Lesson #1 -

Overcome Your Fears

Finally my 4-year-old granddaughter said the magic words. “Gandad, I want to talk on your microphone.” So off to the studio we went.

She refused my offer of sitting in my chair but opted for a better solution, sitting in my lap. A patch cord here, a level set there, a click of the record button, and we were up and running.

I told her simply to repeat after me. “My name is Katie.” What came out was not the clear, distinct, precious voice that I love to hear. Instead there came a shy, affected, even fearful voice as she was obviously intimidated by the microphone.

“Don’t be afraid. Talk like you normally talk,” I said in a comforting tone. “I don’t want Gram to hear me,” she responded timidly.

For several minutes I continued to exhort and encourage helping her to overcome her fear and arrive at her natural voice.

The expressions on her face during playback revealed her appraisal of the experience as she went from displeasure to elation. Even at age four she could distinguish between good and bad.

This experience demonstrates two of the greatest obstacles that must be overcome in order to become a competent and successful voice talent: (1) fear of an audience and (2) natural doesn’t come naturally.

Fear of an Audience

Public speaking has long been highly ranked on the “fear” scale. Voice talent is a form of public speaking. If you’re alone in a studio, just you and the microphone, you’re likely relatively comfortable. But when you know someone is listening then the fear level escalates. Some of us are naturally born hams and love an audience but it has been my experience that many shy individuals have been drawn to the microphone. The best way to overcome microphone fear is to, borrowing a phrase from Nike, “just do it!” The more you do it the more comfortable you will become.

Invite family and friends into the studio with you to grow accustomed to the presence of an audience.  Employ the help of a friend who is already in the business. Get them to critique you as you read through a script. You will need to get accustomed to handling the input of others.

Hire a voice talent coach to guide your performance. Learning to employ direction with which, on occasion, you take exception will go a long way in helping you to advance your career. I’ve had directors and clients who insisted on a read that I perceived as ridiculous. Sometimes they actually brought a better performance out of me. In other situations I was right and they were wrong. Despite my feelings on the outcome, I still got paid.

Natural Doesn’t Come Naturally

When you hear your recorded voice for the first time you are probably going to be shocked. The way we sound to ourselves is radically different than the way we sound to others. Often I’ve heard people, hearing themselves for the first time respond by saying, “Do I really sound like that?”

All of us have probably seen the old-time radio announcer with his hand pressed over one ear. Actually, there was a reason for the doing it. Not a good one, but nonetheless there were those who employed the practice. The idea was to be able to hear yourself the way you really sound. In reality, it may help a little but it still doesn’t really give you a true reproduction of your natural voice. Wearing headphones can be helpful but even they can be a crutch that tends to cause you to focus more on your voice than on your read.

You can easily identify the voices of family, friends, and celebrities because you clearly identify the sound. Your individual voice is not recognizable because you’ve never heard yourself in the same way as others hear you. When you first begin to record your voice you will seek to arrive at a sound like you think you sound. And if you don’t like that sound you will keep doctoring it until you arrive at a sound that is closer to what you think you should sound.

Take a couple of deep breaths, relax, and remove all tightness from your throat. Refuse to do anything that discolors your natural voice. Practice and record, practice and record, and keep repeating the process. Once you’ve mastered natural add your personality including mood and emotion. Then work on inflection and modulation. Beware though, even inflection and modulation can sound unnatural.

Once you’ve arrived at your natural voice you will have uncovered that which makes you truly unique. Your voice-print is like your finger print. It is who you are and what audiences will most easily be attracted to.

Now, that voice calling you to supper. Is it your wife? Your girlfriend? Your husband? Your momma? How did you know? You’ve heard that recognizable voice-print that distinguishes them from anyone else thousands of times before. Find your natural voice, accept it, develop it to its full potential, and start making money being you. Don’t think that you can fix it once and keep it that way. Maintaining your natural voice-print requires continual monitoring throughout the remainder of your career. Natural doesn’t come natural!.

These lessons have been written by Richard Weirich. 

For help with your voice talent career contact Richard at rw7475@gmail.com or (205) 260-9362. 

Voice Talent coaching services are available.  Initial critiques are free.