The use of the speaking voice, and "affect display" (what you look like, face and posture) were the focus of a two-lecture series that I gave to 4th yr engineering students last week at the University of Waikato. This was at the invitation of the Dean, Professor Janis Swan, subsequent to the presentation I gave on this topic at a Women in Leadership day just a few weeks before I left the University last October. Informal feedback on the interactive lectures has been positive, but I came to post here because I recevied this interesting information in an email this morning, which emphasises why this work is important for anybody who is going to be presenting and wants to be seen and heard as the best authentic self that they can be.
Back in the 1970s, Psychologist Albert Mehrabian discovered that there were three ways that listeners measured communication from others - words, voice and nonverbal behaviour (affect display).
He updated this in the 1980s to the following equation:
Total Liking =
7% Verbal Liking +
38% Vocal Liking +
55% Facial Liking
Or to put it another way, the content of your communication is only 7% of what you communicate!!!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
A lovely testimonial
I received this email from a member of the Hamilton Chorale this week.
Julie Hi
I would like to thank you for last week’s choir practice. When I arrived I was just so tired, I had had a hectic week with long hours and, at my age (72 years) I was really exhausted. When I arrived home just after 6.00 pm I did not want to go out again. But, if everyone thought that way, there would be no one there and also, I really enjoy singing.
I did not think I would be able to concentrate properly. When I returned to my car after choir practice, I felt on a high! I could have gone on “singing all night”! Thank you, you encourage us and teach us and make choir practice fun! You have given this choir a really lovely “tone” so that people find us easy to listen to and want to hear more. You have such a variety of songs and atmospheres that it is never boring, as can be when some choir sing the same thing for the whole concert.
When I returned home, I did not need a pill to take away my headache, as the headache had gone. The heavy feeling of tiredness over my eyes had gone and I felt invigorated and full of energy.
Julie - thank you
Yvonne G King
I know that singing can have these effects, but it is delightful when the singers discover it for themselves.
Julie Hi
I would like to thank you for last week’s choir practice. When I arrived I was just so tired, I had had a hectic week with long hours and, at my age (72 years) I was really exhausted. When I arrived home just after 6.00 pm I did not want to go out again. But, if everyone thought that way, there would be no one there and also, I really enjoy singing.
I did not think I would be able to concentrate properly. When I returned to my car after choir practice, I felt on a high! I could have gone on “singing all night”! Thank you, you encourage us and teach us and make choir practice fun! You have given this choir a really lovely “tone” so that people find us easy to listen to and want to hear more. You have such a variety of songs and atmospheres that it is never boring, as can be when some choir sing the same thing for the whole concert.
When I returned home, I did not need a pill to take away my headache, as the headache had gone. The heavy feeling of tiredness over my eyes had gone and I felt invigorated and full of energy.
Julie - thank you
Yvonne G King
I know that singing can have these effects, but it is delightful when the singers discover it for themselves.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
8 - 80 Showstoppers Concert videos now on Youtube!!
After quite a process, I have posted the songs to Youtube, and you can access them by clicking on this link
8 - 80 Videos
If your internet connection is slow, then let the clip download before you play it. I recommend the first song, and 'I'd do anything' sung to each other by the children and the women of the Glee Club.
Few of the songs are complete, I edited out the people who walked in front of the camera, and the section where a child at the feet of the person videoing, became voluble :-)
8 - 80 Videos
If your internet connection is slow, then let the clip download before you play it. I recommend the first song, and 'I'd do anything' sung to each other by the children and the women of the Glee Club.
Few of the songs are complete, I edited out the people who walked in front of the camera, and the section where a child at the feet of the person videoing, became voluble :-)
Saturday, February 26, 2011
8 - 80 Showstoppers Concert a great success!
The concert yesterday afternoon was highly successful on so many levels!!
Both choirs sang well, particularly the Glee Club, who were down to 17 members, with one having to leave before the concert as his wife needed him at home. The sound system make it so much better as well, and the feedback from the audience was astounding!! I had people asking if they could join the Glee Club. The members of the Glee Club had already considered that, and they are very certain that it is their choir, for those who live at the Hilda Ross Village, not for outsiders.
I was in Christchurch with a father in ill-health, and then experienced the earthquake for the 24 hours from Tuesday to Wednesday, until I returned to Hamilton. It did not stop, and probably still has not stopped. The concert completely lifted my spirits for that hour and still is doing so, the power of music. Photos and video are on their way.
Both choirs sang well, particularly the Glee Club, who were down to 17 members, with one having to leave before the concert as his wife needed him at home. The sound system make it so much better as well, and the feedback from the audience was astounding!! I had people asking if they could join the Glee Club. The members of the Glee Club had already considered that, and they are very certain that it is their choir, for those who live at the Hilda Ross Village, not for outsiders.
I was in Christchurch with a father in ill-health, and then experienced the earthquake for the 24 hours from Tuesday to Wednesday, until I returned to Hamilton. It did not stop, and probably still has not stopped. The concert completely lifted my spirits for that hour and still is doing so, the power of music. Photos and video are on their way.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Happy New Year
I am back in New Zealand after a most amazing time, 3,128 photographs, 19 flights, assorted train trips, many many new friends met along the way, incredible church services in languages that I could not understand, and now a week of recovery and unpacking, and planning.
Congratuations to the Hilda Ross Glee Club who did so well practicing in my absence, special thanks to Ngairi Fraser and Elizabeth Carlisle who did an amazing job of co-ordinating the rehearsals.
Projects now are:
The 8 - 80 Show Stopper Concert on Friday February 25th at 4:00p.m. in the Pavilion as part of the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival This will involve separate, and combined rehearsals with the Rotokauri Tuis, when schools go back at the beginning of February.
Contacting my singing students to get lesson times planned.
New repertoire for the Hamilton Chorale to work on when choir starts again in February.
Ongoing negotiations with a major provider to run a 3-mth trial to show outcomes, which then leads on to a firm contract.
Getting in touch with the local newspaper health reporter, to talk about my new work.
Composing some songs for retirement choirs to sing. Roy Ernst of the New Horizons Organisation suggested this gap in the repertoire, and it would be good to get back to composing, which I have not had time for in my last position.
As I told my grand-daughter, I have now left school, after 51 years!!
Congratuations to the Hilda Ross Glee Club who did so well practicing in my absence, special thanks to Ngairi Fraser and Elizabeth Carlisle who did an amazing job of co-ordinating the rehearsals.
Projects now are:
The 8 - 80 Show Stopper Concert on Friday February 25th at 4:00p.m. in the Pavilion as part of the Hamilton Gardens Arts Festival This will involve separate, and combined rehearsals with the Rotokauri Tuis, when schools go back at the beginning of February.
Contacting my singing students to get lesson times planned.
New repertoire for the Hamilton Chorale to work on when choir starts again in February.
Ongoing negotiations with a major provider to run a 3-mth trial to show outcomes, which then leads on to a firm contract.
Getting in touch with the local newspaper health reporter, to talk about my new work.
Composing some songs for retirement choirs to sing. Roy Ernst of the New Horizons Organisation suggested this gap in the repertoire, and it would be good to get back to composing, which I have not had time for in my last position.
As I told my grand-daughter, I have now left school, after 51 years!!
Monday, November 29, 2010
November 28th from Rome, Italy
It seems that such a lot has happened, in such a short time!! After seven farewell events in my final week at Waikato University (which was somewhat humbling), I left New Zealand on October 16th.
During the two and a half weeks that I was in the United States I visited two choirs from the New Horizons organisation: Paul Bruggemeier conducts the women's choir that rehearses at the Holy Cross Music Centre in Spokane, Washington State. This was such a fun visit, as the women were so welcoming and Paul and his wife Sue are docents at the Davenport Hotel In Spokane which is the most amazing place. Do visit the site if you are interested in beautiful buildings that have been lovingly restored at any expense. The choir is aged from later 50s to one member who was turning 90 the day after the rehearsal!
I returned to Seattle from Spokane, for my niece's wedding, and then flew to Washington DC and met up with Jeanne Kelly who runs the Encore Chorales which are nine choirs based around the Washington DC area. She is very busy with these choirs, including taking them en masse to the Kennedy Performing Arts Centre annually, for a concert. I sent her a thank you email after the visit, which included the following : I envy you the population to draw on for your chorales, but not the rush-hour traffic that goes with it :-) Jeanne spends up to 20 hrs a week driving from chorale to chorale, for rehearsals.
I have continued on my trip around the world, and am seeing and hearing such amazing things, including going to church in Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral.
The Hilda Ross Glee Club have the repertoire for our Hamilton Gardens Summer Festival concert on c.d. to learn while I am away, and I wil be back with them mid-January, and with the children early February, to put that concert together, and to enjoy some summer as well!!
During the two and a half weeks that I was in the United States I visited two choirs from the New Horizons organisation: Paul Bruggemeier conducts the women's choir that rehearses at the Holy Cross Music Centre in Spokane, Washington State. This was such a fun visit, as the women were so welcoming and Paul and his wife Sue are docents at the Davenport Hotel In Spokane which is the most amazing place. Do visit the site if you are interested in beautiful buildings that have been lovingly restored at any expense. The choir is aged from later 50s to one member who was turning 90 the day after the rehearsal!
I returned to Seattle from Spokane, for my niece's wedding, and then flew to Washington DC and met up with Jeanne Kelly who runs the Encore Chorales which are nine choirs based around the Washington DC area. She is very busy with these choirs, including taking them en masse to the Kennedy Performing Arts Centre annually, for a concert. I sent her a thank you email after the visit, which included the following : I envy you the population to draw on for your chorales, but not the rush-hour traffic that goes with it :-) Jeanne spends up to 20 hrs a week driving from chorale to chorale, for rehearsals.
I have continued on my trip around the world, and am seeing and hearing such amazing things, including going to church in Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral.
The Hilda Ross Glee Club have the repertoire for our Hamilton Gardens Summer Festival concert on c.d. to learn while I am away, and I wil be back with them mid-January, and with the children early February, to put that concert together, and to enjoy some summer as well!!
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