The Quick & Easy Way to Effective Public Speaking – Part 4

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.

Chapter X – Making Impromptu Speeches

  1. Practice impromptu speaking
  2. Be mentally ready to speak impromptu

“But I am certain that no man ever made a reputation as an impromptu speaker who did not prepare himself by devoting hours of analysis to every public situation in which he was a participant.  Just as an airline pilot readies himself to act with cool precision in an emergency by continually posing to himself problems that could arise at any moment, the man who shines as an impromptu speaker prepares himself by making countless talks that are never given.”

  1. Get into an example immediately
  2. Speak with animation and force

“Have you ever watched a man in a conversational group who suddenly begins to gesture as he speaks?  Soon he is talking fluently, sometimes brilliantly…The relation of physical activity to the mind is a close one.”

This is a key principle we teach students at our music school in Midland, Texas, encouraging all three kinds of learning: visual, aural, and kinesthetic.

  1. Use the principle of the here and now
    1. Talk about your listeners, who they are and what they are doing
    2. Dwell on the circumstances that brought the meeting about
    3. If you have been an attentive listener, you might indicate your pleasure in something specific another speaker said before you and amplify that.
  2. Don’t talk impromptu- give an impromptu talk

“You must keep your ideas logically grouped around a central thought which might well be the point you want to get across.”

The Art of Communicating

“Would you believe it? There are four ways, and only four ways, in which we have contact with the world.  We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts: what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it.”

One of the great benefits to studying music in our music school in Midland, Texas is that students learn how to present themselves on stage, as they communicate with music.

Chapter XI – Delivering the Talk

  1. Crash through your shell of self-consciousness
  2. Don’t try to imitate others- be yourself

“Every new life is a new thing under the sun; there has never been anything just like it before, and never will be again.  A young man ought to get that idea about himself; he should look for the single spark of individuality that makes him different from other folks, and develop that for all he is worth.  Society and schools may try to iron it out of him; their tendency is to put us all in the same mold, but I say, don’t let that spark be lost; it’s your only real claim to importance…All that is doubly true of effective speaking.”

This is exactly what we believe about every student in our music school in Midland, Texas.  Each one is unique, with an original mix of strengths.  It is our goal to develop those uniquenesses through core competencies and conditioning and through disciplined, daily progress.

  1. Converse with your audience

“A modern audience, regardless of whether it is fifteen people at a business conference or a thousand people under a tent, wants the speaker to talk just as directly as he would in a chat, and in the same general manner he would employ in speaking to one of them in conversation, in the same manner, but with greater force of energy.”

  1. Put your heart into your speaking
  2. Practice making your voice strong and flexible

The Challenge of Effective Speaking

Chapter XII – Introducing Speakers, Presenting and Accepting Awards

“No speech is more mangled than the speech of introduction, probably because it is looked upon as unimportant by many chairmen who are entrusted with the duty of preparing and delivering it.”

  1. Thoroughly prepare what you are going to say
  2. Follow the T-I-S formula
    1. T- Topic.  Give the exact title of the speaker’s talk
    2. I- Importance.  Bridge over the area between the topic and the particular interest of the group.
    3. S- Speaker.  List the speaker’s outstanding qualifications, particularly those that relate to his topic.  Finally, you give his name, distinctly and clearly.
  3. Be enthusiastic
  4. Be warmly sincere
  5. Thoroughly prepare the talk of presentation
    1. Tell why the award is made
    2. Tell something of the group’s interest in the life and activities of the person to be honored
    3. Tell how much the wared is deserved and how cordially the group feels toward the recipient
    4. Congratulate the recipient and convey everyone’s good wishes for the future
  6. Express your sincere feelings in the talk of acceptance
    1. Should be shorter than the speech of presentation
    2. Give a warmly sincere ‘thank you’ to the group.
    3. Give credit to others who have helped you, your associates, employers, friends, or family.
    4. Tell what the gift or award means to you.  If it is wrapped, open it and display it.
    5. End with another sincere expression of your gratitude.

Chapter XIII – Organizing the Longer Talk

  1. Get attention immediately
    1. Begin your talk with an incident- example
    2. Arouse suspense
    3. State an arresting fact
    4. Ask for a show of hands
    5. Promise to tell the audience how they can get something they want
    6. Use an exhibit
  2. Avoid getting unfavorable attention
    1. Do not open with an apology
    2. Avoid the ‘funny’ story opening

“Perhaps the easiest way to create merriment is to tell a story on yourself.”

  1. Support your main ideas
    1. Use statistics
    2. Use the testimony of experts
    3. Use analogies
    4. Use a demonstration with or without an exhibit
  2. Appeal for action
    1. Summarize
    2. Ask for action

Chapter XIV – Applying What You Have Learned

  1. Use specific detail in everyday conversation
  2. Use effective speaking techniques in your job
  3. Seek opportunities to speak in public
  4. You must persist
  5. Keep the certainty of reward before you

“The word ‘leadership’ has been used often in the chapters that have gone before this one.  Clear, forceful, and emphatic expressiveness is one of the marks of leadership in our society.  This expressiveness must govern all the utterances of the leader from private interview to public pronouncements.  Properly applied, the material in this book will help to develop leadership- in the family, the church group, the civic organization, the corporation, and the government.”

We believe each student at our music school in Midland, Texas has the ability to express themselves as musicians, communicators, and leaders.  As they develop in basic life-lessons through the study of music and the arts, they become equipped to be successful in every area of life.