Voiceover Tip: Copy the Vocal Patterns on TV Commercials

Here's a great tip and exercise for voiceover artists: use TV commercials as a source of practice. Really listen to the commercials on your TV or radio. When you find a good commercial you like, try to parrot the VO actor who is speaking the lines.  You'll be repeating the words, of course, but also try to copy, as exactly as you can, the nuances, the tone, the inflections he or she uses, and the musicality.

Then mute or turn off the TV or radio and grab any random bit of text, such as an ad in a piece of mail or magazine. Try to bring the new tone and vocal patterns you've been copying to these new words. You will be using the style you've been mimicking with this new material.

This will really start to train your ear and attune you to what is currently “hot” in the advertising world. And it gets you practicing, reading aloud, and using your voice in new ways.

And it's fun! Enjoy!

Jaem January Newsletter from Tara & Yuri

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Click here to read as a pdf: Jaem January with Tara and Yuri, January, 2014

Thank goodness for the holidays and the winding down of the year to remind us to check in with ourselves on our life's journey, and perhaps journey a bit as well. We took the time to travel to Southeast Asia, and do we have fun pix to share! The title of this newsletter is a nod to the Thai word "jaem" which roughly means clear, bright, distinct, or cheerful plus let's all "jam" in our respective areas as we move forward. What a great way to start a new year! We just finished shooting our steampunk adventure Topsy McGee and Yuri is recording his novella Tough City as an audiobook. Welcome 2014, we are raring and ready for a wonderful new year! May this year be your best year yet!

Tara :) (&Yuri)

Yuri Lowenthal & Tara Platt: Raise Your Voice (Acting)!

Click to read more: Jaem January Newsletter from Tara and Yuri, January, 2014

“Jaem January Newsletter from Tara and Yuri,” January, 2014

Voice Over Essential Tip: Know Your Voice!

This is something that can’t be said enough: you must know your own voice. No matter how long you’ve been living with your voice and how well you think you know it, you’re about to start doing things with it that you’ve probably never done before. So take the time to get friendly with your beautiful and unique pipes. You’ll learn to recognize your limits and your strengths.

Believe it or not, if you don’t know your voice, sometimes booking the job is the worst thing you could do! For example, let’s say you really push your voice way out of your comfort zone in the audition, and you book the job. Well, that’s great, you got the job! But now you have to do that voice (maybe for 52 episodes!), and if you’ve made a choice that your vocal apparatus can’t keep up with (say, a deep gravelly voice that you can only maintain for a few minutes before you get hoarse or keel over in pain), then you’ll end up embarrassed because you’ll have to back out of the project, and the producers will have to find someone else.

In that case, everyone loses, and no matter how many times you apologize, everyone will remember what a snafu you caused. We’re gonna bet most voice actors have a story like this; and you only need one such experience – where you risk losing your voice (and your pride) – to drive home the importance of knowing your own limits.

This isn’t to say you shouldn’t push yourself or that it isn’t possible to expand your range. That’s the fun part! But the key here is staying healthy. Start by becoming conscious of when you are speaking on your voice or off your voice. Just as our fingerprints are unique to each of us, our vocal folds vibrate to create specific vocal patterns which make up our personal and unique vocal signature. Practice creating interesting and specific characters with the voice you have, and not the voice you wish you had.

Sure, it’s possible to imitate someone who has a similar sound or register, but ultimately we are each built differently, and our vocal quality is one more example of this. (You really are unique, just like your mom told you.)

You can expand your healthy voice range just as you would build muscles at the gym – by working out. Taking a singing class or voice class can often provide you with the exercises you need to broaden your range.

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Check out our VoiceOverVoiceActor website for more tips and exercises. We post daily VO tips on Facebook and Twitter, and our book, Voice Over Voice Actor: What it’s like behind the mic  includes a wealth of exercises to build your voice and keep it ready for a successful voice over career!

 

How can Alexander Technique Help You as a Voice Over Actor?

We Voice Over actors use all kinds of techniques to strengthen our skills and keep ourselves in great health and shape: healthy eating, rest, voice coaching, acting lessons, improv practice, tongue twisters, breathing exercises, warm up exercises, face and mouth exercises - anything we can do to make us the best we can be!

Consider trying The Alexander Technique. Research via clinical studies has shown that it can substantially improve posture, stress, breathing, and reduce chronic pain. Since the voice is an inseparable function of the body, all methods of moving and breathing correctly can help you in the art and skill of voice over.

As a student for many years of various voice-over and movement techniques, Tara can't recommend enough getting in touch with your voice, breath, and body thru a class and a teacher that you are passionate about. If you are interested in Alexander Technique there is a fabulous database to help you find a certified teacher near you:

www.alexandertechnique.com/teacher/northamerica/

 You can check out The Alexander Technique and read further here as well:

What is the Alexander Technique?
What are the Benefits of Lessons or Classes?

"The Alexander technique is a way of learning how you can get rid of harmful tension in your body." Although certainly not a full definition of the Alexander Technique, this is a good start.*

"The Alexander Technique is a way of learning to move mindfully through life.

"The Alexander Technique is a method that works to change (movement) habits in our everyday activities.

"The Alexander Technique is an intelligent way to solve body problems."
- So begins an excellent article-length introduction to the Technique.
Read this article.
 

Voice Over in the Studio: The Proper Distance from the Mic

 

Microphone technique

VO actors: The Proper Distance from the Mic

The microphone is very sensitive, so where should you stand in relation to it? The engineer might ask you to get a little closer or stand a little farther back, but here's a good place to start: open up your hand, palm up. Now, close just your three middle fingers (the index, middle finger, and ring finger). You're left with only your pinky finger and thumb extended, much like the popular surfing Hang ten sign or, if you hold your hand up to your ear, the international Call me! sign. The distance from the tip of your pinky to the tip of your thumb is about the distance your mouth should be from the mic. You can also put two fists on top of each other to measure roughly the same distance.

An exception to this mic distance rule is when you're working with a loop group doing ADR and walla. In that case, you'll be working in a larger room, moving around a lot with a group of people, and your distance from the mic will be much farther.

Now, obviously, these rules may change depending on the type of sound you're trying to create. For example, if you're going for a whispered, or soft, sultry quality, you may wish to get a little closer in on the mic. For yelling and screaming you will probably want to back off so as not to blow out the engineer and whoever else may be in the studio.

When you speak, the sound comes out in a cone shape; so while a mic will generally pick you up no matter where you are in the booth, you'll always get your best sound if you're standing directly in front of it. And once you're in position, pay attention to where you are and how that feels. It'll be important for you to maintain a pretty consistent position throughout your session so that the recording quality matches from line to line and session to session.

How much freedom do you have to move around? The answer is … some. You shouldn’t be worried about keeping your head stock-still. You have some play: about 15-20° to the right and to the left. The same goes for up and down. There’s a stand in the booth to hold your script, so feel free to tilt your face down to read from it. The mic can take it, and so can the engineer.

You definitely don’t have to memorize each line and then look up to deliver it, although some people might do this, particularly if they’re looking up to sync with mouth movements on a screen. The trick is to do the looking with just your eyes, and not change the relationship of your mouth to the mic in the middle of a take. Moving your head will make a difference to how the recording sounds. So, before you say the line, decide how you want to place your face in relation to the mic.

Movement only begins to cause problems in two cases:

1. when the movement itself gets noisy, either due to your clothing/shoes or your flailing about and knocking into things

2. when your movement carries you too far from the mic or too close to the mic

Either of these cases can cause you to have to do another take of the line because there are limits to what even the engineer can compensate for.

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Check out our VoiceOverVoiceActor website for more tips and exercises. We post daily VO tips on Facebook and Twitter, and our book, Voice Over Voice Actor: What it’s like behind the mic  includes a wealth of exercises to build your voice and keep it ready for a successful voice over career!

Recommendation for voice over actors: the work of Kirsten Linklater

Voice coaching and training: Kirsten Linklater

For those of you unfamiliar with renowned voice training coach, teacher, and writer Kirstin Linklater, we suggest you read her work and implement her methods.

Ms. Linklater speaks of voice training as a method of freeing the natural voice. Many voice over artists and film and theater actors use her techniques.

This talented women is also a dialect coach and theater director. She is currently at Columbia University as the Head of Acting in the Theater Department.

Also, Linklater's book, Freeing the Natural Voice, is a wonderful tool for the actor. Learning to command your natural voice is a crucial step toward success. We highly recommend reading her work and implementing her techniques.

Check out her website!

“The best actors, and perhaps this can be said for the best performing artists in general (musicians, dancers, singers), are relaxed in performance. That is, they have no extraneous tension. Their muscles are ready to receive the impulses necessary to fulfill action and will ripple with energies in the service of particular stimuli…
In order to develop a voice that will create maximum effect with minimum effort and therefore be truthful, actors must exercise the vocal musculature in a way that conditions the voice to respond to imaginative and emotional stimulus.”
Pg. 39, Freeing the Natural Voice, 2006, Kristin Linklater

Relax. It’s Not Just about You

The best way to learn to audition is not by auditioning. That's the second-best way. The best way is by spending some time in casting. Through the process of casting, I learned how stressful and difficult casting can be, and I can relate to and identify with the casting directors and their needs in a much deeper way. As a talent, that awareness gets me out of my own head and my own need, and need is casting director repellent. In addition, I learned how many, and sometimes most, of the determining factors in casting a role have nothing to do with the quality of my audition. I can let go and have fun doing what I do best; and when I let go, I can book.

- Zach Hanks, Actor, Director

A Mahalo March from Tara & Yuri

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Click Here To Read: A Mahalo March from Tara and Yuri: March 2013

Hello friends,  

Mahalo (the Hawaiian word for thanks) seems appropriate this March already. Spring is starting to bloom and Shelf Life Season 4 is in full swing as of today, March 5th! (we hope you are enjoying it), Tara is appearing in her first big screen flick The Call and we just returned from Hawaii where we shot an episode of Hawaii Five-0 together and also got some playtime for hikes and get-togethers with friends on the island. We are filled with gratitude and love; may we all have a bit more Mahalos in our March.

Tara :) (&Yuri)

P.S. - Today is Yuri's Birthday, so if you see him (or just "see" him online) wish him a happy happy!

Yuri Lowenthal & Tara Platt: Raise Your Voice (Acting)!

Click to read newsletter: A Mahalo March from Tara and Yuri: March 2013

 CONTINUED:

  Click to read the newsletter: A Mahalo March from Tara and Yuri: March 2013

Expand Your Breath! Some good exercises....

Learn about your breathing, then expand or lengthen it, to really increase your skills in VO!

     1. Begin by lying flat on the ground and placing your hand on your abdomen just below your ribs.
     2. Feel the natural rise and fall as you breathe.
     3. Notice the natural ‘pause’ between inhale and exhale.

This is how your body breathes without you trying to do anything to control it. As you breathe, there should be four sections to each breath: 1. an inhale, 2. a pause, 3. an exhale, 4. a pause. We usually don’t feel the pauses because they’re short and they happen naturally, but they’re there, all right.

This next exercise focuses on lengthening, or expanding, your breath:
      Begin by inhaling for a three-count, holding for a three-count, exhaling for a three-count and holding for a three-count.
      Do this until it’s comfortable and then start to increase your count, four-count, five-count, etc. If you start to feel lig ht-headed or dizzy, stop immediately and take a break.
     See if you can comfortably work up to 5, 6, 7 or even 8, 9, 10.

(Tara once had a voice teacher who could breathe in and out on a thirty-count, which comes with a lot of practice. Being able to hold your breath and control your breathing allows you to play with your voice more, giving you more range and stamina, which could come in handy for things such as recording long passages for audiobooks or characters who really ramble on.)

Vocal Warm Ups: The 1-2-3-4 of warming up!

How do you start your warm up? And is there a correct order for warm up exercises? Here are our recommendations:

 1)      WARM UP YOUR VOCAL CORDS:  Begin by gentle warm ups - you may notice when you first wake up that your voice sounds sleepy. Humming and feeling the resonance in your chest is great for getting the voice gently moving.

• Hmmm
• Mmmm

2)      ENUNCIATION:  After your voice starts to feel a little less groggy, begin to focus on enunciation, or the art of speaking clearly. Pay attention to the different ways the mouth must move in order to create the following sounds:

• PTKT pronounced puh-tuh-kuh-tuh
• BDGD pronounced buh-duh-guh-duh
• Wewa pronounced wee-wah
• Trills created by rolling your tongue on the roof of your mouth while saying TR: trrrrr or R: rrrrrr
• Rapid fire succession ptkt-bdgd-ptkt-bdgd

3)      ARTICULATION:  Similar to enunciating, articulation relates to speaking distinctly. Let’s call the moving and non-moving parts of your face and mouth that help you articulate words (lips, teeth, tongue, roof of the mouth) the vocal creators. Articulation is a function of how these vocal creators work together to make sounds. After practicing the enunciation exercises ptkt, bdgd, wewa, try to pull everything together for articulation by saying these rhymes and tongue twisters:

• “What a todo to die today, at a minute or two ‘til two, a thing distinctly hard to say, but harder still to do; for they’ll beat a tattoo at a twenty ‘til two, a rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-too, and the dragon will come when he hears the drum, at a minute or two ‘til two today, at a minute or two ‘til two”
• “Unique New York, Unique New York”
• “Red leather, yellow leather, blue blood, black blood’
• “Brrrrr” made by blowing out with your lips closed to create a motorboat sound, sort of like a raspberry without sticking your tongue out (this can get a little spitty, so watch out)

4)      WORK YOUR RANGE:  And finally, you’ll want to work on your range (the high–to-low pitches that you can take your voice to). Here’s an exercise for expanding your range:

• Sirens (sort of like the sound of a fire truck): eeeeeeeee up and down in range, starting from low to high, and then high to low

Can you Step Out of Your Natural Voice? Stretch Yourself!

REMINDER:

Stepping outside of your natural voice can be a lot of fun! Once you understand what your natural vocal qualities and “sound” are, you can begin to play outside the box and expand the range of characters and qualities you can offer.

This exercise helps you play with a range of emotions. As you read the following phrases, you’ll notice that we have removed all punctuation, which can often be a clue to a phrase’s tone. But in order to expand your range, let’s play around with the many different ways the same phrase can be said. First, see what your natural inclination is when you read the phrase. Copy and paste this blog to a Word Doc, and after each one, write down the adjective that you feel most fits the phrase/sentence. For example, a sentence such as “stop,” might be angry. As you read the phrases, see how you naturally interpret the emotion associated with saying the words.

Exercise: Phrases

• Over here                                          
• I need that                                         
• Let go                                                   
• What are you talking about       
• Don’t do that                                    
• I don’t think that’s a good idea 
• Give me the new one                   
• No                                                         
• Try it again                                         
• Listen to me                                      
• Alright                                                 
• Stop right there                               
• Wow that’s huge                            

Now, review your phrase list and see how you naturally ‘heard’ the specific words. Perhaps your “no,” was “frustrated,” because you assumed that if you are telling someone “no,” it’s because you’re frustrated about something.

Becoming familiar with your instincts can be very helpful because it’ll allow you to make a choice outside of your natural inclination, which can yield very interesting results.

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“Breathing with your diaphragm” What does that mean?

From Wiki: Thoracic diaphragm: “In the anatomy of mammals, the thoracic diaphragm, or simply the diaphragm, (Ancient Greek: διάφραγμα  diáphragma "partition"), is a sheet of internal skeletal muscle that extends across the bottom of the rib cage. The diaphragm separates the thoracic cavity (heart, lungs & ribs) from the abdominal cavity and performs an important function in respiration.”

As a VO artist you need to know about and use your diaphragm!  It is our big breathing muscle, a dome-shaped muscle at the base of your lungs. This shelf of muscle is controlled by the nervous system; it contracts when we inhale, so that a vacuum is created in our  lungs and air rushes in to fill it. The opposite happens when we exhale; the diaphragm relaxes  and the air in the lungs rushes out.

Breath is the fuel of the voice, whether it is for singing or for voice over work. The stronger the diaphragmatic muscles, the better you can regulate the amount of breath that is pushed over your vocal cords, so improving the control you have over your voice in your sessions.  When the diaphragm is strong you can ensure a steady stream of air for your needs, you can speak longer without needing a breath, and you have more power for volume or attack in your speaking. And the stronger the diaphragm, the less effort all of this is for you!

Here is an exercise to help build the strength of your diaphragm, from our book, Voice Over Voice Actor: What It’s Like Behind the Mic!

1. Place your hand on your diaphragm.
2. Open your mouth and allow the tongue to relax and hang out of your mouth.
3. As quickly as possible, inhale and exhale, like you’re a dog panting.
(of course, if you feel dizzy or lightheaded, stop immediately)

We’ve been focusing on strengthening your diaphragm, but that won’t be the only thing you’ll be using. Your diaphragm will be working in conjunction with your mouth, tongue and mind so they must be ready to go as well. Articulation, or the ability to speak clearly, is a crucial element to a voice actor’s repertoire. Not every character you play will need good articulation (and sometimes you may even be told to articulate less), but it is always better to have it up your sleeve, so that if you’re slurring your speech, it’s a choice rather than an issue.

Hum while chewing - it's a great exercise!

We hear good feedback from folks about this exercise, and we find it very helpful.

Give it a try!

1. With your lips closed, start to hum.
2. Then make chewing movements, as if you were eating, and keep humming the  whole time.
3. Now use your hands to feel the vibration in the front of your face, your nose, your cheeks, and gently allow your hands to move to your neck and throat, and perhaps even onto your belly so that you can feel how your voice resonates in different areas of your body.

Using the chewing hum can warm up the different areas where your voice will resonate. Once again, when your voice resonates, it bounces around a certain area of your body, whether that’s up in your face, nose or head area, your throat, or your chest or belly.

Now to begin to identify where your voice is resonating, let’s concentrate on specific sounds that tend to resonate in different areas. Certain sounds we create generally vibrate more toward the head, while others, because we use different muscles to make them, may vibrate lower, toward the belly. If you can learn to control where you choose to place your voice, you can begin to use it in more powerful and interesting ways.

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Great VO Exercise: Raspberries, Sirens, and Lip Trills

1. Keeping your lips together, like you were making imaginary car (or motorboat, if you prefer) “brrrm, brrrrm” noises, and allow your lips to make a “raspberry” type sound (like a good old-fashioned Bronx cheer without sticking your tongue out), or lip trill. Begin at the bottom of your possible range and while continuing the lip trills gradually raise your pitch until you hit your highest note possible.

2. Now reverse direction. Start at the top of your range and move downward thru your natural pitch to your lowest note.

3. Continue your lip trills while going from low to high and back to low again. It’ll sound a little like a siren.

4. Repeat the sirens 3-5 times until you feel like your voice is beginning to get warmed up.

5. This can be hard to describe on paper. Feel free to visit this link ( ) to see an example.

Lip trills are a great way not only to warm up your face and resonators in your sinus cavities, but also helps keep your vocal cords and neck muscles from tensing up while you’re warming up your voice. Don’t worry if your voice cracks during the sirens. That’s just a natural part of expanding your range. We all have “head tones” (high) as well as “chest tones” (low) in our range, and in order to move back and forth continuously from one to the other, you have to move through your natural “break,” which is the sound that often people associate with a teen boy going through puberty. One of the reasons for this is that the vocal cords are actually growing and stretching and sounds that used to be easily within one range move to a different register, and the voice “cracks” as it pushes through unfamiliar territory. So in addition to warming up your voice, this exercise can also help you widen your vocal range.

Sirens w/out Lip Trill

1. Allow your mouth to hang slightly open, and begin an “ee” sound at the bottom of your range. As you exhale, slide your pitch higher and higher until you hit your highest note possible.

2. Now reverse direction. Start at the top of your range and slide your pitch downward until you hit your lowest note.

3. Make sure your face and jaw are relaxed and comfortably open while making the siren sound.

4. Repeat the sirens 3-5 times until you feel like your voice is warming up.
Practicing sirens can really begin to stretch your range and gently allow the musculature in your face and neck (as well as your vocal cords) to begin to become accustomed to the sounds you’ll be making while acting.

Whether you have a high or low-pitched voice you can also begin to think about the placement of the sound you’re making. This is separate from the pitch. Placement relates to the physical location in your body where your voice is resonating. For example, if you have a head cold and are all stuffed up, you might sound very frontal, or nasal, since your sinuses are blocked and thus blocking the sound from escaping completely, therefore creating a very frontal resonant sound. If you drop the sound way back to the back of your throat, then you would almost sound like you were swallowing the sounds, creating a very different quality altogether.

Begin to play around with extremely frontal, a mid-range placement as well as a back placed sound. This is something that you can bring into your work and begin to pick and choose where certain voices you create will be placed and where others will lie instead. [Should this be a new exercise to help develop awareness of where you’re placing your voice?]

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Great Voice Over Exercise: "The Phrasinator"

People tell us this exercise from our book, "Voice Over Voice Actor: What It's Like Behind the Mic"  really helps them, so we thought we'd blog it again:

Try each of these phrases in the emotions suggested at the right. It will really work your ability to quickly change the feel and tone of your expression.

Exercise: The Phrasinator

• Over here......................................... Excited
• I need that........................................ Overjoyed
• Let go...............................................Secretive
• What are you talking about..................Frustrated
• Don’t do that......................................Uncomfortable
• I don’t think that’s a good idea..............Annoyed
• Give me the new one..........................Angry
• No....................................................Scared
• Try it again........................................Sleepy
• Listen to me......................................Happy
• Alright..............................................In awe
• Stop right there.................................Uncomfortable
• Wow that’s huge................................Frightened

Then if you want continue playing with the phrases by trying each of the different descriptions with each of the sentences. To take it one step further, try adding punctuation (? . !) and see how that might change the way you say the lines.

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Here's a great exercise - use current TV commercials!

Really listen to the commercials on your TV or radio. When you find a good commercial you like, try to parrot the VO actor who is speaking the lines.  You'll be repeating the words, of course, but also try to copy, as exactly as you can, the nuances, the tone, the inflections he or she uses, and the musicality.

Then mute or turn off the TV or radio and grab any random bit of text, such as an ad in a piece of mail or magazine. Try to bring the new tone and vocal patterns you've been copying to these new words. You will be using the style you've been mimicking with this new material.

This will really start to train your ear and attune you to what is currently “hot” in the advertising world. And it gets you practicing, reading aloud, and using your voice in new ways.

And it's fun! Enjoy!

Good VO Exercise: Speak with a Pencil in your Teeth!

Tongue Twister Practice

(Exercises republished from VoiceOverVoiceActor.com/Take-Action)

To help improve your diction, lightly grip a pencil (horizontally) between your teeth, so that you are forced to really work your tongue to create the sounds.

Practice speaking out loud the following 3 tongue twisters, clearly enunciating each word:

A thin little boy picked six thick thistle sticks. Sidney Shelly flies through thick fog. This thatched roof is thick.

After saying them each several times, remove the pencil and try saying them again. Listen to how much the clarity of your speech has improved.

Can you believe it is 2012 already? Check out our January newsletter

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In This Issue Back to Work, Back to Play Clockwork Angel Review Contest Winner All is Well in 20-12!

Hello! Can you believe it's 2012 already!? I certainly can't. Last year was a whirlwind and I expect this year to be just as exciting. We have plans for films, more episodes of Shelf Life and look forward to working on more fun projects. I was so excited when Yuri surprised me with a weekend getaway to Paris for our anniversary! Bon Voyage, indeed! :) And then so relaxing to spend the holidays in Idyllwild and Desert Hot Springs for a little R&R. Here's to thrilling and fantastic surprises for your year as well, and to surpassing your goals with your own New Year's Resolutions. My focus this year is on visibility (for our projects, for my work and for our company). Bigger and Better in 2012! Tara :) (&Yuri)   Yuri Lowenthal & Tara Platt: Raise Your Voice (Acting)!

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Newsletter Jan 2012

Remember, Caffeine May Not be a Good Thing for Your VO Session!

REMINDER: Sure, who doesn't like a stimulus and pick-me-up delivered in a tasty beverage like coffee, tea or a soft drink. But when you're getting ready for a VO session, that caffeine can have the unwanted side effect of drying out your vocal chords. So be aware of the effects before hitting the booth. An herbal tea can be a wonderful substitute and still maintain the lubrication necessary to keep your vocal chords moist and healthy.

Do You Have What it Takes for a Career as a Voice Over Actor?

OK, so lots of people, your friends and family, have always told you what a great voice you have. And the thoughts of working from home, for yourself, recording a bit and then playing the rest of the day – these ideas appeal to you?  Well, you are not alone. Voice-over work is a hot industry, and every day tons of people dive into the maelstrom, trying to figure out how to be a success in this arena. It is a grand gig. You can record from home with your own little studio, since technology has advanced to make this a possibility. And you don’t have to have a “look,” a necessity that some people feel hinders the chance of becoming an on-camera actor for many folks.

But the competition is fierce, and just having a good speaking voice and good articulation is not enough. You have to learn to read (perform) and make it sound natural – like you are speaking new thoughts to someone particular. It takes acting skills, and speed of making choices. You have less time in a recording booth in a VO session than in many other forms of acting. You often have never seen the copy until the moment before you are asked to perform.

Another necessary skill is to be able to find the line between enunciation and sounding affected. You can work on this by recording yourself reading copy, and ask friends to give you their honest opinion – does it sound natural, clear, easy to listen to, believable, appealing? It has to sound real.

If you are serious about joining the Voice-Over world, take classes, get coaching, make a great demo, get equipment to record yourself at home, make a website, read all you can about it, listen to people who know, read our many tips here on our website, and consider getting our book, Voice Over Voice Actor.

Most important of all, Practice Practice Practice! And stay passionate about it.

Good luck and have fun.

8 Tips to Starting a Voice Over Career

  1)    You must have a strong dream to get you through the dry times as you get started in VO industry.

2)    Be sure to get ready before you start offering your services.

3)    Keep your job, unless you are independently wealthy! You will need finances to train, create a demo, and it takes time to get started. You need tenacity and perseverance.

4)    Don’t have unrealistic expectations – that way lies heartache. Just because your friends tell you that you have a great voice and are going to make a ton of money, the fact is the competition is huge.

5)    Create a good quality voice over demo (get help with this – it is NOT something to be done on your own).

6)    Further to the last tip, do not think you can be self sufficient in this industry. Even the best VO actors get critiques, engage a coach for continual training, and they practice, practice, practice!

7)    Get a website up! Some people advise that you should wait until your demo is ready to create a website. But these days an online presence is practically mandatory and you might be losing contacts to hold off until your demo is completed. So create it as soon as you can so people who find the site have something to listen to.

8)    Oh, and did we say this already? Practice, practice, practice!

Keep the dream alive. Be realistic and know it will take time. And the more you practice and train, the better your chances of having a fun and rewarding career as a Voice Over artist!