{"id":3441,"date":"2015-10-24T16:12:12","date_gmt":"2015-10-24T15:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/?p=3441"},"modified":"2015-10-24T16:15:23","modified_gmt":"2015-10-24T15:15:23","slug":"what-presenters-can-learn-from-country-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/what-presenters-can-learn-from-country-music\/","title":{"rendered":"What presenters can learn from country music"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not a particular<\/em> fan of country music. I don\u2019t go out of my way to avoid it, but I\u2019m not a particular<\/em> fan. I\u2019ll listen to it if it\u2019s on (usually) but I don\u2019t actually try and find it on my radio, if you see what I mean.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a bit of banter on twitter, with one of my followers, Josh McCormack (@joshmccormac) we were looking at how quickly country singers could tell a story – often quite a complicated story – in only three or so minutes.\u00a0 <\/span>If you\u2019re not convinced, check out something like the classic \u201cCoward of the County\u201d. Read the lyrics and look at how \u2018sparse\u2019 they are.<\/span><\/p>\n

\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
Everyone considered him the coward of county
\nHe\u2019d never stood one single time to prove the county wrong.
\nHis mamma named him Tommy, but folks just called him yellow,
\nSomething always told me they were reading Tommy wrong<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/td>
<\/td><\/td>

In just a few seconds Kenny Rodgers sets up the whole background and backstory.<\/span><\/div><\/td>\r\n \r\n <\/tr>\r\n <\/table>\r\n<\/div>\n

A verse later and in just a few seconds there\u2019s a whole world of love and then horror.<\/p>\n

\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
There\u2019s someone for everyone, and Tommy\u2019s love was Becky.
\nIn her arms he didn\u2019t have to prove he was a man.
\nOne day while he was working, the Gatlin boys cam calling
\nThey took turns at Becky, n\u2019there was three of them.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/td>
<\/td><\/td>

\u2026 and from the on the fate of the Gatlin boys is sealed. Tommy, of course, isn\u2019t a coward – he\u2019s just been walking away from trouble when he could.<\/div><\/td>\r\n \r\n <\/tr>\r\n <\/table>\r\n<\/div><\/span><\/p>\n

\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n
The Gatlin boys just laugh at him when he walked into the barroom
\nOne of them got up and met him half way cross the floor
\nWhen Tommy turned around they say, \u201cHey look! Old yeller\u2019s leaving\u201d
\nBut you could\u2019ve heard a pin drop when Tommy stopped and locked the door.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/td>
<\/td><\/td>

It\u2019s what\u2019s not said, the stuff you read between the lines, that adds all the subtlety and detail. All the singer does is present some bare facts. The verisimilitude comes from inside the head of the listener. Presenters should take note as there are a few\u00a0things they can learn here!<\/strong><\/span><\/div><\/td>\r\n \r\n <\/tr>\r\n <\/table>\r\n<\/div>\n

Firstly, brevity in story telling. The fewer words you use, the fewer words the audience has to listen to and the cleaner your story. There\u2019s less chance of people getting board, or doing their own thing. If all else fails and you don\u2019t manage to bring your audience along with you, at least you\u2019ve not wasted much of their time. Let\u2019s face it, no one ever made themselves unpopular by finishing early!<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly, people respond to thing better if there\u2019s an emotional connection between them and it – and a great, great way of making that connection is if the people in your audience have done some work\u2026 it means they\u2019re invested.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s some doubt about how true this story is, but that doesn\u2019t matter here – because there\u2019s a story that Steinbeck wrote a six word short story.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

For sale. Baby shoes; never worn.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Obviously\u00a0that\u2019s not a story: that\u2019s more like the wording for an advert in your local post-office shop window.\u00a0 <\/span>The real story is what you make up in your head to explain to yourself how you got to the point where the story happens. Let’s call that ‘backstory’ – and it’s this backstory which makes people remember things. The effort they put into something, the connection they make with something, is what renders it memorable. \u00a0(There are other reasons thing can be memorable of course, I’m not claiming exclusivity here! ;) ) For a presenter this explains why we’re told to use stories all the time.<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s not that stories are useful in and of themselves, it’s the emotional connection they create that’s important.<\/div><\/div>\n

What that means, in turn, is that now we understand why stories work we can make better inform choices about which stories to use (and how) and what else we can make as alternatives to stories.<\/p>\n

If a picture creates backstory better, or faster than your words, use a picture. If a story works, use a story. If a question you ask the audience helps them create backstory \u00a0then use a question. If telling the\u00a0person sitting next to them\u00a0helps create backstory then use that.<\/p>\n

It’s not rocket science, once you get the hang of it! The killer question to ask yourself is this: for each point I want to make, how do I best create backstory for my audience?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m not a particular fan of country music. I don\u2019t go out of my way to avoid it, but I\u2019m not a particular fan. I\u2019ll listen to it if it\u2019s on (usually) but I don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-presentation-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3441"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3481,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3441\/revisions\/3481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}