Saturday, February 14, 2015

'CONNECT' 22: Tips on Public Speaking: More on breathing....


You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere.

 Lee Iacocca


In an hydraulic braking system, the brake will not work if there is a leak. In the context of speaking, how we use the air we inhale and exhale is very important.  By doing some breathing exercises, we can improve the quality of our speech and delivery.

Do the following simple exercises:
1. Inhale slowly and deeply through the nose. Hold for a few seconds. Exhale very slowly through the mouth. Repeat this exercise five times.
2. Inhale slowly and deeply through the nose. Exhale slowly making the sound 'ahh'. When you do this use your diaphragm.
3. Inhale deeply. Exhale in short explosive bursts like 'huh! huh! huh! huh! huh!
4. Inhale slowly and count aloud clearly enunciating each number until you run out of breath. This is a good warm up exercise and will improve your articulation.
5. Read the following sentences as many times as you can. The sentence is filled with words that uses air while pronouncing.

He hid at home and sobbed when his sister seized whatever he had on top in the thin five shelved closet

Like a footballer should know how to train his foot for hitting a ball, a speaker should know how to use his voice!

N C Sridharan
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