Why your voice shakes when you present or record (and how to steady it)

Nerves release adrenaline. Your breathing gets shallow and fast, the muscles in your neck, throat and jaw tighten, and the air that passes your vocal cords becomes uneven. That unevenness is the tremble people hear.

Two things make it worse: rushing, because you run out of air mid-sentence, and watching yourself for the shake, which makes you more nervous. Often you notice it far more than your audience does.

1. 1Move for 20 seconds. Shake out your hands and arms, roll your shoulders, walk around. Movement gives the adrenaline somewhere to go.
2. 2Breathe out slowly. Breathe in through your nose for about four seconds, then out through your mouth for six or more. Do five or six rounds. A long out-breath calms you down and gives you air for long sentences.
3. 3Drop your shoulders and unclench your jaw. Let your tongue rest and your neck feel long. A tight throat is what makes the voice thin and wobbly.
4. 4Sip room-temperature water. A dry mouth makes a nervous voice crack more easily.
5. 5Pause before the first line. Take one breath and let one or two seconds of silence pass before you speak. Starting in a rush is when the voice shakes most.

Don’t stop and apologise, and don’t try to push through louder. Finish the sentence a little slower, take a breath at the next full stop, and carry on. Most listeners barely register a wobble; they do register a panic.

If you are recording, you can simply pause and retake from the start of the sentence. Recording in short sections means one wobble costs seconds, not the whole video.

• Speak slower than feels natural. Nervous people speed up, and speed brings the shake back. The guide on talking too fast has pace targets.
• Breathe at punctuation, not when you run out of air. Mark the breaths in your script.
• Do a 30-second test take and play it back. You will usually find it sounds calmer than it felt.
• Warm up your voice first. The warm-up guide has a five-minute routine.
• Practise the opening more than the rest. The first sentences are where the shake lives; once you are two sentences in, most people settle.

Not having to remember what comes next removes one source of panic, and a steady scroll gives you a pace to follow. Talkzy for Mac is a slim script bar that hangs from the MacBook’s notch, or sits top-centre on a display without one, and stays on top of other windows. It is on the Mac App Store for macOS 14 or later.

• Countdown: when you start, the text waits for a short countdown (0, 3, 5 or 10 seconds; the default is 3), so you can finish your breath before the words move.
• Timed mode scrolls at a steady words-per-minute pace you choose, from 60 to 260. If you tend to rush when nervous, set a slower pace than you think you need.
• Manual mode lets you scroll yourself, and voice-follow moves the text with what Talkzy hears you say.

The overlay, timed and manual scrolling are free. Voice-follow is free for 3 sessions a day, and Pro removes the limit. The iPhone and iPad app is coming soon to the App Store. Talkzy does not change how your voice sounds; the breathing and pacing are still up to you.