How to get rid of vocal crutches
“Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning”
Maya Angelou
Did you know that the optimal use of a vocal crutch is one per minute, but that the normal speaker uses an average of about 12? This according to the study run by Quantified Communications. In addition, according to them a speaker uses an average of 150 words per minute. However, according to a University of Missouri study, we think about 400 words per minute (some of us can go up to even 1500). With these figures, it is quite normal for us to have some vocal crutches or tics in a public speech (you know, as I said, so, you see, etc.). Now if you are looking for credibility, if you want your ideas to have logic and melodious lines and you want to touch those in front of you with your speech in a natural way, there is some work to be done in order to achieve optimal results in the use of crutches: one per minute.
It has been about 7 years since I was at a public speaking workshop with a German trainer. It was fun and interactive. And a lot of information was received during those days, but what remained with me through all these years were two things: the way I got rid of “ah” and how to always look at the audience (at the end of the article if you get there - I'll say how I did that, as well). The famous vocal crutches make an experienced speaker show how unprepared he/she is, no matter the years they claim to have in the Public Speaking area.
Counting the ah-s (verbal crutches) is a habit I got from Toastmasters (TM), and this makes me think that if in the first minute of your speech you have more than 5 such sounds, you will lose me and I will start browsing facebook or read a book.
I am talking here about those that present themselves as professionals (young or more experienced). Giving somebody your time is a great gift, so don’t ask me for it, if you didn’t use it to prepare so you make me wasted it - even though you didn’t.
Some weeks ago in a Toastmasters meeting at one of the club I am a member of, I was an ”Ah Counter”. More about what this means you can read in an article I wrote on this topic in the Toastmasters Romania’s Magazine. I even got 2 pages for it :) (go to 10 - 11). While researching for this topic, the idea of this article came to my mind. So how do we stop using ahs?
One of the most used recommendation I hear around is to replace the vocal crutches with pauses. That sounds super! Except that in this research that a conventional speech is compose out of short pauses (0.20 seconds), medium (0.60 seconds) and the long ones (over 1 seconds). Heavyweight orators take a pause as long as 2 or 3 seconds, for a dramatic effect. Phonetic data shows that a normal speaker uses 3.5 pauses per minute. Sounds easy so far, but how do you manage to get there, when you barely realise that you have verbal tics of ahs?
One step to become aware of your flaws, but also to get rid of them is to record yourself audio (even better if you do a video, as well) recounting what happen the previous day. Talk for a minimum of 5 - 7 minutes. Then watch it and see what are the challenging areas, what words are hard to remember and you need to search for them making you use ahs. Becoming aware, in time you will become more relaxed and you will gain fluency.
Another trick would be to ask somebody while you talk to make certain sounds every time you use a vocal crutch or something that doesn’t belong in the speech. After a few minutes it will become annoying especially if you have a lot, but with exercise it will make you concentrate on breathing and pauses instead of ahs. This trick can be a service also if you are having trouble to look at the audience. My recommendation would be, mainly if you are just starting this, that no matter how eager you are for a fast track is to not work on both challenges in the same time. Take them one at a time, in order to make sure that you will succeed.
In order to make this work, you need to assign at least 5 minutes every day for exercises. Also, read a lot articles (regardless of the subject or domain), books from fiction to whatever you are passionate about, do crosswords puzzle, everything will keep your vocabulary up to date, and with this intense brain workout in a few months you will be able to reduce the numbers of „ah” and any other vocal crutches you may have.
Photo by Michal Czyz on Unsplash
