The following contains excerpts from the book, The Quick & Easy Way to Effective Public Speaking (Dale Carnegie).
At our music school in Midland, Texas we believe that music is more than sound, it is relationships. When discussing the subject of relationships, the concurrent subject of Leadership comes to the fore. One of the highest principles of successful relationships and leadership is that of Communication.
This book is outstanding. I thought it would be a bore and half-relevant, but I found it to have many ideas that relate to the art of musical performance, things that are rarely taught about communicating with an audience, but have specific application for any of the performing arts. Along with these correlations, he gives many practical methods to make one’s self more comfortable and successful in communication skills, which he asserts are essential to all levels of leadership, from daily home-life to the corporate business office.
We believe that one of the great benefits to studying music at our music school in Midland, Texas is learning how to communicate effectively, and the following material directly correlates to what we hope our students learn.
The Purpose of Prepared and Impromptu Talks
Chapter VII – Making the Short Talk to Get Action
“Every talk, regardless of whether the speaker realizes it or not, has one of four major goals…1) To inform, 2) To persuade, 3) To impress or convince, 4) To entertain.”
“What is the Magic Formula? Simply this: Start your talk by giving us the details of your Example, and incident that graphically illustrates the main idea you wish to get across. Second, in specific clear-cut terms give your Point, tell exactly what you want your audience to do; and third, give your Reason, that is, highlight the advantage or benefit to be gained by the listener when he does what you ask him to do…Audiences are not interested in apologies or excuses, real or simulated. They want action. In the Magic Formula you give them action from the opening word. The formula is ideal for short talks, because it is based upon a certain amount of suspense.”
- Give your example, an incident from your life
- Build your example upon a single personal experience
- Start your talk with a detail of your example
“If you start your talk with phrases that answer one of the questions, Who? When? Where? What? How? Or Why?, you will be using one of the oldest communication devices in the world to get attention- the story. ‘Once upon a time’ are the magic words that open the floodgates of a child’s imagination. With this same human interest approach you can captivate the minds of your listeners with your first words.”
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- Fill your example with relevant detail
- Relive your experience as you relate it
We teach students at our music school in Midland, Texas to use their own life-experiences and emotions from deeply held memories to connect to their musical performances.
- State your point, what you want the audience to do
- Make the point brief and specific
- Make the point easy for listeners to do
- State the point with force and conviction
- Give the reason of benefit the audience may expect
- Be sure the reason is relevant to the example
- Be sure to stress one reason- and one only
Chapter VIII – Making the Talk to Inform
“’Everything that can be thought at all,’ said Ludwig Wittgenstein, ‘can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said, can be said clearly.”
In musical performance, the same is true. There are ‘clean’ performances and then there are also not so clean performances. At our music school in Midland, Texas we help students refine their skill to the point that they can convey musical ideas with precision and excellence.
- Restrict your subject to fit the time at your disposal
- Arrange your ideas in sequence
- Enumerate your points as you make them
- Compare the strange with the familiar
- Turn a fact into a picture
- Avoid technical terms
- Use visual aids
“Woodrow Wilson wrote some words of advice…My father was a man of great intellectual energy…’Why didn’t you say so?’ he would go on. ‘Don’t shoot at your meaning with birdshot and hit the whole countryside; shoot with a rifle at the thing you have to say.’”
Chapter IX – Making the Talk to Convince
- Win confidence by deserving it
“Nothing said in this book, nor anything which will be said, can take the place of this essential attribute of speaking effectiveness. Pierpont Morgan said that character was the best way to obtain credit; it is also the best way to win the confidence of the audience…’The sincerity with which a man speaks,’ said Alexander Woolcott, ‘imparts to his voice a color of truth no perjurer can feign.’”
In musical performance, sincerity and authenticity is key, as well. We endeavor to help students give their music to their audiences with as much honesty as possible, at our music school in Midland, Texas.
- Get a yes-response
“’My way of opening and winning an argument,’ confided Lincoln, ‘is to first find a common ground of agreement.’”
- Speak with contagious enthusiasm
- Show respect and affection for your audience
“’The human personality demands love and it also demands respect,’ Dr. Norman Vincent Peale said, ‘Every human being has an inner sense of worth, of importance, of dignity. Wound that and you have lost that person forever. So when you love and respect a person you build him up and, accordingly, he loves and esteems you.”
Learning to show respect is a cornerstone principle we teach our students at our music school in Midland, Texas. Respect to the composer of the music being performed, respect for the colleagues with whom music is being made, respect for the audience: these are all winning attitudes.
- Begin in a friendly way
“It is well to remember Woodrow Wilson’s words, ‘If you come to me and say, ‘Let us sit down and take counsel together, and if we differ from one another, understand why it is that we differ from one another, just what the points of issue are,’ we will presently find that we are not so far apart after all, that the point on which we differ are few and the points on which we agree are many, and that if we only have the patience and the candor and the desire to get together, we will get together.”