When people find out that I’m a voice coach (among other things), they’ll frequently confess that they don’t like their voices. They’ll ask me if it’s really possible to make significant changes in tone, accent, etc.

No matter who you are, you must care for your voice so that it’s there when you need it. Those of us who use it professionally and present speeches or broadcast for a living, must take even better care as we use and abuse our voices more.

Breathing in a physiological sense is taking in (inhaling) and letting out (exhaling) air. We breathe to live and we breathe to speak. 

We’ve all been told to “just look natural” when having our picture taken. Easier said than done! We run into a similar issue when trying to “just sound conversational.” We don’t usually know what that means either.

There are many other ways to increase your conversational sound, but simply knowing when you should use the stressed and unstressed forms of monosyllables will go a long way toward helping you sound more “natural.”

Inflections are the smooth pitch changes within words. They add interest and melody to the voice and speech. The four general types of inflection are rising, falling, and rising and falling circumflex.