San Pedro Technological Institute: MS.

CELESTIAL Stress and Intonation

YOUR VOICE
Objectives:
1. Define and locate the speech apparatus on the diagram
2. Explain the function of the speech structures
3. Explain what happens when you breathe and its relationship to speaking
4. Discuss how you make speech sounds
5. Demonstrate the different vocal quality such as resonance, pitch, range, volume, intensity, rate, inflection,
flexibility, emphasis and others.

Breathing Apparatus

Correct use of your voice depends first upon correct breathing. Below is a diagram of the breathing structure.

Structure Description
thorax Chest cavity from neck to abdomen
Band-like bones which encircle the chest cavity
ribs Space between them is filled by two distinct layers of tissue consisting of
the external intercostals muscles
Powerful, dome-shaped muscular wall between the chest and the
diaphragm abdomen
Performs the major function in the breathing process
Sac-like organs that fill with air when expanded and expel air when
lungs
compressed
bronchial tubes Two air passages leading from the lungs to the trachea
trachea Windpipe, the main tube by which air passes to and from the lungs
larynx Boxlike upper part of the trachea which contains the vocal cords

HOW YOU BREATHE

This is what happens when you take a breath and prepare to speak.
1. As we inhale, the diaphragm contracts and flattens. Simultaneously, the rib goes up and out as the intercostals
muscles contract. This process enlarges the size of the chest cavity, creating a partial vacuum entering through
the mouth and nose, going down the air tubes into the lung cells, and expanding the lungs.

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San Pedro Technological Institute: MS. CELESTIAL Stress and Intonation

2. When exhaling, the abdominal muscles contract, pushing the diaphragm upward. Simultaneously, the internal
intercostals muscles contract, pulling the ribs in. This reduces the size of the chest cavity.
As a speaker, your prime interest in breathing should be focused on three aspects.
How to breathe correctly To have a full supply of air to use while speaking
How to control the output of the air To avoid running out of breath at awkward moments
To correct and control breathing for speech to come
How to build up breathing power
easy and natural for you

ACTIVITY

Goal: To breathe naturally and correctly using the diaphragm

1. Sit In a relax position, and place your hands on the “soft spot” of your abdomen. Inhale slowly and deeply,
feeling how the upper abdomen tends to push out against your hands. Exhale suddenly, and notice how the
walls of the abdomen sink in. Do this again and again until you establish the feeling that your breathing is
centered at your diaphragm.

Goal: To control your incoming air

2. Stand erect with hands on your waistline. Exhale all the air in your lungs. Then inhale gently as your teacher
counts slowly to ten. When the count of ten has been reached, your lungs should be completely full of air. Hold
your breath a fraction of a moment, and then exhale with force.

Goal: To control your outgoing air

3. Reverse the process of the above exercise. Start with a lungful of air and then exhale slowly to the count of ten,
emptying your lungs when the final number has been reached. Do it again, raising the count to fifteen, then
twenty-five, and finally thirty.

Goal: To control the output of air

4. Inhale quickly but deeply; then say the following jingle twice on one exhalation. Control the output of air so that
you reach the end of the jingle the second time just as your breath gives out.

Star light, star bright

First star I’ve seen tonight.
I wish I may, I wish I might
Have the wish I wish tonight

Goal: To practice swift, light inhalation and steady controlled exhalation during reading
5. Read aloud a short, easy paragraph from some book or magazine. At every place where the meaning of the
selection might require a pause, take a quick breath to replenish the air supply of your lungs. Then dole out your
breath carefully during exhalation so that the last syllable of the longest sentence or phrase you are reading is as
audible as the first.

HOW YOU MAKE SPEECH SOUNDS

STRUCTURES DESCRIPTION
Located in the larynx
Band-like folds of membrane which have the ability to tighten or relax
When the cords are relaxed, the stream of air that is expelled from your
Vocal Cords lungs during exhalation passes between them without creating any
noticeable sound. But when the cords are tightened, the breath stream
strikes the cords and sets them into vibration, thus creating a sound
wave that is audible.
A bit of thin cartilage which folds back the opening of the vocal cords
Epiglottis to prevent food or saliva from sliding down the windpipe when you
swallow
Are the tongue, teeth, lips, and soft palate
After voice has been produced in the larynx, it is carried by the air
Articulators stream into the mouth and nose where it is formed into the distinct
consonant or vowel sounds by the action of the articulators
Tongue does most of the work in sounds like t, d, s, z, l, n and th.
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San Pedro Technological Institute: MS. CELESTIAL Stress and Intonation

Soft palate: k, hard g, and ng

Lips: p, b, f, v, w, wh
Are the pharynx (the throat cavity between the mouth and the
esophagus) the mouth, the nasal cavities and the sinus cavities
Resonators
Purpose: To magnify the sounds that is initiated by the vocal cords to
lend depth of tone to your voice.

Improving Voice Quality

A. Resonance – the ringing, resounding, or vibrating quality of a voice. This results from the proper use of
resonators.
1. Hum softly m-m-m-m. Feel the vibration on your lips and in your nose.
2. For practicing resonance intone the following sentences, sending the breath freely through the nose.
Maggie and Milly and Molly and May
Went down to the beach to play one day
And Maggie discovered a shell that sang
So sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles and
Milly befriended a stranded star
Whose rays five languid fingers were:
And Molly was chased by a horrible thing
Which raced sideways while blowing bubbles: and
May came home with a smooth round stone
As small as a world and as large as alone.
For whatever we lose (like you or a me)
It’s always ourselves we find in the sea

B. Pitch – Concerns how high or a low a voice may be

1. Speak the first words of the following passage in a low voice. Gradually raise the pitch of your voice as your
excitement increases.
There is no way. I couldn’t face myself if I did what you suggest. It’s impossible. You can accept it of me – you
can’t. I won’t do it. I’ll never do it. Never! Never! Never!

2. Rise to a high pitch to show excitement and tension

There he is, over there! He’s circling lower. He must be in difficult! Look! Look! The engine’s on fire!

C. Volume – Force or loudness of tone

1. Say “You have to do it” with sufficient volume to meet the demands of the following imaginary situations.
(a) I normal conversation with a friend
(b) In a classroom filled with 40 students
(c) In the auditorium with all graduating students

D. Intensity – A quality in speaking that arise from strong feeling. Never confuse it with mere loudness of tone.
Purpose: To express pure joy and rapture

How good to be back! Every sound and smell and sight shouted it’s welcome to the eagerness that was
in us. We had come home. There on the front porch stood Mother and dad arms outstretched and halfway
down the path lay ancient Wog, faithful weary symbol of unquestioning devotion, wagging his matted tail in
recognition of the prodigal children. Old hemlock tree, we’re back! Old gabled roof, we’re home again! How
right the poet was when once she said, World, I cannot hold thee close enough!” and how strange that such a
fire should start these tears.

E. Range – the distance, measured in notes between the lowest pitch and the highest pitch of a comfortable,
effective speaking voice.
1. Starting at the lowest speech you can comfortably reach, count from 1 to 9, speaking each on a gradually
rising scale almost as if you were singing. A good speaking voice should have a range of at least seven notes.
2. Say these as indicated.
(a) This is my normal pitch (natural tone of voice)
(b) This is a low pitch (lower voice by three notes)

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San Pedro Technological Institute: MS. CELESTIAL Stress and Intonation

(c) This is a high pitch (raised voice by three notes)

F. Rate – the speed of speaking
Adjust your rate of speaking as you read this selection.

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward,
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper
All in the valley of death
A peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked
Rode the six hundred.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper
Forward, the Light Brigade!
Where’s the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper
Charge for the guns! He said.
picked?
Into the valley of death
Rode the six hundred.

G. Flexibility & Inflection – The ability of a voice to modulate or vary within a pleasant range of tone
Purpose: To avoid monotony
1. Say “ His Dad is going to see you tonight”, in the following ways.
(a) Threateningly
(b) Happily
(c) Doubtfully
(d) Casually
(e) Soothingly
(f) Indignantly
2. Practice reading the following lines.
Who is here so base that would be a bondman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who is here so
rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. I pause a reply:
As Caesar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him;
but as he was ambitious, I slew him.

H. Enunciation – the clearness with which a speaker forms his words.

Purpose: To make the spoken words distinct and clearly audible.
1. Practice these sentences for enunciation drill, taking care to speak them as clearly and as distinctly as possible.
a. She shuns the seashore since she saw the shinning shells
b. Thirty thirsty thundering thugs thumped their way through the thicket
c. A big black bug bit a big black bear
d. Amos Ames was an amiable astronaut

2. And the muttering grew to a grumbling

And the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling
And out of the houses the rats came tumbling
Great rats, small rats, lean rats, brawny rats
Brown rats, black rats, gray rats, tawny rats…

I. Emphasis – stress placed upon any syllable, word, group of words or portion of a speech.
Purpose: To bring out significant meanings
Emphasis is achieved by the use of inflection, pitch, volume and pause.
Read the following sentence aloud, bringing out the different meanings indicated by emphasizing the italicized
words.
(a) Did Valerie get an A grade in Calculus? (I’m surprised)
(b) Did Valerie get an A grade in Calculus? (It must have been someone else)
(c) Did Valerie get an A grade in Calculus? (Are you sure it was an A grade)
(d) Did Valerie get an A grade in Calculus? (It must have been some other course)

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