ABSTRACT
Move the arms laterally to centralise them above the body. Pause for a second or two then let the arms drop to the sides of the body under their own weight as in the previous exercises.
80 Public Speaking for Scientists and Engineers
Good breathing is important for two reasons. First, as ex plained in Chapter 8, slow, deep breathing is one of the ways that we control the symptoms of nervousness. The second reason arises from the fact that breath is the power source for speech. We tend to think of our vocal organs as being the speech producers but these do no more than cause vibrations in the output of air from our lungs. Resonance then takes place in various parts of the head and chest. Just as an organ or a set of bagpipes relies on a sufficient throughput of air, we need our lungs to be able to provide us with ample air for all circumstances. Taking the analogy of a wind instrument further, our vocal chords are like the reed of a clarinet or a bassoon. The reed is essential in producing the sound, but is useless without the air to power it and is very limited in capability without the resonance provided by the tubular cavity through which the modulated air passes.
