Effective public speaking can place great demand on one's entire voice production system, similar to the muscular stress experienced by athletes in high-level competition. Public speakers should train and develop their voices, just as athletes train and develop the muscles which are key to their sporting discipline. Likewise, speakers should warm up their voices before a demanding performance, to be at optimum voice quality when beginning to speak, and also to avoid strain or injury to their voice production systems.

The following simple exercises may be used for both training and warmup. For each set of words, first intone the words quietly, and then gradually increase the volume — trying to hold a stable pitch. Breath deeply, speak slowly and calmly, and try to keep your voice relaxed. Try to give the words a relaxed, ringing quality. Experiment with how much louder you can increase the sound without raising the pitch or tone.

Start by intoning individual words, then gradually take lines of words, carefully voicing the distinctive sounds at the beginnings of words. This is a useful exercise to do before practicing AK11 assignments at home, or earlier in the morning before class.

• Soon, moon, boon, noon, coon, goon.

• Fine, vine, wine, mine, pine, dine, nine.

• Moan, tone, bone, phone, alone.

• Rain, Spain, main, plain, gain, remain, obtain.

• (You may also make up similar combinations of your own)