made, yet this law is violated more often than any other by _public_ speakers. A

criminal may disregard a law of the state without detection and punishment, but

the speaker who violates this regulation suffers its penalty at once in his loss

of effectiveness, while his innocent hearers must endure the monotony--for

monotony is not only a sin of the perpetrator, as we have shown, but a plague on

the victims as well.

 

Change of pitch is a stumbling block for almost all beginners, and for many

experienced speakers also. This is especially true when the words of the speech

have been memorized.

 

If you wish to hear how pitch-monotony sounds, strike the same note on the piano

over and over again. You have in your speaking voice a range of pitch from high

to low, with a great many shades between the extremes. With all these notes

available there is no excuse for offending the ears and taste of your audience

by continually using the one note. True, the reiteration of the same tone in

music--as in pedal point on an organ composition--may be made the foundation of

beauty, for the harmony weaving about that one basic tone produces a consistent,

insistent quality not felt in pure variety of chord sequences. In like manner

the intoning voice in a ritual may--though it rarely does--possess a solemn

beauty. But the public speaker should shun the monotone as he would a

pestilence.

 

_Continual Change of Pitch is Nature's Highest Method_