Chapter Nine
Control Your Cadence: The Pause
Case Studies: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart • Frank Sinatra • Ella Fitzgerald • Dizzy Gillespie • John F. Kennedy • The Frenchman Who Paused • Christine Lagarde, European Central Bank • Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum • Joey Zwillinger, Allbirds • Jack Rakove • General Israel Putnam
No word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.1
Mark Twain
Once again, we find music a perfect analogy for speech. In music, a pause—a silent interval—is called a rest. Every composer, singer, and musician fully appreciates the value of the rest. Consider these examples:
“Mozart is said to have declared the most powerful effect in music was—no music.”2
Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, who were admired for the exquisite ...
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