Take Action #20: Articulation

1. P-T-K-T (puh-tuh-kuh-tuh) Repeat the sounds P-T-K-T over and over (p-t-k-t-p-t-k-t…) 2. B-D-G-D (buh-duh-guh-duh) Repeat the sounds B-D-G-D over and over (b-d-g-d-b-d-g-d…) 3. P-T-K-T-B-D-G-D (puh-tuh-kuk-tuh-buh-duh-guh-duh) Repeat the sounds P-T-K-T-B-D-G-D over and over (p-t-k-t-b-d-g-d-p-t-k-t-p-t-g-d…) 4. Vary up the pattern a bit to make it harder for yourself. Try also going up and down the scale while doing this articulation exercise 5. After doing this exercise for a bit, try one of your favorite tongue twisters and see if it’s easier.

This exercise will allow your mouth to get warmed up while working on both plosive and non-plosive sounds. Also be aware of your breathing throughout the articulation exercises, so that it also helps you practice breath control.

Take Action #19: Dog Pant

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.

Take Action #18: Snake Hiss

1. Inhale deeply and then, holding your palm an inch in front of your mouth so you can feel the air, let out a hiss. 2. Hiss for as long as you are comfortable and then take a deep breath. 3. Repeat this 5 times alternating between an “s” hiss and a “z” hiss (which we guess might be called a ‘hizz’).

4. Begin to gradually increase the length of your hiss (or hizz) as you are comfortable. Hissing can strengthen your abdominal muscles and your diaphragm because they are working to maintain one strong continuous flow of air. Another exercise that’ll work your abs is to pant, rapidly, like a dog when it is hot. This exercise will force your diaphragm to rapidly push and pull, which will strengthen it over time, but might tire you out pretty quickly. The benefits are many, though, not the least of which being to help protect your voice when you have to do any shouting or yelling.

Take Action #17: The Count

1-2-3 inhale 1-2-3 hold 1-2-3 exhale 1-2-3 hold 1-2-3-4 inhale 1-2-3-4 hold 1-2-3-4 exhale 1-2-3-4 hold 1-2-3-4-5 inhale 1-2-3-4-5 hold 1-2-3-4-5 exhale 1-2-3-4-5 hold

Having a strong diaphragm will not only help you maintain your breath for longer periods of time, it can also help you yell, scream, shout and make fighting and reaction noises, all of which are likely to come into play in voice acting. Continue exercising and strengthening your diaphragm so that no matter what type of VO job you jump into next, you’ll be that much more ahead of the game.

Certain sounds (“s” and “z”) will naturally help you ‘hold on’ to your voice and increase the amount of time you can breathe in or out. The next exercise will help you to strengthen this ‘muscle.’ Using the “s” or “z” sound, (rather like a snake hissing) try to slow the air down as much as you can while pushing it out. Start by counting to a lower number (say, three) while inhaling, then exhale on the hiss for three as well and up the count as you feel comfortable doing so. Try also adding a count between breathing in and out, so you’re breathing in, holding, then breathing out, holding, then breathing in again, and so on.

Take Action #16: Your Breath

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 light-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.)

Take Action #15: Front-Mid-Back Sounds

1. Using a “nee, nee, nee, nee” sound, try squinting your eyes or scrunching your face muscles between the sounds and on some of the sounds to create a more nasal resonance2. Switch to humming to feel a very mid mouth placement 3. Now move the sound to the back of the mouth and throat by making a “guh, guh, guh guh” sound. 4. Try switching between the “nee”, the hum and the “guh” tofeel how your voice resonates in different areas of your body.

It can be very fun to learn to control your voice and be able to switch between a voice that is more frontal and a voice that is further back. Try reading this paragraph out loud in your natural voice and while doing so, move the sound toward your nose for a bit, and then reverse it and move it toward your throat and belly. Pay attention to where your voice is most comfortable as well as where it’s beginning to expand to offer you new and exciting options.

Take Action #14: Chewing Hum

1. Keep your mouth and lips closed and begin to hum.2. Start chewing, as if you were eating something tasty, as you keep humming. 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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Take Action #13: Sirens with and without Lip Trill

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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Take Action #12: Phrasinator Mix’Em’Up

Using the phrases for our last exercise, try 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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Take Action #11 - Can You Shake Up Your Rhythms?

Our last blog exercise hopefully got you going, stepping out of your natural voice. Now, use the following exercise, which we like to call “The Phrasinator,” to shake up your own rhythms. Read each phrase on the left with the emotional intention on the right.

Exercise: The Phrasinator

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

Was the word on the right not always the word you might have naturally associated with the phrase on the left? Did you discover some fun things simply by shaking things up a bit in this way?

Now, let’s take it one step further, and crank up the phrasinator. Try reading the first phrase with each of the thirteen words in the right-hand column, one at a time. Then move to the second phrase and do the same thing. Then the third, and so on, until you’ve gone through all the phrases and all the descriptive words. Do you begin to feel your old boundaries melting away as you expand your vocal tool box? Are you beginning to see the potential in this exercise for setting your audition apart from how another actor might automatically read a line?

If you want to continue playing with these phrases, take it one step further by adding punctuation (? . ! …) and see how that might change the way you say the lines as well.

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Take Action #10 - Can You Step Out of Your Natural Voice?

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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Take Action #9 - What are your specific vocal qualities?

Taking from Action #7 and #8, consider your list of adjectives and adverbs and how certain words describe other people's voices and particular vocal rhythms and patterns. Now, using your list begin to eliminate words that don't fit your voice and hone in not only on which famous folks have similar sounds to you but what your own vocal description might be.

Adjective/Adverb List

Wry                               Calm                     Perky

Honest                         Open                  Cut-to-the-chase

Sarcastic                     Happy                 Clipped

Giddy                           Haughty              Innocent

Secretive                     Emotional         Bored

Inquisitive                  Playful                  Cool

Sexy                              Witty                     Crazed

Earnest                       Angry                    Grounded

Trustworthy            Confident              Relaxed

As you go through each word on the list, be really honest with yourself when deciding if it fits your voice naturally. Right now the focus is not on whether or not you can sound a certain way if you push it, but how you normally sound without pushing. Happy hunting!

Take Action #8 – What Do Famous Folks Sound Like?

Choose a well-known voice to help you figure out what a particular quality sounds like, and put your quality list into practice. Think about the ways you would describe that voice to someone who couldn’t hear that person? Who are some celebrities who have unique or interesting sounds? What are the qualities of their voices that make their words or thoughts stand out? Use the following list and begin to narrow down particular qualities that a few famous folks have, as well as those of some people you come in contact with daily.

Exercise - Other People’s Qualities

Drew Barrymore

Samuel L. Jackson

Michael Jordan

Christopher Walken

Angelina Jolie

Barack Obama

George Clooney

Lucy Liu

The radio dj

A friend

A family member

______________

Take Action #7 – How do these words make you feel?

Begin by reading the list below and noting what each particular word means to you: how each word affects you, or what kinds of thoughts or feelings come up when you read them. What are the attributes or qualities of each specific descriptive word? Of course, if there are any of these words that you are unfamiliar with, do not hesitate to look them up.

Adjective/Adverb List

Wry                                       Calm                                      Perky

Honest                                 Open                                     Cut-to-the-chase

Sarcastic                             Happy                                  Clipped

Giddy                                    Haughty                                Innocent

Secretive                            Emotional                              Bored

Inquisitive                           Playful                                   Cool

Sexy                                       Witty                                    Crazed

Earnest                                Angry                                    Grounded

Trustworthy                        Confident                             Relaxed

Start with the first word on our list: wry. Think about what it means to you. Who is someone you think is wry? What are the qualities you associate with wry? What pictures or images come to mind when you think of that word? As they come to you, jot them down.

For example, when I think of wry I imagine someone who cuts-to-the-chase, makes no-bones-about what they are saying but does it in a very tongue-and-cheek kind-of-way. Someone who is wry almost seems to be smirking as they tell you the facts; I can picture a weary mom telling me about a trying to keep her kids’ clothes clean with a wry, “What are you gonna do? I love them, but they just get so darn dirty."

Take Action #6 – What can you learn from the people around you (without them even knowing…)?

One great way of getting your ear (and then your voice) attuned to a variety of voices, inflections, accents and qualities is to go people watching, or people-listening, rather... Find a fairly busy spot, like a mall, a zoo, a crowded lobby, café, etc, sit yourself down, and observe. Listen to how different people talk, take note of their pauses, inflections, their unique affectations and things you find interesting about them. Without appearing creepy, you might even pay attention to their mouths to see if there’s something specific they’re doing to create sounds.

If you think it might help, bring a note pad along so you can take notes on things you want to remember. Consider also bringing your quality check list with you so you can quantify for yourself the characteristics of the voices you’re hearing. In case you haven’t built a quality list yet, here are some examples to start with. Use them as a jumping-off point and add your own!

Calm      Pointed      Sincere      Flustered      Agitated      Loving

Hypnotic      Polite     Warm       Shrill       Distant       Brash

See how many different qualities a particular person’s voice might have: perhaps they have a calm, sincere, loving, polite voice, or maybe their voice is pointed and agitated. Mix and match to best describe the voice you are listening to, or add any qualities you become aware of that aren’t yet on your list.

Happy people listening!

Take Action #5 - Read Aloud

We stress the importance of reading out loud. It may seem simple, and maybe you haven’t done it in years, but it can be hugely effective in improving everything from your acting to your ability to quickly assess a script, make choices, and pull the words off the page. Sir Ian McKellen claims that reading out loud was how he learned to act, and I think most of us will agree that he knows his stuff in that area. So, good enough for Sir Ian, good enough for us. Here’s a simple exercise you can almost anywhere and on your own time: Pick three things to read. Any bit of written media will work. Start small if you want. A pamphlet, a matchbook, a newspaper article, a newspaper ad, a comic book, a shopping list, someone’s blog, anything. Over the course of the day, collect those three things. Now-- and this is where it gets tricky –read them. Out loud.

Read each one at least once through, and if you’ve got time and you’re enjoying yourself, read them through again. See if each time through differs for you. See how the writings may be different from each other. Is one a story? Is one just trying to sell a product? Is one using a story to try and sell a product? Is one just a list of numbers on a receipt? If you’re having fun, give a different “character” to each one, or even switch it up within the writings.

You may not feel a change after doing this exercise, but trust us, it gets your brain and mouth working in all the right ways. Most importantly, as long as you’re reading out loud there is no wrong way to do this exercise. Unless of course you’re a monk who had, until this exercise, taken a vow of silence. Or if you’re in a library where they frown on doing anything out loud.

Have fun!

Take Action #4: The Business Side of Acting

As actors we can sometimes become too focused on the craft of acting and neglect something that's equally important: the business side of acting. This may not be as "fun", but just as important as tuning your vocal instrument is finding out who might hire you to use your voice and where they are. It's a pro-active way of forwarding your career in voice-over. So for a moment look at VO as a military objective. This week's exercise focuses on selecting a few targets and doing a little recon, or research. And you won't even need to get your hands dirty. Start with what you like. For example, if you really like the show Naruto, you might search and find out that in the United States, Naruto is licensed by a company called Viz. A little more looking (with your friend Google) might turn up that the English dub for Naruto is recorded at Studiopolis. Voila! You now have a production company to add to your hit list when you have a demo to mail out! With commercials, you might have to be a little more investigative, but there are resources (such as adforum.com) out there that can help you find the ad agency who produced the commercial and who's associated with the promotion of that product.

So, for this exercise, pick an area to start with: animation, video games, or commercials. Now choose three of your favorite shows/movies, video games or commercials. Begin to do a little Internet legwork. Find out who the production company is, and in the case of commercials, the ad agency who commissioned the spot. Try and discover if the company/agency casts their projects in-house, or if they have a relationship with a separate casting company. In some cases, you may even find that the same studio/ad agency produced more than one of your selections, then you know they're definitely somebody you want to target.

There is plenty of information available on the Web, and a little digging could turn up e-mail addresses or maybe phone numbers that you could use to contact the company and find out who might be best to send your reel to. Start a file and keep the info you find for future reference. Good hunting!

Take Action #3: Breathing is Crucial in Voice-Over

Sure, breathing is important to staying alive, but because we do it all the time, we kind of take it for granted and we sometimes get lazy with it. Breathing is crucial in voice-over. You can't speak without breathing, and you can create powerful (and safer) vocal effects with proper breath control. To increase your breath control try this simple exercise. Start standing. Simply notice your breath. Now, exhale all the air in your lungs and hop/jump up into the air as you inhale as much air as you can. Then as you land begin counting aloud, "one-two-three-four..." up as high as you can on that breath. When you've emptied your lungs of air once more, jump up as you inhale as much as you can, and then land and begin counting out loud again. See if you can't get a few numbers higher than the first time, speaking as you exhale, or "on your breath."

Do this several times. Try to see if you can best your initial count by 10. Do this every day and you should begin to notice that you have better breath control and increased lung capacity. This will help sustain and protect your voice as you speak "on your breath."

** If at any point during this exercise you begin to feel dizzy, or otherwise uncomfortable, stop immediately. As with any other exercise, consult a physician before engaging in a new or unfamiliar activity.

Take Action #2: Parrot the Actors in Commercials!

(Exercises re-published with permission from VoiceOverVoiceActor.com) Flip channels on your television or radio for 5 minutes to listen to commercials. Each time you find a commercial, try parroting the voice actor who is speaking. Try to repeat not only the words, but the musicality, the nuances, the tone, and the inflections.

Then turn off the radio or TV and pick up a random piece of text (it can be an advertisement in a magazine, a book, a piece of mail, etc). Try to use the same vocal patterns, tonality and style you were just mimicking as you read this new material.

Practicing this will begin to train your ear, attune you to what is currently "hot" in the advertising world, and get you reading and speaking aloud, which is important in and of itself.