until you reach the climax of this 343-word passage.
Excerpt from
The Tell-Tale Heart
. . . They sat, and while I answered cheerily, they chatted familiar things. But, ere long, I
felt myself getting pale and wished them gone. My head ached, and I fancied a ringing in
my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The ringing became more distinct:--it
continued and became more distinct: I talked more freely to get rid of the feeling: but it
continued and gained definitiveness--until, at length, I found that the noise was not
within my ears.
No doubt I now grow very pale;--but I talked more fluently, and with a heightened
voice. Yet the sound increased--and what could I do? It was a loud dull, quick sowed-much much a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I gasped for breath-and yet the offices heard it not. I talked more quickly--more vehemently; but the noise
steadily increased. I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent
gesticulations, but the noise steadily increased. Why would they not be gone? I paced
the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observation of the men-but the noise steadily increased. On God! What could I do? I foamed--I raved--I
swore! I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards,
but the noise arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder--louder--louder!
And still the men chatted pleasantly, and smiled. Was it possible they heard not?
Almighty God!--no, no! They heard!--they suspected!--they knew!--they were making a
mockery of my horror!--this I thought, and this I think. But any thing was better than this
agony! Any thing was more tolerable than this derision. I could bear those hypocritical
smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die!--and now--again!--hark!--louder!
louder! louder! louder!-“Villains!” I shrieked, “dissemble no more! I admit the deed!--tear up the
planks!--here, here!--it is the beating of his hideous heart!”
--Edgar Allan Poe
Varying Pitch
In some cases, variation of pitch alone is enough to communicate meaning. The
following short proverb is an excellent passage for both testing variation in pitch and helping
achieve variation of pitch. The nature of the meaning depends upon how “knows” and “not” are
emphasized.
He who knows, and knows he knows, -He is wise--follow him.
He who knows, and knows not he knows, --
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He is asleep--wake him.
He who knows not, and knows not he knows not, -He is a fool--shum him.
He who knows not, and knows he knows not, -He is a child--teach him.
Arabian Proverb
Tonal Variety and _______________
The following reading required vocal variety of volume, pitch, rate, and quality. This is
an excellent reading for testing vocal flexibility.
Excerpt from
Cyrano de Bergerac
Ah, no, young sir:
You are too simple. Why, you might have said-Oh, a great many things: Mon Dieu, why waste
Your opportunity? For example, thus:-(Aggressive) I, sir, if that nose were mine,
I’d have it amputated--on the spot!
(Friendly) How do you drink with such a nose?
You ought to have a cup made specially.
(Descriptive) ‘Tis a rock--a peak--a cape-A cape? Say rather, a peninsula!
(Curious) What is that receptacle-A razor-case or a portfolio?
(Kindly) Ah, do you love the little birds
so much that when they come and sing to you,
You give them this to perch on? (Insolent)
Sir, when you smoke, the neighbors must suppose
Your chimney is on fire. (Cautious) Take care-A weight like that might make you top-heavy.
(Thoughtful) Somebody fetch my parasol -Those delicate colors fade so in the sun!
(Pedantic) Does not Aristophanes
Mention a mythologic monster called
Hippocampelephantocamelos?
Surely we have here the original!
(Familiar) Well, old torchlight! Hang your hat
Over that chandelier--it hurts my eyes.
(Eloquent) When it blows, the typhoon howls,
and the clouds darken. (Dramatic) When it bleedsthe Red Sea! (Enterprising) What a sign
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For some perfumer! (Lyric) Hark--the horn
Of Roland calls to summon Charlemagne!-(Simple) When do they unveil the monument?
(Respectful) Sir, I recognize in you
A man of parts, a man of prominence-(Rustic) Hey? What? Call that a nose? Na, na-I be no fool like what you think I be-That there’s a blue cucumber! (Military)
Point against cavalry! (Practical) Why not
A lottery with this for the grand prize?
Or--parodying Faustus in the play-“Was this the nose that launched a thousand ships
And burned the topless towers of Ilium?”
These, my dear sir, are things you might have said
Had you some tinge of letters, or of wit
To color your discourse. But wit,--not so,
You never had an atom--and of letters,
You have just those that are needed
To spell, “Fool!”
--Edmond Rostand
Testing Articulation
One way of drilling articulation is to try some of the many tongue twisters that have been
popular over the years. In the following, much of the emphasis is placed on differentiation of “s”
and “th” sounds.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
The sea ceaseth and sufficeth us.
The sixth sheik’s sixth sheep is sick.
She sells sea shells on the seashore.
The pitcher chided the churlish catcher for changing his signals.
Rubber baby buggy bumpers.
Three-sixths equals six-twelfths.
Theophilus Thistle, the successful thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve full of unsifted
thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb.
Perhaps no reading gives a greater challenge of one’s articulation, vocal variety, and
expressiveness than “Jabberwocky.” If you can read this work effectively, you have the
ability to communicate in almost any setting.
Jabberwocky
‘Twas brilling, and the slith toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
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And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Randersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand,
Long time the manxome foe he sought-So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The verpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast though slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
--Lewis Carroll
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