Tool No 13: Staccato, Legato
HOW? Think of your words as music. Alternate the rhythm of your speech, so some passages linger on looong, sooooft vowels while others are full of short, hard consonants.
The musical term staccato means short, pointed tones, separated distinctly from others. Legato means binding the tones together without audible pauses between them. Alternating between staccato and legato makes your speech dynamic.
I have trained many businesspeople, and have seen many politicians on TV, who solely express themselves in staccato and forget the legato. They hit the hard vowel sounds and pump their hands up and down in a techno rhythm, emphasising the sharp syllables. It soon makes men sound belligerent and women shrill.
Try alternating between legato and staccato when you speak. A point made robustly has greater impact when followed by softer patterns of speech.
