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Using the right tone of voice has never been more vital for teachers, who have been working outside of the familiar face-to-face format of lessons. Learning how best to use your voice is like learning to play an instrument, say experts. But finding the right pitch isn’t as easy as you might think, writes Chris Parr
Some people have a voice that commands attention: Sir David Attenborough’s slow, jazz-like syncopation dances us into a trance of attention, while Morgan Freeman’s rumbling baritone gives anything he says gravitas.
With voices like theirs, you’d think they would make great teachers: how could children not pay attention?
But does your voice really matter in teaching? That question was already an important one before the coronavirus outbreak forced more teaching online. But in the past weeks, tone of voice has become even more significant because, for the most part, the classroom context and non-verbal communication have been removed.
Teachers are relying on their voice now more than ever. And there is evidence to suggest that the kind of voice used can have much more of an impact – and in different ways – than you might expect.
How each individual voice sounds depends on three components.
“You’ve got pitch, timbre – which is the tone colour, the emotional bit – and the volume,” explains Lesley Hendy, co-author of The 5 Voices, an educational programme for initial teacher training.
She says that conducting these elements for the best effect does not come naturally.
“Learning how best to use your voice is like learning to play an instrument,” she explains.
“We tend to assume that everybody knows how to use their voice, and, of course, they don’t. Everybody has an optimum pitch, a note in their voice that is their strongest and clearest, and that is what makes your voice what it is.”
Finding this optimal pitch is key, and it doesn’t matter if you have an accent or an unusually high or low register, Hendy says.
“There’s no such thing as the perfect voice. Everybody’s voice is different,” she explains. “But if it’s not trained, it’s like giving somebody a violin and expecting them to play in the orchestra that same evening without any teaching.”
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