Your Pitch in a Pitch

Native African people who have never even listened to the radio before can nonetheless pick up on happy, sad, and fearful emotions in Western music, according to a new report published online on March 19th in Current Biology. The result shows that the expression of those three basic emotions in music can be universally recognized, the researchers said.

"These findings could explain why Western music has been so successful in global music distribution, even in music cultures that do not as strongly emphasize the role of emotional expression in their music," said Thomas Fritz of the Max-Planck-Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences.

More importantly to you it explains why the pitch or tone of your voice in pitching or presenting ideas is so important. 

Pitch, speed, and word choice are all very important elements of strong delivery. The sounds of your words matter. Your Voice can convey to persuasion and confidence. Have you ever noticed that most most movie trailers and TV commercials often use a voice-over artist (both men and woman) with deep voices. Remember Don LaFontaine? He’s the guy that made the phrase, "in a world," a movie trailer cliche. It turns out that, according to research, the deeper the pitch of the voice, the more persuasive, more confident, more capable, (and more attractive). That’s the reason that guy made millions with his voice! You'll want to use as low a pitch as naturally possible. Notice I said natural, this is key. When there is a change in pitch people notice. Use this to emphasize key words, phrases and sentences in your pitch.

Next is your rate of speech. Talking too fast can show you are nervous, too slow and bore the audience. 120-145 words a minute is ideal. Again vary the rate to draw attention. While your at it repetition also draws attention to key elements of your presentation. I'll often point out that I am repeating something key. Again I often point out that I am repeating something key. But with a different pitch and rate. Additionally use alliteration, assonance and consonance for the words that are repeated. I'll let you look those up.

A beautifully composed pitch is like a song to the heart! Let me guide you before your next presentation or pitch,

Fred Abaroa
The Marketing Imagineer
Fred [@] TMIFred.com

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