Learning How to Play All 88 Keys

Imagine a piano player. Beginners stick to just a few keys, playing simple songs like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. It works, but it’s basic and forgettable.
Master pianists, on the other hand, use all 88 keys to create emotional, powerful pieces that captivate their audience.

Most storytellers (including me for most of my life) are stuck playing Twinkle, Twinkle. They speak in a narrow range—same tone, same pitch, same rhythm—because it feels safe. But predictability makes stories dull. When your voice and body don’t change, your audience zones out.
Great storytellers are like master pianists—they use variety. They raise their voice to show urgency, soften it to draw people in, and slow down to land key points. They add color to their words, making their stories unforgettable.

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But Philipp, you talk about authenticity. What if I come across as fake? That’s just not me.

I hear this all the time. Let’s unpack it.

What is “you,” really? Is it the way you’ve always spoken? The gestures you’ve always used? The tone and pace you’re used to?

Here’s the truth: the way you speak now isn’t the “real” you. It’s a habit—a collection of behaviors you’ve picked up over time.

Maybe, as a kid, you admired someone and thought, I want to sound like them. Or someone told you, Don’t be so dramatic, and you toned down your emotions, voice, and presence.

The way you speak today isn’t you.

It’s a patchwork of learned behaviors.
And just as you learned those habits, you can learn new, more useful ones.

So, let’s get comfortable using the full range of your voice and expressing yourself freely.

1. The Foundation

Let’s begin with the foundation—the single most important principle for delivering a great story:

Conversational delivery.

Think about how you talk to a friend, teammate, or partner. It’s natural, relaxed, and conversational. Now compare that to how you speak when telling a story to a group or presenting in public. For many of us, something changes.

We slip into what I call Performer Mode:

• The Storytelling Voice: Exaggerated tone, overly dramatic, like narrating a fairy tale.
• The Professional Voice: Overly formal, slow, monotonous, with forced confidence.

Sound familiar? It’s a natural response to nerves.
But Performer Mode creates distance—it disconnects you from your audience and kills authenticity.

Instead, tell your story as if you’re chatting with a friend.
Use simple words, a natural pace, and don’t stress over “ums” or “likes.” When you’re conversational, your audience feels part of the moment.

How to practice:

1. Record yourself in Performer Mode: Pick a simple story and tell it as if you’re addressing a formal audience.
2. Record yourself conversationally: Tell the same story as if you’re chatting with a friend.
3. Compare the two: Notice the differences in tone, pacing, and energy. Which feels more engaging?

With practice, you’ll close the gap between private and public speaking, making your delivery feel natural and relatable.

2. Rate of Speech

Rate of speech refers to how fast or slow you speak.
It’s a powerful tool to control the energy, emotion, and impact of your story. Speaking fast can convey excitement, urgency, or passion, while slowing down can emphasize key moments and give your audience time to absorb your message.

The problem isn’t speaking too fast or too slow—it’s being stuck at one pace.

Great storytellers know how to adapt their speed dynamically to create contrast and keep their audience engaged.

Imagine you’re telling a story about a big presentation at work:

• Fast pace: “I was racing to finish my slides. The deadline was in 15 minutes, my heart was pounding, and I kept thinking, ‘What if I miss it?’”
• Slow pace: (Pause, take a breath.) “Then… my computer froze. Everything stopped.”

Notice how the shift in speed mirrors the intensity of the moment?

That’s what dynamic speech does—it pulls your audience into the story.

How to practice:

1. Choose a simple book: Something with dialogue and action, like a children’s story.
2. Match your pace to the content: Speed up during exciting moments and slow down for reflective ones.
3. Go big: Exaggerate fast and slow speeds in practice. The more you stretch your range in private, the more dynamic you’ll be in public.

3. Tonality

Tonality is the emotion behind your words.

It’s not just what you say but how you say it—the feeling that colors your voice and makes your story come alive.

Tonality adds emotional depth and authenticity to your speech. Without it, your words can come across as robotic, detached, or insincere. When your tone reflects your emotions, your story resonates with your audience on a deeper level.

How to practice tonality:

1. Take a list of emotions: Pick common emotions (e.g., nervous, excited, angry, relieved).
2. Speak out loud: Say each emotion 5–10 times, really feeling it in your body. If you struggle, recall a memory where you felt that emotion.
3. Relive the moment: When telling a story, visualize it unfolding and feel the emotions again. This naturally enhances your tonality.

4. Pause

In his book World-Class Speaking, Craig Valentine, the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking, shared an insight that’s stuck with me. When asked what is the most important delivery of all, He said, “Hush up.’”

What he meant is simple but powerful: Pause.

Ah, Philipp, I already know this. I’ve heard that 100 times before.

You’re right—everyone knows about the pause.

But here’s the truth: very few people actually do it well.

Everytime I ask people in my workshops to pause more often, they do one the three things: They don’t pause at all, rushing through their story like they’re late for a meeting. They take a tiny pause, so small the audience doesn’t even register it. They pause—but hold their breath, making themselves even more tense.

Yes, pausing is a well-known concept. But 99% of storytellers miss the mark. So, if you master pauses, you’ll already be a more captivating storyteller than most people out there.

Let’s talk about why you should pause. Pausing serves multiple purposes.

1. It builds anticipation, giving your audience time to wonder what’s coming next.
2. It lets them process what you’ve just said, especially after a key point.
3. A deliberate pause also shows confidence, it signals that you’re in charge.

All of these are true. But for me, the most valuable aspect of a pause is that it helps you. As speakers, we often rush, tense up, or lose ourselves in the flow of the story.

A pause is your moment to breathe, to ground yourself, and to refocus on what you truly want to say.

When I pause in a speech or a presentation, I breathe and breathe out and ask myself, “what do I really want to say?”

That helps me relax and share the stuff that actually matters.

How to practice pausing?

1. Set a timer: Use an app that beeps every 20 seconds.
2. Improvise a speech: When the timer beeps, finish your sentence, take a breath, then continue.

Once you’re comfortable, you can stop using the timer and start pausing more intuitively—right before revealing key information or after sharing something impactful.

A pause isn’t just an absence of sound—it’s a presence of power. It gives your audience space to connect with your words and gives you space to stay in control.

5. Body Language

Body language is a key element of storytelling, but here’s the thing: it’s less about adding new movements and more about removing habits that don’t serve you.

Having watched thousands of stories, I’ve noticed many people unconsciously do odd things with their hands while speaking.

Here are a few classics—see if you recognize yourself:

• The T-Rex: Hands unnaturally raised close to the chest, limiting movement and looking stiff.
• The Armor: Arms crossed defensively, making you seem closed off.
• The Fidgeter: Playing with fingers, rings, or objects, signaling nervousness and distracting your audience.
• The Hider: Hands tucked away in pockets or behind your back, making it appear as if you’re hiding something.

How to fix any of those?

Focus on your neutral position.

• Feet: Shoulder-width apart, firmly planted on the ground.
• Arms: Rest naturally at your sides, relaxed but not limp.

Neutral position is your home base.

It’s calm, grounded, and reduces distractions.
From there, you can move and gesture intentionally, knowing you have a strong baseline to return to.