5 voice tips prior to a presentation – with Elaine Eksvärd

Paid collaboration with the Swedish podcast ”Snacka snyggt”.

Elaine Eksvärd is the rhetorician and lecturer behind the Swedish rhetoric podcast Snacka snyggt. If anyone knows how to prepare your voice for a presentation, it’s her. 

Whether you’re going to tell us about an idea you have at the weekly meeting in the staff room or you’re going to talk to a larger group of people in a lecture hall, we’ve now asked Elaine for her best voice tips. 

1. Yawn (when no one is watching).

Take the opportunity to yawn before it’s time to talk. It helps both the voice and yourself to relax slightly.

2. Lower the pitch at the end of sentences.

Going down in pitch at the end of a sentence instead of going up gives the speech authority. If you lower your head a little and think about weighing down the last word, your voice usually makes it happen automatically. It indicates that what you are saying is important.

3. Tense your stomach.

Tense your stomach as you talk and release it when you breathe in air.

4. Believe in what you’re talking about.

The easiest way to believe in the topic of conversation is by thinking about and visualising what you are talking about. If you think about that time you were on the top of that a mountain peak, your story about the mountain top will be more dramatic because your voice follows your thoughts. When you believe what you’re talking about, you’ll be more interesting to listen to than if you just recount what happened.

5. Conduct a visual soundcheck.

If you’re going to talk in front of a larger group of people, it’s important to ask people if they can hear you.

“Can you hear me?”

It is also important to not only check if those standing or sitting closest to you nod, but also check with those who are at the back. 

Fear of losing your voice

If it’s part of your job to talk in front of people, you know how important it is that your voice always stays in shape. You might have an entire pharmacy of medicines, herbal and home remedies in your house to prevent you from losing your voice. 

At our meeting with Anders Edenroth from world-touring singing group ‘The Real Group’, he talked about the fear of losing his voice, and how he thinks IQoro is a great part of the puzzle needed in order to get one’s voice to reach its true potential. 

You can read more about this in Anders’ story below. 

Anders from ‘The Real Group’ stopped taking reflux medication

For almost 40 years, singer, composer and arranger Anders Edenroth has toured the world with the award-winning singing group ‘The Real Group’. Despite great musical success, for many years he has actually had problems with his own instrument – his voice.

I am completely symptom-free and no longer need to take any reflux medication. Read Anders’ story