0221 – Pitch Variety Try and use a wide vocal range when speaking to make what you say more interesting. Some broadcasters compress their range (say, 4,5 and 6 in our example above), thinking that that gives them more authority. It actually makes them sound flat, boring, monotonous and without feeling, reducing their ability to convey a message appropriately. Using natural pitch diversity (as most people use in natural everyday conversation) and you will come over as more real and authentic, tru...
Aug 08, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 221
0220 – What A Carry On! Kenneth Williams On How His Comic Voice Caused Serious Injury Forcing your voice to do anything unusual is not good, as the British comic actor Kenneth Williams recounted about the over-the-top ‘cowboy drawl’ voice he adopted, together with a misaligned jaw, when he played the part of Judge Burke in ‘Carry On Cowboy’ (1965): (AUDIO) “…and I was doing all this on the first day of the film, and at the end of the day I was in agony. And my jaw… it had strained all the ligame...
Aug 07, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 220
0219 – What Accents Are The Most Sexy? Interested in this? Watch this video to find out more on what accents are considered sexy: https://www.bbc.co.uk/reel/playlist/the-laws-of-attraction?vpid=p09f7crq Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care...
Aug 06, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 219
0218 – Research: Men With Deeper Voices Are More Attractive – But Cheat More In October 2020, Chinese researchers [1] claimed that although men with deep voices are more likely to attract a partner, they are also more likely to cheat on them The team said that women are often attracted to men with low, rich voices because they are associated with high testosterone levels which, in evolutionary terms, suggests the speaker will be a good mate for producing healthy children. However, men with highe...
Aug 05, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 218
0217 – How Imperfect Pitch Got Jamal Into A Jam Forcing your voice into a ‘false pitch’, can literally cramp your style. A voice that is deliberately pushed low can sound unnaturally strained and can cause physical harm to the speaker. Additionally, if you start speaking at an enforced low pitch you will restrict your ability for natural nuance when it is necessary for selected words, leading to a voice that sounds monotonous. Oh and some people deliberately speak in a high register in the mista...
Aug 04, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 217
0216 – Margaret Thatcher’s Pitch Profile “From tape recordings of speeches made before and after receiving tuition a marked difference can be very hear. When there are played through an electronic pitch analyser, it emerges that she achieved a reduction in pitch of 46 Hz, a figure which is almost half the average difference in pitch between male and female voices.” [1] But forcing your voice into a lower pitch can be damaging. In the short term it can be tiring : you are unnecessarily using musc...
Aug 03, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 216
0215 – Lowering Your Pitch Lowering your pitch Your register is not only dictated by the speed your vocal folds vibrate, but also how taught they are. So, it stands to reason that to lower it, your folds need to be less-taught. They cannot be relaxed by themselves, but only with the rest of the body. So, less stress, better posture and breathing, will all contribute to a more relaxed state overall … and so slightly lower the pitch of your voice. Refer back to the 1-10 range mentioned before. Som...
Aug 02, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 215
0214 Politicians’ Different Pitches For Different People And Different Policies A study at UCLA [1] found that the best speakers, usually politicians, varied their voice within a single speech to appeal to listeners of different ages, genders and backgrounds, and depending on the topic being talked about. A savvy politician may sound authoritarian when discussing foreign policy, for example, and more caring when addressing health issues. [1] https://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/got-charisma-look-fo...
Aug 01, 2021•1 min•Season 1Ep. 214
0213 - The ‘Higher And Louder’ Pitfall We look at the volume of a voice a little later, but for now let’s take a glance its relationship with pitch, because there is a potential pitfall of using volume for emphasis, instead of pitch. Doing this might cause people to perceive your voice as shrill, and you as hysterical (something that Hillary Clinton was accused of [1] ). Both in a studio and in an auditorium, you should usually be letting the microphone do the work of boosting your volume. Empha...
Jul 31, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 213
0212 - Your Pitch Range If you use a wide pitch range when speaking will help engage your audience. That’s not to say it should be super-wide: swooping up and down from sentence to sentence will make you sound very odd indeed, at best patronising at worse, manic. No, the range needs to be appropriately engagingly expressive. Now that you have found your natural pitch, you will realise that you vary from it in normal conversation, a few notes up and a few notes down. And when you want to draw att...
Jul 30, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 212
0211 - Your Actual Natural Voice Pitch Now you are stress-free, and belly-breathing, simply say your name, as though you have been asked it by as new acquaintance. The pitch you use when you say that in a stress-free state is your natural pitch. Another technique is to agree with me, yes? “ Uh-huh ” you reply and the pitch at which you say that is likely your home note. Another is to sigh. All of these should produce a note that is comfortable and natural for you to start your ‘pitch range’ from...
Jul 29, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 211
0210 – Michael Caine on How Your Voice Pitch Can Be Affected By Nerves Nerves and Pitch When you are nervous and your body is tense it has little breath support, and you will tend to start a sentence in the upper half of your natural pitch range, which restricts your ‘intonational ability’: you simply have less ‘vocal head room’ in which you can give words and phrases their due inflection. Even the most illustrious of names can have nerves affect their voice pitch: (AUDIO) “I was nervous when I ...
Jul 28, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 210
0209 – Stressful Sally’s Story Sally worked as a TV presenter out of a small and busy newsroom where everyone was expected to do everything. She loved her job but was concerned about the pitch of her voice, and wanted to know ways to lower it because she thought it too shrill. Would smoking help, she wondered, or maybe more late nights with friends? On visiting Sally in her office, the cause of her concern was apparent. Even though she was the presenter of the evening news show, she also had to ...
Jul 27, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 209
0208 – Your Resting Pitch Your resting pitch Your pitch will have a centre note, a ‘home’ from which you will be able to inflect words and sentences up and down within a range. It’s where your natural speaking voice mostly sits, in the centre of your vocal range, that gives you optimal resonance, the sound that you will produce without force or strain, and will make you feel and sound confident and focussed. There are several tricks to finding this note and you should do this once you have de-st...
Jul 26, 2021•5 min•Season 1Ep. 208
0207 – Why You Sound Different To You The reason your voice sounds different to you rather than how everyone else hears it, is because of acoustics. Everyone else hears exactly the same ‘end result’ of sound from your mouth as it is heard within the situation that you are speaking – a sound-conditioned studio, the reflective surfaces of a bathroom or whatever. (At least we presume everyone hears the same thing, we have no way of knowing that specifically!) You hear the sound you make, with your ...
Jul 25, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 207
0206 - So what is ‘pitch’? Whether a voice is high or low in tone is determined by: · the rate of vibration of the vocal cords as air passes over them - the more vibrations per second, the higher the pitch. And as we saw earlier, the rate of vibration is to do with: · the length, thickness and degree of tension of the vocal folds, so slow-moving short, thick, relaxed folds make a lower pitch. Cartilage can almost imperceptibly re-adjust how the vocal folds are held. As they move backwards and fo...
Jul 24, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 206
0205 – An Introduction to Pitch “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning” Maya Angelou - Poet and civil rights activist Definitions I try to be very careful when using language around voice, because of how terms have been used over time and the effects that’s had on people’s perceptions of explanations. Pitch, tone and intonation all refer to different aspects of our voice. Pitch is the degree of highness or lowness with which o...
Jul 23, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 205
0204 – Don’t Be Too Much 1. Too much punch – you will be running short of breath 2. Too extreme use of upward inflection – you will sound like a child 3. Too slow on long phrases – you will sound patronising 4. Too many obvious pauses – you will sound jerky 5. Too many changes in projection – you will sound too dramatic Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and rea...
Jul 22, 2021•1 min•Season 1Ep. 204
0203 – Reading Out Loud Of course on radio and podcasts, when you aren’t seen, sound is all that you have to create visuals. That may be music or sound effects, and also the words that you utter, but it is your disembodied voice that creates much of the ‘picture’ on the kind of the listener. Let’s be honest, reading is an unnatural process. We have evolved over millions of years communicating via grunts and then quite recently, by using words. Our ancestors told each other stories and passed on ...
Jul 21, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 203
0202 – The Story So Far “The tongue can paint what the eyes can’t see.” Chinese proverb You can see how our ‘voyage of the voice’ continues; let’s chart the progress we have made so far: · We started off talking about the basics of how to sit and breath to give the voice support · Then we tracked the journey of air from our lungs to the larynx and into the mouth and nose. There we talked about the resonators which help give your voice ‘body’ – whatever the tone. · In the mouth we discussed artic...
Jul 20, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 202
0201 - Be Prepared But Flexible Be prepared but flexible Flexible? Yes, many times the director and the clients at a voice-over production will disagree amongst themselves on how a script should be read, what words are the most important, or the tone of the overall read. As the voice actor your job is to bring your experience but to read in the way that the client asks you to. And if you have rehearsed so much that you have become too ‘set in your speak’, it may be tricky to break out from it. O...
Jul 19, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 201
0200 - Taking Apart A Voice Over Script Pt 3 · Big Name Kitchen Electricals o Another way to signify importance of a words is to give initial capitalisations. That’s what’s happened here, but it’s unclear why. · AT STEWART’S!!! o Another punctuation combination: capitals and not one but three exclamation marks. Certainly, as the name of the store, the information is important, but it’s unclear how excited the reader needs to be when saying this name. · That’s up to 50% Off ALL . o The first word...
Jul 18, 2021•4 min•Season 1Ep. 200
0199 - Taking Apart A Voice Over Script Pt 2 That script is not helpful! · Save o This is bold and italicised, but it’s unclear why. Certainly there needs to be an emphasis on this key word, but how that emphasis differs from the not-bolded, but capitalised and underlined word that follows is unclear. · BIG o Again, an emphasis on another key word at the start of the script is good. But how much emphasis is to be given is unclear in this randomised punctuation. · up to o This is in normal font, ...
Jul 17, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 199
0198 – Taking Apart A Voice Over Script Pt 1 The marks ‘built in’ to the script by the writer should give you an idea of the intention behind the words, how they ‘heard the words’ in their head as it was being written. But sometimes the various bolds, underlinings, italicisations and CAPITALISATIONS and exclamation marks can be more confusing and contradictory rather than give reassuring direction!!!! (Direction: energised and excited.) Save BIG up to HALF PRICE off ALL Big Name Kitchen Electric...
Jul 16, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 198
0197 – How To Be A Better Reader How to be a better reader To be a better reader… become a better reader! · Read more content – magazines, games cartridges, cereal packets… · Read out loud · Read umpteen different styles, even ones that you have no immediate interest in · Read without initial proof-reading first. · Read for a long time to build up your ‘vocal stamina’ – I’m not saying read without a break or without drinking water, but a short burst of a two-minute read won’t prepare you for an ...
Jul 15, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 197
0196 – She Fell From Her House When You Make A Mistake On Air This may simply be a result of poor sight reading, not having enough time to pre-read a script, not marking it up correctly, reading too fast, being distracted, being stressed, not understanding a story well enough to be able to presume where the grammar was taking the reader … or because of a scriptwriter who has not checked their work before submitting it – someone who has neither a spell-check or sense of professionalism or respons...
Jul 14, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 196
0195 – Over-Rehearsing Over-rehearsing However, (!) recording a script over and over until it’s perfect (whatever that is!) doesn’t necessarily help. It’s possible that you read it so much that you forget what the overall message is, or you see too many conflicting messages, causing you to get locked in a certain rhythm or tone pattern. With a voiceover you may have recorded so many versions that you don’t know which is the best ‘take’. You’re suffering from ‘ear fatigue’, so it’s probably best ...
Jul 13, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 195
0194 - Rehearsing Your Script Rehearsals If you have every watched “ Strictly Come Dancing ” or “ Dancing with the Stars ” on the tv, I would imagine that you have never presumed that neither the pros not the amateurs simply rock up to the studio, take to the floor and perform faultlessly. In a similar way to the dancers having to get their legs and arms and torsos (and everything!) to learn the routine (‘muscle memory’), you have to rehearse your articulators, such as your lips and tongue to ma...
Jul 12, 2021•6 min•Season 1Ep. 194
0193 – Marking Up For… An Awkward Word Marking up for… an awkward word To flag troublesome terms (ones that might cause pronunciation problems, we looked at these before), consider drawing a box or circle around it, with a how-to-say-it guide just above. It’s back! It’s big! It’ll save you money! {Stewart’s Big Holiday Weekend Sale!} Big money deals from big household names! Krupps! Philips! Zanussi! And remember! Every sixth customer, gets an additional 16% off! Certainly, after marking-up, you...
Jul 11, 2021•3 min•Season 1Ep. 193
0192 – Marking Up For… A Faster Read Marking up for… a faster read (more on the ‘speed of a read’ later) Some texts are presented quickly to add excitement and others more slowly to give perhaps a more luxurious feel. But sometimes scripts aren’t read at a constant speed at all, but have different flow-rates within them. This adds interest to the message and also allows the reader to ‘skip over’ some of the less interesting information and spend a bit more time on what’s important. To indicate t...
Jul 10, 2021•2 min•Season 1Ep. 192
