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Coping With Microphones

With Dr Simon Raybould, Curved Vision TheatreI’m spending a lot of time at the moment working in places where we need microphones; it wasn’t deliberate, just the way things bunched together in the diary. As long-term readers will know, I’m not a fan of microphones because they tend to flatten out people’s voices and make them sound more boring. The key is to talk with a little more energy than usual: it might feel silly to you, but remember that it’s your audience’s perception that’s important.The other important thing to remember is that any ‘sound system’ is less than perfect. No matter how clear things are ‘at your end’ they’ll be less clear at the far end - coming out of the speakers. The technical reasons for this are pretty boring but the really key, important thing is to make sure you’re absolutely crystal clear: it may sound to you like you’re doing a bad impressions of Her Majesty but it’ll be worth it if you’ve got to get your message through a big, woolly sound system.A specific tip - before you start to speak, make yourself do a couple of tongue twisters to get your lips really going. Peter Piper is quite a good one as is this one that one of my kids made up a few years ago - “Knives and forks and knives and forks and knives and forks and spoons and pudding”. Try to get through it half a dozen times and you’ll be much better off!As ever, questions, suggestions and comments to me at sme@curved-vision.co.uk: or see www.tellingpeople.co.uk for details of our public training days!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .