If you do a basic Google search for training techniques for voice overs, you will probably find a mixed bag of tips on how to get a lower voice, how to raise your voice, or how to get a more interesting sounding voice. As a new voice actor, it is often a good idea to follow the advice of the voice actors who have been making it big in the industry for a long time.
While the pros have great pearls of wisdom to bestow on us all, don’t forsake your common sense to enhance your voice and your career! Not all advice out there is worth following, and many pieces of advice can actually hurt you.
This is by new means a complete list, but it’s a good start!
1. Drink hard alcohol and smoke. This one is obvious, right? Not to everyone. In the radio business, DJs used to, and maybe still are, advised to drink and smoke to enhance the resonance of their voices. The smoking and drinking actually does help them develop more resonance, but at the cost of lowering the range of pitch at the same time. This process actually happens naturally as a person ages, but smoking and drinking a lot expedites the process. This means that a person who drinks and smokes ends up losing the “young” sound and gaining the “old” sound while they are still young, but when they get old they have no sound!
2. Take a shot of alcohol just to calm your nerves. Before you record a voice job, you shouldn’t drink anything other than water for the sake of your vocal cords. If you are actually doing a live recording session with a client, it is not wise to take a drink before you meet them, even if you do get performance anxiety. Getting in a couple good takes quickly isn’t worth the risk that the client will smell the alcohol on your breath or will be able to tell from your mannerisms that you took a shot to take off the edge. If the client suspects you were drinking, they likely won’t call you for future gigs, and you never know who they talk to. Find another way to relax, such as deep breathing techniques or yoga!
3. Vocal cord surgery. This one baffles me. There must have been successful operations in the past, otherwise no one would even think about it … The bottom line is vocal cord surgery is likely to be expensive, and there is no guarantee what your voice will sound like post-op. If you are unhappy with the quality of your voice and want to work in a different niche, consider taking voice over training classes to enhance your technique. Especially because more and more clients are opting for voice actors with good natural speaking voices to market their products, there’s simply no reason to mess with what you were born with.
4. Stress your voice to the breaking point. Regularly testing the limits of your voice by speaking in a very high or very low range will not give you the skills to talk naturally in a very high or very low range! Pushing the limits of your vocal range will only break your voice. In the short run, your will hurt your throat. In the long run, however, you could do permanent damage to your voice so that you’re not able to speak will in your own natural range.
Basically, if a suggested technique is painful or bad for your body, it probably isn’t doing you any good anyway. Stick to your common sense, and don’t listen to everything you hear. What works for one voice actor might not work for you, but one thing is for sure — drinking vodka tonics or whiskey won’t help you rake in the voice jobs! There is no quick fix when it comes to your vocal technique, and there’s no substitute for hard work.
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