Voice and tonality: volume, pace, pitch, and drills
Say "Hi, I wanted to come say hello" quietly, fast, with your pitch rising at the end. Now say it at normal volume, a little slower, ending on a level note. Same words, two different people. The first can sound like a request for permission. The second can sound more settled and sure.
Three teachers give a clear checklist for the second version: Julian Treasure, Vinh Giang, and Vanessa Van Edwards. Below is each one's advice as drills you can run this week.
Treasure's seven elements
Julian Treasure's TEDGlobal 2013 talk, "How to speak so that people want to listen" (more than 71 million views on ted.com as of October 2026), names seven things to adjust:
- Register: speaking from your chest gives your voice weight.
- Timbre: the quality of the sound.
- Prosody: the melody and variation of your speech.
- Pace: how fast you go.
- Silence: pauses.
- Pitch: how high or low.
- Volume: how loud.
You don't need all seven in one approach. Volume, pace, and pauses are a practical place to start. Pick those three.
Giang's five foundations
Vinh Giang, a communication coach, lists five vocal foundations: rate, volume, pitch, tonality, and pausing. His review method for your own recordings is useful because each pass catches something different:
- Watch the video with the sound off. You see your face and body only.
- Listen to the audio without the picture. You hear pace, volume, and fillers.
- Read the transcript. You see the words you used, and where you repeated yourself.
Van Edwards on voice
In Cues, Vanessa Van Edwards recommends three things (per published notes on the book): speak at the lowest comfortable pitch, avoid ending statements like questions, and use pauses.
Volume
Nervous people go quiet. Then she says "Sorry?", you repeat yourself more softly, and the opener is dead.
- Go one notch louder than feels natural. Todd Valentine's daygame advice is to speak loudly and keep talking at first.
- Use your chest. Treasure's register tip: speak from the chest, not the throat. A strained throat sounds tense.
- In a bar, add more, and lean toward the side of her head. See night game.
- Check the other direction. If people across the room can hear you, you're too loud. Speak to her, not to the room.
Drill: say your opener to a wall at a distance of 6 feet, then 10 feet. The 6-foot volume is your base.
Pace
Nerves speed you up. The fix is to slow down and then pause.
- Say your opener at the pace you'd use to give directions.
- Put a full stop at the end of each sentence and stay silent for one second.
- After your first question, wait for her answer. Two seconds feels long to you and normal to her.
Drill: record yourself reading a news article for two minutes. Time it. Read it again 15 percent slower.
Pitch and upspeak
Upspeak is the rise at the end of a statement, so it sounds like a question: "I'm Dan? I just wanted to say hello?"
- End "I'm Dan" on a level or slightly falling note.
- Use Van Edwards's lowest comfortable pitch. Don't force a deep voice. Tension raises pitch, so relaxing your shoulders and jaw helps.
Drill: say "Hi, I'm Dan, nice to meet you" ten times. Record three of them. Pick the one that sounds most like a statement.
Silence
Treasure counts silence as one of seven elements, and Van Edwards recommends pauses. A pause before your answer sounds like thought. A pause after your question gives her room to answer. Don't fill silence with "um" or a second question.
Warm-ups for your voice
Treasure's warm-ups, from the TED talk. Run through them in about two minutes:
- Arms up and sigh. Releases tension.
- "Ba ba ba." Gets the diaphragm moving.
- Lip trill. Loosens lips and jaw.
- "La la la." Warms the range.
- Rolled "rrrr." Wakes up the voice.
- Siren. Slide from low to high and back.
Do these in the car or before you leave. See warming up before you go out for the full routine.
Common mistakes and fixes
| Mistake | Fix |
|---|---|
| Speaking too quietly | Go one notch louder and speak from the chest. |
| Racing through the opener | Say it at directions pace; pause for one second after. |
| Ending statements as questions | Finish on a level or falling note. |
| Trailing off | Finish the sentence, then pause. |
| Ten "ums" in an opener | Replace with a silent pause. |
| Laughing after every sentence | Smile on the first line, then stop. |
| Looking down | Lift your head and your sound lifts with it. See eye contact. |
| Booming at the room | Aim your voice at her at about arm's length. |
If your voice cracks, smile and say "That was new." Then continue. If she says "Sorry, what?", step a little closer, slow down, and repeat it a bit louder.
Tone and teasing
The same teasing line lands as playful with a grin and as a dig when said flat. "You've been in this aisle longer than me, you're clearly an expert" works when it's warm. Keep the pitch light and smile. For more on this, see playful teasing and banter.
What to do next
- Record your opener on your phone. Review it three ways, using Giang's method: sound off, audio only, transcript.
- Rate it on volume, pace, and ending. Fix the weakest one and re-record, up to three takes.
- Run Treasure's six warm-ups for two minutes before your next outing.
- In your next three conversations, pause for one second after every question you ask.
- Say your first line at one notch louder than normal, ending on a level note.
- Log the approach in Run Game with a one-line voice note: volume (low, right, high), pace (fast, right), ending (question, statement).
Voice works together with confident body language and your opener. Delivery and wording work together, as discussed in openers that work.
Sources
- Julian Treasure, "How to speak so that people want to listen", TEDGlobal 2013
- Notes on Cues by Vanessa Van Edwards
- The Power Moves: Daygame by Todd V