OK, to kick off the fall speaking season in the best possible way, I’m putting together a couple of studies I read about recently in order to get you pumped for that next speech. Three steps to pumped up speaking – three steps and you’re ready to go.

First of all, there’s the Harvard study that suggests that it’s better to tell yourself “I am excited,” than to try to ease your adrenaline symptoms. I posted on this before, suggesting that for those speakers with higher anxiety, a bit of calming work might be better. In any case, you should find the right balance for your own particular style of speaking.

But, let’s say you want to get pumped up. So, you’re chanting, “I am excited” to yourself, but you still just feel nervous. What else can you do?

Just in time, a new study comes along that suggests that music may be the answer. It’s the second step to my three-step guide for fully pumped speaking. But not just any sort of music.  The best music of all to get you jazzed before a speech is (drum roll please): Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”

Now, for some of you this news will be cause for despair. The late 70s was not your fave period for music, and Queen is not your favorite band. For others, of course, it will be cause for celebration. You attend Queen imitation concerts, you have Freddy Mercury posters in your bedroom, and you can chant along with every single lyric from “Queen II.”

Either way, the secret, apparently, is Queen – but something particular in their music. Music goes straight to the emotional centers of the brain, bypassing logic (how else could we explain the multi-generational appeal of Barry Manilow?). It’s a powerful way to cheer people up, and even more importantly, get them on the same page, connecting with one another. Grandparents and grandchildren singing along to “Yellow Submarine,” is ample testimony to the power of music to align generations and attitudes.

But why is Queen’s “We Will Rock You” just the right thing for getting pumped?

It’s not the lyrics:

Buddy you’re a boy make a big noise

Playin’ in the street gonna be a big man some day

You got mud on yo’ face

You big disgrace

Kickin’ your can all over the place

Singing

We will we will rock you

We will we will rock you

Hardly Shakespeare, right?

And it’s not the happiness or sadness of the music, either.  What gives?

It’s the bass line. The more bass-heavy the music, the more powerful the listener feels. And feeling powerful is important to taking the stage with confidence and authority.  My own personal fave music to prepping for a speech has been the Mission: Impossible theme.  That’s my highly developed sense of irony talking.  But apparently, I’m going to have to change.  Not enough bass.

This focus on the bass means, obviously, that good headphones are important, so I’m going out on a limb here to suggest that you ought to buy a pair that can handle a heavy bass line. Tell your partner a blogger about public speaking said it was essential.

A further study does suggest, by the way, that happy music makes you happier if you work at feeling happy, consciously. That ties in nicely with my third step: choosing your emotion to open the speech. Decide what emotion is appropriate for the beginning of your speech – are you indignant, angry, happy, or proud? – and focus on getting into the feeling as deeply as you can. Remember a time when you felt that way. Remember everything about the emotion. Feel it through all five senses.

Then go out and take the stage. You’ll be excited thanks to your adrenaline, properly defined, you’ll feel powerful, thanks to Queen (or some other heavy bass music), and you’ll feel focused on the right emotion, thanks to your sense-memory work.

You’re going to kick ass.