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.
Speech, Speaker, and Audience
Chapter IV – Earning the Right to Talk
- Limit your subject
- Develop reserve power
“At odd moments of the day when you are free from your word, you can explore your subject, refine the ideas you want to convey to your audience. Time ordinarily spent in reverie while you are driving home, waiting for a bus, or riding the subway, can be devoted to mulling over the subject matter of your talk. It is during this incubation period that flashes of insight will come, just because you have determined your topic for in advance and your mind subconsciously works over it…Mediocre speaking very often is merely the inevitable and the appropriate reflection of mediocre thinking, and the consequence of imperfect acquaintance with the subject in hand.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we have witnessed a direct correlation between how confident a student is in performance to their preparedness. It is our goal to help the student become as prepared as possible in their core competencies, as well as their immediate project.
- Fill your talk with illustrations and examples
- Humanize your talk
- Personalize your talk by using names
- Be specific- fill you talk with detail
- Dramatize your talk by using dialogue
- Visualize by demonstrating what you are talking about
- Use concrete, familiar words that create pictures
Chapter V – Vitalizing the Talk
- Choose subjects you are earnest about
“Unless you are emotionally involved in the subject matter you have chosen to talk about, you cannot expect to make your audience believe in your message.”
As students at our music school in Midland, Texas grow in their appreciation for listening to music, they also begin to acquire an emotional connection with what the composer is conveying. This emotional language will eventually translate into their own performances of works they have prepared.
- Re-live the feelings you have about your topic
- Act in earnest
“When you walk before your audience to speak, do so with an air of anticipation, not like a man who is ascending the gallows. The spring in your walk may be largely put on, but it will do wonders for you and it gives the audience the feeling that you have something you are eager to talk about.”
By helping students in our music school in Midland, Texas identify memories in their lives that they can correlate with the pieces they are working on, they find a place of agreement, or consent, between what the composer is trying to convey with their own deeply-felt experiences. They will be able to communicate these feelings and emotions convincingly to the audience once this place of agreement is discovered.
Chapter VI – Sharing the Talk With the Audience
- Talk in terms of your listener’s interests
- Give honest, sincere appreciation
“Audiences are composed of individuals, and they react like individuals. Openly criticize and audience and they resent it. Show your appreciation for something they have done
that is worthy of praise, and you win a passport into their hearts.”
- Identify yourself with the audience
- Make your audience a partner in your talk
- Play yourself down
“The surest way to antagonize an audience is to indicate that you consider yourself to be above them. When you speak, you are in a showcase and every facet of your personality is on display. The slightest hint of braggadocio is fatal. On the other hand, modesty inspires confidence and good will. You can be modest without being apologetic. Your audience will like and respect you for suggesting your limitations as long as you show you are determined to do your best.”
Perhaps one of the greatest life-lessons students in our music school in Midland, Texas can learn is that honesty and authenticity go a long way towards successful communication and artistic endeavors that bring beauty and meaning into others’ lives.
I was in a Juilliard masterclass with the great violin teacher, Dorothy Delay. One of the students asked a random question, “Miss Delay, what is performance?” It was a question everyone was curious to hear answered. She knew this was a deeply philosophical moment, and that her answer, and how she presented it, mattered.
She cocked her head back for a moment and looked up at the ceiling to formulate her thoughts in the best way possible.
This pause caused the room even greater eagerness to hear what she would say.
Her answer: “Performance is like…” and she paused for emphasis, “telling the truth.”
What she was teaching is that authenticity matters. It is obvious to everyone when someone steps on stage with a huge ego, and a certain amount of ego is important to perform. Perhaps, a better word than ego would be confidence. We teach that this confidence should stem more from an attitude of service to the music and to the audience than from self-aggrandizement.
When a performer, with humility, takes the role of a servant, what comes out is authenticity.