Shadowing Practice: Your Voice Is a Wind Instrument | Matt Abrahams on Projecting Without Straining - Learn English Speaking with Video
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fundamental to effective communication is being heard i'm matt abrahams
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and i teach strategic communication at stanford graduate school of business
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welcome to this quick thinks episode of think fast talk smart the podcast
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i'm often asked how can i make sure my voice is heard people aren't wondering how do they insert
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it into a conversation they literally want to understand how can my volume go up
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so today i'd like to have a conversation about volume
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and you can't have a conversation about volume without talking about breath then we'll talk about how to expand your volume, build vocal stamina.
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And finally, we'll conclude to talk about how microphones can help you communicate better.
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Your voice is a wind instrument.
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The more you do with it, the more your volume and voice can be affected by it.
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We need to think about how we breathe to help us project our voice.
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Many of us, when we get nervous or are uncertain, we breathe shallow and tight in the upper chest.
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We also breathe very quickly.
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This changes our ability to project our voice.
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You have to be able to fill your lower abdomen to support your voice fully.
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Something you can do in the privacy of your own space
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to figure out where you're breathing from is to put one palm on your upper chest and one on your lower abdomen.
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If I'm speaking from my upper chest as I'm doing now, I feel vibration and a little movement here and nothing in my lower abdomen.
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But when I take a deeper breath and speak lower and sometimes slower,
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I actually feel a lot of movement here and a little vibration in my upper chest.
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So to help build that awareness of where your breath is coming from, give yourself a sensory experience of it.
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Another way to help you learn about your breathing is to read out loud.
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Reading out loud is a proxy for speaking out loud
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and the benefit of reading out loud is you can focus on your breathing
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because the words are presented right in front of you.
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I don't care what you read, it can be something for work, for pleasure, it can be email, a magazine, does not matter.
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By reading out loud and really paying attention to where the breath is coming from, you can gain more control of it.
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And the more control you have over it, the better able you are to project.
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So lower, slower breathing gives you more vocal support so you can project your voice.
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Now there's a really interesting technique that I learned from an acting professional.
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While I'm not an actor myself, I really like this technique.
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Rather than just thinking about projecting your voice forward, actually pick a place where you want to put your voice.
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So imagine you're in a conference room sitting around a large table, you're at one end, and there are people far away from you.
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Instead of just broadcasting out, focus your voice in front of the person who's sitting farthest from you.
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In doing so, it changes the structure of your body.
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You'll tend to open up more.
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You'll breathe more deeply, and you'll be able to position your voice so it'll be louder.
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So it's not about broadcasting it out.
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It's about focusing on placing your voice in a certain space.
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I alluded to body posture just a moment ago, and this is really important.
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You want to open your body as much as possible.
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Many of us, especially when we're on virtual calls, we hunch over and close our body off.
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That reduces the oxygen.
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In fact, many actors and actresses or professional speakers, before they go out on stage and project,
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they'll work on stretching their body and opening it up.
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That's a great place for us to start.
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Once we have the mechanics and the breath, we have to work on stamina.
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Very few of you would wake up one morning and say, I'm going to go run a marathon and just start running.
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If you wanted to run a marathon, you'd train first.
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And the same thing is true with your voice and vocal projection.
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If you're going to speak for 5, 10, 30, 60 minutes, you should build vocal stamina.
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Because most Most of us can start out strong, but can we sustain it so we can continue to project our voice?
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Best way to do this, again, is reading out loud.
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Reading out loud to build vocal stamina is like running on a treadmill to build your stamina for running a road race.
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So if you know you have a 30 minute presentation that you have to give in a week or two,
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you should start reading out loud for five
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or 10 minutes a day to build that stamina so you can project your voice all the way through.
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And you wanna make sure that you have the energy at the end of your communication as well as at the beginning.
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Many of us start energetic and excited.
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And because we're speaking for so long, we lose our wind.
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We lose that energy.
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By building vocal stamina, you'll continue to have the energy and be able to project your voice.
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Now, fortunately, we live in a world where there's technology that can help us project our voice.
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Microphones are very useful for helping you not just record what you're saying, but to make sure your voice is projected.
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Now, we have to use microphones appropriately.
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The first type of mic I want to talk about is a lavalier mic, a lav.
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This is a little microphone that usually gets clipped right under your chin.
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Now, it tends to have a cord and a battery pack.
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You have to be careful and make sure that you're prepared for that because often you'll drop the cord through your shirt,
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and you need to have a place to clip the battery pack or a pocket to put it in.
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I've worked with some speakers who came dressed in a way that did not allow for those to easily be done.
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When it comes to a lavalier you want to make sure it's about six inches away from your mouth
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and because it is fixed you want to make sure that your head stays in the same position.
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So if the lavalier is here
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and I turn over here notice I've increased the distance
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and unless you have somebody working the sound board that is controlling the volume your voice will get quieter.
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So if you have a lavalier mic, you simply turn your whole body so you keep the orientation the same.
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So make sure you have something to clip it to, both the mic and the pack,
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and try to keep your head in relationship to the mic the same so your volume stays the same.
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Now sometimes when you're speaking, you actually have a microphone.
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Handheld mic needs to be kept at the same distance from your mouth
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so that the volume stays the same and you make the life of the soundboard operator much easier.
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So lightly hold the mic.
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Some people clutch it because they're so nervous.
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Lightly hold the mic.
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Put your elbow against your body.
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This is the only time I ever encourage people to connect the elbow to the body.
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Usually when gesturing, we want it away.
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And I gesture with the other hand and notice I'm keeping the distance about six inches the same.
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Now if I want to switch hands, which is a good thing because this arm might get tired, I come to the mic,
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keep the mic in the same place, and gesture with the other hand.
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Some mics have cables, and you need to be careful with where the cable is.
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I saw a speaker once trip over the cable, embarrassing for them, and dangerous.
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So if you're using a handheld mic, hold it in place, gesture with the other hand, and again, come back to it.
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These are all techniques that will help you project your voice and make sure your point is heard.
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We want to think about body posture and breathing.
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We want to think about placing our voice.
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We want to make sure we build that vocal stamina to support our energy and volume throughout what we say.
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And finally, we want to leverage microphones appropriately to help us make sure we're heard.
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Thank you for joining me for this
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Quick Thinks episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast.
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To learn more about voice, please listen to episode 262 with Patsy Rodenberg.
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This episode was produced by Katherine Reed, Alex McCarthy, Ryan Campos, and me, Matt Abrahams.
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Our music is from Floyd Wonder, with special thanks to the Stanford GSB video crew.
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Thanks also to Podium Podcast Company.
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Please find us on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Be sure to subscribe and rate us.
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Also, follow us on LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram.
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And check out Fastersmarter .io for deep dive videos, English language learning content, and our newsletter.
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Please consider joining our Think Fast, Talk Smart Learning community at Fastersmarter .io slash learning.
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You'll find video lessons, learning quests, discussion boards, an AI coach, and book club opportunities.
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Again, that's FasterSmarter .io slash learning to become part of our think -fast, talk -smart learning community.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Your Voice Is a Wind Instrument”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: voice, mic, project, volume, stamina. This video has 112 sentences and 1566 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:20. The speaker talks at a natural 168 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| breathe verb | /bɹiːð/ | To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases. |
| vocal adjective | /ˈvoʊ̯.kəl/ | Of, pertaining to, or resembling the human voice or speech. |
| microphone noun | /ˈmaɪ.kɹəˌfəʊn/ | A device (transducer) used to convert sound waves into a varying electric current; normally fed into an amplifier and either recorded or transmitted over radio. |
| podcast noun | /ˈpɑdˌkæst/ | A program, especially an audio program, produced on a regular basis, delivered over the Internet in a compressed digital format and designed for playback on… |
| gesture noun | /ˈd͡ʒɛs.t͡ʃɚ/ | A motion of the limbs or body, especially one made to emphasize speech. |
| technique noun | /tɛkˈniːk/ | The practical aspects of a given art, occupation etc.; formal requirements. |
| clip noun | /klɪp/ | Something which clips or grasps; a device for attaching one object to another. |
| abdomen noun | /ˈæb.də.mən/ | The belly, or that part of the body between the thorax and the pelvis, not including the back; or in some lower vertebrates, the portion between the cardiac… |
| broadcast noun | /ˈbɹɔːd(ˌ)kɑːst/ | A transmission of a radio or television programme intended to be received by anyone with a receiver. |
| marathon noun | /ˈmæɹəθən/ | A 42.195-kilometre (26-mile-385-yard) road race. |
| cord noun | /ˈkoɹd/ | A long, thin, flexible length of twisted yarns (strands) of fibre (a rope, for example). |
| lightly adverb | /ˈlaɪtli/ | In a light manner. |
| elbow noun | /ˈɛlboʊ̯/ | The joint between the upper arm and the forearm. |
| appropriately adverb | In an appropriate manner; properly; suitably. | |
| posture noun | /ˈpɑst͡ʃɚ/ | The way a person holds and positions their body. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| read out verb | /ˌɹiːd ˈaʊt/ | To read something and say the words to inform other people; to call. |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| go up verb | To move upwards. | |
| have over verb | To host (a visiting guest) at one's house. | |
| open up verb | To open. | |
| sit around verb | To spend time sitting idly, not doing anything important. | |
| speak out verb | To assert or promote one's opinion; to make one's thoughts known. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being heard · is heard · can be affected |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've worked · I've increased |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 37 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: breathe /bɹiːð/, marathon /ˈmæɹəθən/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: vibration /vaɪˈbɹeɪʃən/, presentation /ˌpɹɛzn̩ˈteɪʃn̩/, orientation /ˌɔː.ɹi.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/, shallow /ˈʃæloʊ/, projection /pɹəˈd͡ʒɛkʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: fundamental /ˌfʌn.dəˈmɛn.təl/, operator /ˈɑpəˌɹeɪtɚ/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, orientation /ˌɔː.ɹi.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/, fortunately /ˈfɔɹ.t͡ʃə.nɪt.li/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like breathe, vocal, microphone.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.