Audio Exercises

Audio Exercises for Expressing Emotion

Hearing Emotions in The Voice

Listen to the following audio clips (all saying the same sentence) and try to “read” the emotion in the voice.


#1


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She certainly sounds upset about the idea, but there’s too much intensity to be sadness. This could be either anger or disgust — we’d need to have more context (knowledge about her and/or about the speech situation) or see her facial expression to disambiguate.

#2


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Here she sounds uncertain. Notice the hesitation, and the rising (question) intonation at the end.

#3


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This one is very sad! Notice the elevated pitch and the trembling voice — she sounds like she’s about to cry.

#4


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Here she sounds very matter-of-fact and unemotional: it sounds like she just doesn’t care about this at all, indicating boredom.

#5


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She sounds happy — you can hear the smile in her voice. (Literally: when the lips are spread in a smile, it affects the vowel sounds.) Note, too, the happy exclamatory rise at the end (which does not sound like question intonation — she does not sound at all uncertain).

#6


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We hope you noticed that we switched speakers on you, here. This one sounds surprised and alarmed.

#7


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Listen to the loud volume, the intensity of the speech overall, the overemphasis of particular words, the overenunciation of the consonants (hear that crisp T in “told”!)…. This is classic anger.

#8


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This is sad: low volume, low energy. Just as the facial expression droops, so does the speech!
Hearing Emotions in Different Voices

Same exercise, different sentence, various voices.


#1


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sad

#2 


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excited (happy)

#3


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uncertain

#4


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happy (but more quietly pleased than excited)

#5


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sad  

#6


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angry  (Can you hear the difference between the sad sigh in #5 and the exasperated sigh in this one?)

#7


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uncertain

#8


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angry
Projecting Emotion with your Voice

Make recordings of yourself saying the sentence “We’re out of milk” with the following context/emotions. Play the recordings for a confederate and see if they can guess the emotion you were trying to project with your voice.

  • Happy:  I’m happy that “We’re out of milk,” because I hate milk, but you were trying to get me to drink some.
  • Uncertain:  You’ve told me that “We’re out of milk,” but I don’t know if I should believe you, because you’re such a liar.
  • Sad: I’m sad that “We’re out of milk” because I really wanted to drink some.
  • Angry: You promised to buy some milk, but you didn’t, so I’m really angry at you that “We’re out of milk.”
  • Afraid:  I’ve forgotten to buy the milk, and I’m afraid you’ll be angry at me that “We’re out of milk.”
  • Surprised:  I’m really surprised that “We’re out of milk,” because I know I left some in the fridge, and normally I’m the only one in the house who drinks it.