The Final Presentation

This week was the last lesson of voice production and I was honestly quite sad that it was coming to an end. Despite it being a Tuesday 930 class, I always looked forward to attending lessons because it was fun plus I felt that I learnt something new every week.

Some of the last concluding points that Claire imparted to us and kindly summed up at the end of the session:

Made this for myself to look back in the future, as a summary of what I have learnt and the things I could focus on doing more as an individual.

As a whole, I felt myself grow in terms of the way I present and also how I have gotten a lot more comfortable when standing up there, presenting in front of an audience. After 10 weeks of classes, I can feel that I am now more aware on how to take better care of my vocal and also, use the various techniques that have been taught to better vocalize myself.

Really appreciate having Claire as our teacher as I enjoy the way she conducts her lesson – full of humor and expressions, making every session enjoyable. I feel that the way Claire has her classes conducted, allow us to explore many areas of speech (group presentation, over technology, live presentation etc.) and this really help in allowing me to step out of my comfort zone and find which style suit me most.

The past 10 weeks have been very rewarding. Claire was there to correct my mistakes along the way, and receiving feedbacks from the class also aid me in knowing what are my area of weaknesses. On top of the vocal and speech skills that were imparted to us, we also hear about life experiences and learn about soft skills that can aid us in our future presentations. I was honestly a little skeptical at the start on how much I can really approve, and what I can really take away from this module. However, as the weeks progressed, I realized that there were many things for me to learn and change about the way I speak.

It was definitely a great 10 weeks and hopefully with whatever I have learnt, I will be able to become a better and more confident speaker.

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I was falling ill this week and by the time I attended class, I was coughing and sneezing so badly it actually hurt doing the breathing exercises. Hence for this week researching, I actually went to read up on how I can actively care and maximise the use of our voices in terms of modifying out our lifestyle and environment on top of cultivating good habits of voice and speech production. Thought this was quite relevant especially since I could feel that me being sick took a toll on my voice as well.

In terms of health and nutrition, this area plays a significant role in voice and speech production of an individual. If we do not take good care of ourselves, there could be a tendency to strain our voices. One key point was to have enough hours of refreshing sleep a day. There is also importance in eating habits. Fried food before a performance or presentation may not be such a good idea, and sensible good habits are required. I think another aspect is also the individual’s emotional well being. Preparing oneself emotionally can help in a better performance and this can come in the form of practicing to build up confidence level, talking to others to ask for advice prior to the actual presentation, being in a positive mood on presentation day etc.

I think the emphasis here is that, our voice is crucial when it comes to delivering and presenting our ideas to others and hence, the maintenance and care of the throat is very important. For my own case, this means that when I actually sense a sore throat coming, I should take extra care to maintain my voice by perhaps speaking lesser, and drinking more water or honey lemon. I have the tendency to continue speaking at a loud volume and straining my vocals even when I am already suffering a sore throat, leading to it prolonging for a long period of time. I should also avoid drinking too much cold water and eating fried food as research has shown that these does not aid in soothing the throat but rather damaging it instead. Only as of late and after attending voice production class did I then realize the importance of recovering as soon as possible or it might have permanent damage when the sore throat or cough gets too bad.

Most importantly, for myself, I hope that I learn to take better care of my vocals by straining it less. This includes shouting unnecessarily and raising my volume too much when I get excited. Even if I have to raise my voice, I should constantly remember that it can be done through resonating the voice rather than screaming and straining the throat. I think that the techniques I have learnt in class have taught me how to better utilize my own voice, without damaging my vocal chord.

Presentation Day

The day has arrived for my group’s presentation! Days up to the day of presentation, I was feeling the jitters especially since the group before did so well. Practiced my script to my roomie Cass, my course mates, and even my family and asked them to provide me with feedback that can help me do better. Thank god nobody got tired hearing me speak (or maybe they were, but they did not mention).

My group was presenting on “the pitfalls of online webinar-style presentation” and as a presenter “what can you do to give engaging presentations”. The topic itself was more on the technical side and so one of the difficulty my group faced was coming up with a way to present the topic without boring the audience. We decided to incorporate skits and short stories, to bring across our points.

After our presentation, I was feeling a little disappointed as I thought our group could have done a lot better. Halfway through the presentation, I could honestly feel the energy level in the room dipped, and half of the audience were looking like they were bored of it already.

Some of the advices the others gave our group, which I thought made a lot of sense and could aid in our own future presentations as well.

1. More interaction with the audience. Direct them to the slides and then back.

2. Split the parts much more evenly and have a better balance when it came to presentation time. By having a evenly balanced show time, this will not diminish the other presenters value too.

3. When rehearsing, it will be good to be more critical with one another. By giving critical appraisal on how to improve, what to work on, what is good – this can help each other to move forward even better.

4. As a group, we should analyze and tap onto each other energy’s level as well. For those who are more soft spoken and have lower energy level, it will be good to ‘borrow’ the energy of others. This can help in maintaining and keeping the same volume level across all group members.

The class then ranked us in terms of our presentation and I was happy that I got ranked second, slightly behind Nicholas. Here is a summary of the comments which I received from the class on what was good (hence keep for future presentation) and bad (what I can improve) on my own presentation.

Based on the class comments, I was really very happy to hear that there has been an improvement in my presentation (especially when Claire said it!). The point I was most satisfied with was when they mentioned that my voice was well resonated. It felt like all the breathing and humming exercises worked. Previously when we did the reading exercise, my voice shape was of a circle, which did not reach the audience on my sides and it could not travel far too. Hence, it was heartening to hear that there has been an improvement.

I think my other group members did well too. Even though there were times when some of them tripped on their words, I think they bounced back and carried on fine. Claire took some time to address the issue on nervousness during presentation, which I am pretty sure many of us encounter and go through before every major presentation. Some tips which I gathered that I will probably put the good use in the future:

- Talking to the audience prior to the presentation. This can help the presenter get more familiar and comfortable with the situation, and perhaps ease some of the nervousness.

- Start by asking a question. This can help connect with the audience on a more personal level. The acknowledgement from the audience can also serve as a guide on who are the more supportive and friendly faces amongst the crowd.

- When you get nervous during a presentation: 1) think about the purpose and objective of the presentation 2) force a thought in your head 3) use clues; certain actions like squeezing your palm or pinching your thighs can help stop the brain from thinking about how nervous you are.

- When you forget your lines, you can turn to the screen for cues. To do so, remember to move the whole body rather than standing firm on the ground and just turning the upper body to look at the screen. By moving about this allow yourself to relax and remember better as well.

To a Better Presentation

The most memorable thing that happened this session was the group presentation. The group consisting of Sherwin, Michelle, Lynette and Jia En presented on the approaches Donald Trump used to engage an audience. What was memorable about their presentation was that they were so good! Their presentation consisted of good humor, great energy level, smooth transition between one member to another and equal chance for each person to speak. It was a presentation that kept me entertained from the start to the end and to be honest, I was really impressed by this group.

Some things that I feel I could learn and takeaway from this group’s presentation include:

- Good pacing and articulation when speaking, allowing the audience to catch what they were saying. This was executed best by Sherwin in my opinion.

- Emphasizing on the key words in order to bring across their point

- Good humor throughout and what was even better is that the jokes they cracked were linked to their content – making it a good ‘bait’ to their points

- It is okay to forget your lines. When this happen, the presenter should take this chance to pause and relax. Think about what to say before carrying on. Do not say sorry – some audience may not even have realized you tripped on your words.

Given that my group was presenting the week after theirs, it was indeed quite stressful as the bar has been raised pretty high! Claire went through some tips to better our presentation and these are some of the things which I thought will be very useful for my own future presentations.

1) Endings. They are as important as any part of the presentation. For a group presentation, it will definitely be better to end as an ensemble rather than an individual.

2) Slides. Make good use of your slides. If there are important points on the slides that the presenter want to direct the audience to, direct them to it and proceed to give them some time to read through it. Always be aware of the audience as well – move away if some audience seem to be having difficulty viewing the slides from their position. Once they are done and the presenter want the focus to be on him/her, bring oneself up to the front.

3) Q&A. The presentation does not stop at the conclusion. Q&A are also important and hence, presenters should not forget their presentation and vocal techniques at this point in time too. If the presenter requires time to think through the answer, take your time. It is better to think through and have a clear idea on how to answer, than rush to answer and have to end up using too much fillers “er, ok, so” to fill up the gaps in between because you speak faster than your brain process in this case.

4) Taking everyone with your voice. It is important to address every single audience. From the left, to the centre, and then the right of the audience – every listener should feel connected to the speaker. To do so, one tip was to rotate the body to address every one in the audience. Some presenters have the tendency to cut off certain part of the audience, especially the side where their back is facing. This will result in their voice to not be able to reach the audience, which is not ideal.

5) Reading the audience. I think this is one of the key point that I really took away from the entire module. Given that we present for the audience, looking at the audience faces can give us, as presenter, a sensing on how they are feeling. Are they bored? Are they interested and enjoying the presentation? It is important to read, and think of what to do next. If they seem bored, one way is to get more personal with the audience, and engage with them.

Warm up & Neethling Brain Instrument

We started off the session with a warm up session that differed from the previous few we were doing. Claire had us sit in a circle, and had us imagined that it was an “early morning group meeting” setting. Given that it was indeed very early in the morning, the energy level within the circle was all time low. Claire then had us discuss what are some of the ways in which we can raise the low energy level if we were in that given situation. One of ways that an individual can actually increase their own energy level is through their posture. I think it has been emphasized many times on how important posture is in terms of the energy level and producing of sound. It is good to sit up straight, strong at the spine and hips and have feet planted on the ground, rather than hanging.

If this situation (group meeting) occurred in the working world in future, some things we can do to increase our energy level and be warmed up prior to the meeting are simple mouth warmups (stretching), slight humming to self, walking around to warm up the body and at the same time release the tension through breathing exercises. Even by starting short conversations with our colleagues prior to an important presentation is a good way to warm up the voice, and also find your right pitch.

We were then asked to go on and carry out our own vocal warm ups. Prior to the session, I did look up for some vocal warms up which I think suits me. Given that everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, I thought that the vocal warm up for each individual should be tailored to their voice. In a situation where there is not much time to warm up the voice (given that it usually takes around 20-25 minutes to completely warm it up), I feel that I should focus more on the parts that I am weaker at.

Breathing – more for the individuals that get nervous easily. Focusing on the breathing exercises can help them regulate their breathing and calm themselves down before a presentation. Breathing exercises can also help those who speak very fast as it allows them to get use to slow breathing, which can then be applied during their speech as well.

Resonance – for those who tend to be more soft spoken and have difficulty projecting their voice. In this case, I felt that resonating my voice was not my biggest concern as I naturally have a loud voice.

Articulation – this is my biggest weakness when it comes to speech and presentation and I focused my warm up more on this area. I feel that opening of jaw and massaging my cheeks help in relaxing my mouth area. Doing tongue twisters also help in warming up my pronunciation of words.

Vocal Variety – something that I hope my warm up can help me in. Given that my tone may start to flat out at the end of my speech, making it monotonous, I think reading short paragraphs and using different tones for warm up will be a good way to warm up the vocal.

Claire also went through with us the Neethling Brain Instrument. This was one of the more interesting takeaway I got from the class as I enjoy reading and learning about things that relate to different personality types and the ways they behave. I think the main aim of Claire sharing this with us was to allow us to have a better idea on how we can better cater to our audience. We have to understand our audience type, know what to present to them in order to pull the heartstrings and capture their attention.

The way to a presentation is:

Drama Mama

For this session, we did not do some of our warm up exercises and instead drove straight into our story telling session after our “Groover-licious” game.

We all sat in a circle and then went one round making stories with one sentence each. Throughout the first round, the story got disconnected quite a few times and it was actually hard for people at the end to keep track of the story flow. Thankfully, Sherwin managed to save the day, and concluded the story with a cliff hanger – “to know what exactly happened, stay tune for next week episode” which I thought was really creative of him.

Claire then had us go a second round, but this time we had to repeat the line of the previous person before adding on to ours. This proved to be a much more effective method given that we were able to keep in mind the storyline better. The story did flow a little better, though it got lost halfway through.

The story was best remembered in the final round, where we had an action accompanying our sentence, compared to the first two rounds of just sentences. Repeating the line and doing the action of the previous person, made it easier to connect from one person to another. Pretty sure the actions that symbolizes the sentence itself made remembering everything so much easier. Sherwin even managed to reenact every action and line at the end, making it quite a comical story! (Sneak peak: Claire going to Zouk to party)

After which, we broke off into groups, mine consisted of Cass, Shafiq and Jian En. We were tasked to act out a story with just sound only. After listening to the story of others and performing our own, I realized that by just solely acting a story based on sound – this allowed everyone to interpret it based on their own imagination. Furthermore, the clarity in the sound differs from individuals and this can result in a little ambiguity, causing everyone to think different.

The next activity we embarked on was now, using only certain words (galaxy, refrigerator, mee goring, hungry, burger, hot cakes, gang fight), we were to make up a story. It was a little hard to come up with a story line only using these seven words given that there were no adjectives or verbs. With that, many groups made used of sounds to make the connection between words, reflecting how significant the use of sound can be to portray a story across.

After all the drama and story telling, we talked about the more technical stuffs since our class group presentations were starting the next lesson. Similar to the research I did two weeks ago, here are some of the things I have learnt on vocal variety from Claire, that I feel can be applied to my future presentations.

Pitch:

• Look at the word itself can help determine what pitch needed (the word ‘high’: naturally read it with a higher pitch than ‘low’)

• Look for clues in the text that suggest a change in pitch

Pace:

• In terms of theatrics, pacing helps add elements and colors to our speech (fast to describe a panicking individual, or slow to build up suspense)

• It helps engage the audience by changing the dynamic of the speech – this can potentially help bring back the attention of the audience

At this point, Claire mentioned a very important point – we must always focus on the AUDIENCE. We deliver our speech TO them all the time, not for ourselves. Hence, we will make use of every aspect to grab and capture the attention of the audience.

Pronunciation:

• It is important to be clear. People will then be able to understand it at one go. If it is unclear, people will start to questioning or wondering what the word was – causing the presenter to lose their attention.

Pause VERY IMPORTANT:

• This determines a good/bad presentation

• A pause can help tell the audience when there is a change in thought.

• Pause for IMPACT: this allows the audience to better understand what you are saying as well

• As a presenter, you can take this time to breathe, and let your audience process everything you just said

Quote Claire:

“Many a times, we do not pause enough, because we fear silence and hence we rush to fill the silence”. 

And this is sadly, not the right way to do.

Intonation:

• Stressing on the word – emphasizing different words can portray different feelings (I love you, i LOVE you, i love YOU)

• Important to find the words that can “tell the story”.

Tone:

• This is very important too since it portrays the presenter feelings at that point of time

• Tone is critical when it comes to persuading others