My Monotone Voice Doesn’t Match My Enthusiasm

(image via wikimedia)

My monotone voice has always been an issue for me.  My friends in high school used to mildly make fun of my naturally quiet bored voice.  A few years ago a celebrity yawned in my face when I was getting a signed photograph.

Some of my professional peers don’t pay attention to what I say, and that gets a little frustrating.  I mean, they come to me individually to work with me, but in large groups I sometimes (not always) get ignored, even if I know what I’m talking about.

I’m the mild mannered guy who can get talked over.  I don’t get walked over (I do my own thing if I need to), but I get talked over.

I’m not complaining; this is just how it is.  Explaining a state of being is not complaining.  If I explain and then blame everybody else, then that’s complaining.  I’m going to explain, and then I’ll describe what I can do to change.  That’s not complaining.

Anyway, a few nights ago I put up a video about books that are kind of similar to A Game of Thrones.  I didn’t post it on the blog because I’ve already done too much Game of Thrones stuff on the blog recently.  Anyway, after I published the video, I watched it, and then realized…

My voice in the video was not just monotone; it was extra monotone.  It was extreme monotone.  It was so monotone that I didn’t notice it was monotone.

How did I NOT notice this?

Despite my slow, pondering delivery, I talk about four different book series in this four minute video with both an introduction and a conclusion, so it isn’t a waste of time.  I’ve seen video reviews go much longer and say nothing. Still, a little inflection would have been nice.

IMPORTANT UPDATE!!

The accompanying video has been temporarily removed.  I could stand the monotone voice only so much!!!!

Now that I think about it, the video kind of sucked.  I think I’ll just permanently remove it.

*****

Aaaarrrgh!  I still can’t believe how bored I sound in the video.  If I sound like that with books I actually like, I must really put people to sleep when I talk about boring job-related stuff (which I won’t discuss on my blog).

I have no doubt that I really like the books that I mention in this video.  My voice makes me sound like I’m not sure.  If I talk like that around coworkers about stuff that matters, I understand why they ignore me.

*****

Once I see a problem, I try to solve it.  In the next video, I concentrated more on my voice and tried to speed up my words.  Plus, I’m talking about grammar NAZIs.  You can’t speak monotone when you’re talking about NAZIs, even if they’re the NAZIs of grammar.

It’s an improvement as far as emoting is concerned.  I mean, I don’t cry or anything like that, but I have some (just a little) vocal inflection.  I think it’s an improvement.  I don’t want a weak voice, especially on such an important issue like grammar Nazis.

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Actually that Grammar Nazi video was better, but it still wasn’t good enough for my high standards.  Upon further reflection, it had to go as well.