How to sound interesting in English | varied pitch vs. monotone | intonation

187,972 views ・ 2018-10-04

Accent's Way English with Hadar


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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I really like this shirt but I don't think I'm gonna get it.
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I really like this shirt but I don't think I'm gonna get it.
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Hey guys it's Hadar and this is the Accent's Way.
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Today we're gonna talk about intonation and pitch
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what is pitch, and what's the difference between varied intonation and different
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levels of pitch, and monotonous intonation and same-note speech.
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You know us accent coaches, we always talk about: raising your pitch, dropping your pitch
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high pitch, low pitch. But what is pitch to begin with? How do we control it? and
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why is it so important to American melody and intonation?
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so let's begin with defining 'pitch'. Pitch is the level of your tone, the note that you're
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playing with your voice. You have higher pitch which is here, and you have lower
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pitch, which is here. The higher the frequency of your vocal cords, the higher
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the pitch is. The lower the frequency of your vocal cords (the vibrations of the
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vocal cords) the lower the voice is. Now you can always play with higher notes and
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lower notes when you speak. You can also stay on the same tone and not
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change your pitch whatsoever, no matter what you're saying. That would be more..
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monotonous speech. In American English, pitch plays a significant role.
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Because words that are stressed in English are higher in pitch. That means the pitch is
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always lifted when you stress a word.
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But before that, let's understand how you
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even control your pitch. Because of course it's easier to say: "raise your
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pitch when you need to stress a word" but how do you even do that?
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To practice that ,let's start with a song. Now, don't tell me: "I can't sing! I'm not
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musical" ... a simple song.
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"Happy birthday".
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I'm sure you can sing it.
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so listen up or..
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sing along .
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Happy birthday to you
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Just that.
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Do it again with me.
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ha-ppy birth-day
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to you.
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every word had a different note
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happy bir.. when I went to 'bir' I raised my pitch
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I went for a higher note
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happy birthday.. (went back to a lower note) to... so technically this is a more
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stressed word because it's higher in pitch.. to you. And then, went back down.
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Ok? Happy birthday to you. Now I'm speaking, not singing, but I'm still
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raising my pitch, according to the notes that I know from the song. So raising the
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pitch it's going for a higher note just like in a song okay good now that you
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know how to raise your pitch and how to control your voice to go higher in pitch
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and lower in pitch let's talk about the language. Let's talk about how it comes
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to play in English. So in English when you stress a word or when you reach the
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primary stress of a word, then you go higher in pitch tah tah tah. to-mo-rrow
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tomorrow. I'll see you tomorrow. Right? I'm kind of singing it, but I'm not really
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singing it.. I'm speaking it - but playing with my pitch. (playing with my pitch)
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Again, it's harder to do it when you say it in words, but then when you turn it
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into music - tah tah tah tah tah tah try it with me .... it's very
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easy when it's not related to words. Why is that? because a lot of speakers are
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used to playing the same note when speaking. Now let's compare
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monotonous vs varied pitch. And you tell me at the end,
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what you think sounds better.
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How are you doing today?
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Every syllable receives a different note. How are you doing today?
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I'll see you tomorrow.
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All I did was change the pitch, and see
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how different it sounds?
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I'll see you tomorrow
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I really like this shirt but I don't think I'm gonna get it.
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Now, my pronunciation is accurate, my
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rhythm is pretty good, but my intonation is flat.
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All I did now was change the pitch.
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I raised the pitch for the stress words, and dropped it at the end, and played
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with the level so every syllable was a little higher or a little lower than the
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previous word.
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Now, the reason why I'm doing this is because a lot of people are too afraid
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to play with their pitch. Because in their language, keeping the same note is
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the common intonation pattern. It doesn't mean it's a bad thing, it's just how it
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is in their language. But when you apply it onto English it makes it sound dull
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and boring, and less clear, because when you go higher in pitch, you help the
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listener understand what words are more important, and what words are less
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important .
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'I don't feel very well'. Flat intonation. 'I don't feel very well'
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So 'feel' was the highest note.
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I went higher in pitch for 'feel'
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That's the stressed word. And I dropped everything else.
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Okay that's it for now. I hope it's a little more clear - the
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difference between higher notes and lower notes, why it's important to change
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your pitch, and how it affects your speech when you're using varied
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intonation, how it creates engagement and how it stirs emotions. This is why
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it's something that you definitely want to work on when you're learning
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English, because sometimes it's even more important than getting the R right or
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the TH.
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If you're wondering how you can practice it this is what you can do:
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Look at the bottom right corner of this video, and you'll see this small cog wheel
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if you click on it you'll see speed. Click on it again, and see that you can
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change the speed to half the speed, 75% or x 1.25 %. Go to 50% and play the video
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in a 50% speed. When you do that you'll notice the changes in intonation a lot
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more and what you want to do is just practice the melody. It doesn't even
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matter where the words are. Just play the melody of the people speaking whether
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it's me or someone else. Just play the melody, and repeat it over and over again.
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And then, go into fast speed and you'll notice the changes in pitch a lot more,
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and you'll be able to make these changes yourself because now you can control
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your pitch. Because you've got to think of it as music as if these are just
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notes rather than just words and rather than just stressing words. Ok? leave me a
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comment below tell me if it's clear and tell me what you are doing to improve
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your intonation and melody in English. And of course if you still struggle with
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something let me know in the comments below as well. Don't forget to subscribe
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and click on the bell to get notifications every time I upload a new
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video. Thank you so much, have a wonderful week and I'll see you next week
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in the next video.
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