Voice Tips

Here’s a really simple intonation technique to make you sound more dynamic and engaging when opening meetings, starting a presentation or pitch.

What is List Intonation? Here’s an exercise for you.

Count from one to four and notice what happens to your intonation.

    One, two, three, four.

And now say this;

    I’ve just been to Mumbai, Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul.

If you’re using list intonation correctly, then your intonation should rise on the first three words in each example and then fall on the last words – ‘four’ and ‘Seoul’.

But what about when you’re opening meetings, or starting a presentation? List intonation is a great way to introduce the topics you’re going to talk about. It helps the audience to follow the flow of your speech because when the intonation falls on the last word, the audience knows it’s the last topic that will be covered.

In the example below, taken from my video, you can see that there are three agenda items.

  Good morning everyone.  Today I’m going to summarise the survey results, discuss the major findings and present recommendations for action.

Say it two times. Once using the list intonation pattern (rising, rising, falling), then again without intonation.  Which one sounds more engaging?

So, use list intonation at the beginning of every presentation or meeting. It will help you to present your agenda clearly, engage your listeners and make you sound dynamic.

Dynamic intonation is just one of the skills covered in my best-selling video course Unlocking The Power Of Your Voice – a complete voice transformation system that will give you powerful vocal techniques that you can start using immediately.

Find out more here: Unlocking The Power Of Your Voice

Watch the video below to learn about list intonation.