2023.01.30 – 0760 – Signs Your Voice Isn’t As It Should Be (How To Use Your Voice For A Four Hour Show And Not Damage Or Lose It)?? Signs that your voice isn’t as it should be Of course, only you really know how your voice usually sounds and how you usually feel, but there are some tell-tale red flags that may indicate a current or looming problem: Effort - it all needs more conscious energy to speak, not just after a one-off long day, but regularly Projection – you have to work hard to push or ...
Jan 30, 2023•1 min•Season 3Ep. 760
2023.01.29 – 0759 – Potentially Unhelpful Vocal Rest Potentially ‘unhelpful’ vocal rest This might include: Not speaking for two days before a studio session to “ prepare my voice ” – as an athlete might do gentle warm-ups before a big race rather than lie in bed all day, so you should give your voice gentle exercises A voice actor or presenter who feels exhausted after a 4-hour studio session, and decides to skip ‘warming down’ exercises to “ save my voice ”. Think about the ‘back-to-work work...
Jan 29, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 759
2023.01.28 – 0758 – The Importance Of Voice Naps If you are using your voice a lot, try and schedule some specific ‘voice naps’ into your day, where you don’t talk for 5-15 minutes at a time on several occasions throughout the day. By taking ‘voice naps’ you can top up your ‘voice battery’. This may mean: · Planning your schedule – spread out your vocal tasks, so for example taking a break from bulk-recording several podcasts in a row · Planning your pauses - scheduling your ‘vocal naps’ so you ...
Jan 28, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 758
2023.01.27 – 0757 – Outside Elements Damaging Your Voice As well as external environmental issues such as: · Air humidity - dry air is thought to increase the stress on the vocal folds, so beware of studio air conditioning. Anything that cools it down or warms it up can dry out the air. · Hydration - dehydration may increase the effects of stress on the folds Keeping an eye on how your ‘vocal battery’ is can be difficult for a working radio or tv presenter who will spend much of their day on the...
Jan 27, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 757
2023.01.26 – 0756 – Your Vocal Battery PROFESSIONAL VOCAL STRAIN It is of course better to ‘defend not mend’ – and prevention is easier than a remedy. So, look after your folds and everything else that helps your body create a great sound. Be aware of how much you are using your voice during the day, and how much rest you are giving it. The ‘Vocal Battery’ Think of your voice-use as a battery: you start the day with it fully-charged but during the course of the day with the amount and kind of us...
Jan 26, 2023•5 min•Season 3Ep. 756
2023.01.25 – 0755 – Why Your Evening Meal Could Be Killing Your Voice Acid reflux [1] This is when digestive juices (made up of strong acids and enzymes) find their way from the stomach into the oesophagus. Known by doctors as GERD (‘gastro-esophageal reflux disease) or GOR (‘gastro-oesophageal reflux), symptoms include heartburn, indigestion, coughing, belching, general discomfort and a sour taste in the mouth. For some people, these juices may even get into the trachea causing irritation to th...
Jan 25, 2023•10 min•Season 3Ep. 755
2023.01.24 – 0754 – Why ‘Thirst’ Is Unreliable Your unreliable dehydration warning system When you feel thirsty you are already dehydrated. That’s because whereas the body treats food with a ‘store now - use later policy’, excess fluid will simply be excreted. You’ll just pee. So, the ‘thirst mechanism’ is unreliable. To stop feeling thirsty (and so, dehydrated), and because your thirst is satiated before complete hydration is achieved, regular sipping is the common-sense approach. Set a daily f...
Jan 24, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 754
2023.01.23 – 0753 – Hydration Oughta Be Water, But… Where hydration comes from Hydration oughta be water, plain, pure and at room temperature. But if you’re struggling to drink enough try: · Try flavouring your water with fruit · Drink caffeine-free tea like chamomile, ginger, or peppermint tea · Eat foods that contain more water, such as cucumbers or melons o Cruciferous vegetables, leafy greens and high fibre fruits contain good nutrients and vitamins, which help keep the voice healthy and lub...
Jan 23, 2023•7 min•Season 3Ep. 753
2023.01.22 – 0752 – Hydrate to Sound Great. Here’s Why… The more dehydrated you are: · The drier the cords · The poorer the quality of your voice · The less you will get from each breath · The shorter the time you can talk or sing · The more likely it is that you will get a hoarse voice · The more likely it will be that you have weird mouth noises, clicks and sucks · The more difficult it will be to clearly articulate, resulting in more verbal trips, increased mental anxiety and skeletal tension...
Jan 22, 2023•52 sec•Season 3Ep. 752
2023.01.21 – 0751 – A Moment On Mucus So, hydration affects the folds specifically in two ways: · ‘Systemic hydration’ is the term for hydrating your whole body, the cells and the tissues from inside out · ‘Topical (or ‘surface’) hydration’ affects the moisture levels of the surface of the vocal folds, keeping them slippery enough to vibrate. The vocal folds are covered in a thin protective coating of slippery, stringy and slimy mucus [1] made up of water, antibodies, enzymes, proteins and salt....
Jan 21, 2023•4 min•Season 3Ep. 751
2023.01.20 – 0750 – The Hydration Situation The Hydration Situation (or How to ‘Get A Wetter Broadcast, Podcast and Voiceover Voice’) Up to 60% of the human adult body is water [1] : the brain and heart are composed of 73% water; the lungs are about 83% water; skin contains 64% water; muscles and kidneys are 79%; bones 31% water. Each day we have to consume a certain amount of water to survive, depending on things like age, size and climate [2] . Generally, an adult male need about 3 litres (5 p...
Jan 20, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 750
2023.01.19 – 0749 – Why Cough Sweets Are A Con First up, it’s important to realise that nothing you swallow touches your vocal folds. Yep, those soothing cough sweets you take for example, go nowhere near them and any help they might give is either somewhere else in the vocal tract, or simply psychosomatic. (Indeed, as we’ll see later, such lozenges may actually be causing other problems!). I mean it stands to reason doesn’t it?: your voice comes from air from your lungs passing over your vocal ...
Jan 19, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 749
2023.01.18 – 0748 – Vocal Health as Asset Protection As we have seen, the vocal cords are super thin muscular folds the length of your thumb nail. Air exhaled from the lungs passes over the taut cords and they vibrate [1] , producing sound waves. High-pitched sounds are made when the cords are short and taut [2] . They work best when they are really well hydrated and it’s really hard for them to work, and they are more-easily damaged, when they’re dry or have too much phlegm on them. Looking aft...
Jan 18, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 748
2023.01.17 – 0747 – You Are A Vocal Athlete We are vocal athletes! Those of us who speak for a living are trained and skilled, we have physical strength, agility and stamina. We can get highly stressed and suffer from fatigue that affects our performance. And we use our body in an unusual way. So, be aware of what kind of foods, situations or symptoms are the precursor to poor vocal health. And then avoid them. We all vary how much we speak during a day because of everything from studio work to ...
Jan 17, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 747
2023.01.16 – 0746 – Exercise Advisories Over the years in the many training sessions I have led, I have just known that the advice I have given to my clients in this area is going to be ignored: lip trills have been considered childish, to mindfully meditate was seen as ‘hippy’ hokum, stopping smoking as an unnecessary infringement. I am happy to say that in recent years those views have largely changed as people have become more aware of the value of looking after themselves vocally, physically...
Jan 16, 2023•4 min•Season 3Ep. 746
2023.01.15 – 0745 – Your Vocal, Physical and Emotional Health: an introduction ‘The first thing to be considered is what sort of voice we have and next, how we use it. The natural power of the voice is judged by its quantity and quality. The good qualities of the voice are improved by attention and deteriorated by neglect.’ Quintilian, first century AD, a leading instructor in eloquence at the school of oratory in Rome Let’s take a look at some changes that can affect your voice almost overnight...
Jan 15, 2023•5 min•Season 3Ep. 745
2023.01.14 – 0744 – Telephony Voiceovers Telephony voice over – (‘voicemail’, ‘Message On-Hold’, ‘MOH’, ‘Integrated Voice Response’ or ‘IVR’ “ for sales press 1, for help press 3… ”) These voices have to represent the brand and what they stand for and might sound like and who they’re speaking to. The voice is the representative of the company and so a more mature, experienced voice might be most appropriate. Doctors’ and dentists’ callers probably don’t want to hear a teenager, they want someone...
Jan 14, 2023•4 min•Season 3Ep. 744
2023.01.13 – 0743 – Voiceover Cut-Throughs A voice-over might hope that with a commercial read they may be asked to record another ad for the same brand, but it’s not a given. That job may be a one-off. But with trails and promo voices, once chosen you are likely to be on contract for months, seasons or years. You may be on a retainer, and have to voice any number of items with a quick turnaround every single week. (Oh, and you may be paid a premium for ‘market exclusivity’ to stop your voice fr...
Jan 13, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 743
2023.01.12 – 0742 – Station Imaging Voiceovers Station imaging These are the branded voices that are used on promotional trailers for radio and TV stations. So not on the commercials advertising other brands (such as a car showroom or a breakfast cereal), but introduce or promote an individual show (or shows) on that station (“ The News At Ten – with Kylie Johnson … Joe Smithson on sports and meteorologist, Troy Masters ”, “ Tuesday night is DIY night … on K-DIY Channel 9 ”), or on radio station...
Jan 12, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 742
2023.01.11 – 0741 – Voicing Public Service Announcements PSAs In times of disaster, be it natural or human, a Public Service (or Safety) Message may be the best way to get information out fast and elicit help. An appropriate tone might be: · Calm and reassuring, clear and uncompromising, with a touch of urgency – for an informational read to those caught up in events · Inspiring, caring and authentically empathetic and optimistic - to engage hearts and minds and encourage help, money or donation...
Jan 11, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 741
2023.01.10 – 0740 – The Tonal Scale on Political Voiceovers With negative ads, you are unlikely to be shouting and screaming in fury, instead, your style will be more measured and composed although still somewhere on the scale of: · Bewilderment · Disappointment · Concern · Incredulity · Sarcasm and snark · Dark sincerity · Righteous contempt · Quiet aggression · Disgust · Anger Negativity is not necessarily ‘shouting’. You don’t need projection and volume, you need to have mood and feeling. An ...
Jan 10, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 740
2023.01.09 – 0739 – Political Ad Voiceover Styles Like most advertising where the style of such campaigns was once very ‘announcery’, both of these content styles are now much more conversational, contemporary and authentic, inspiring and upbeat or authoritative and direct. And your accent is likely to be from the community (say Maine or rural Mississippi) and the demographic (Floridian Spanish, 18–24-year-olds, stay-home mums, over 75s), to whom the ad is targeted. In some ads, such as introduc...
Jan 09, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 739
2023.01.08 – 0738 – Finding The Key Points in Political Voiceover Scripts As a voice-over you have to immediately identify: · Is this ad actively promoting the candidate, or doing so by knocking their opposition? · Who is it targeting? Undecideds, grass root supporters, soccer moms, small business owners… · What is the key message? · What and where is the story arc? (Often, it’s along the lines of ‘this person is bad because of a, b and c … and our candidate is good because of x, y and z’) · The...
Jan 08, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 738
2023.01.07 – 0737 – Political Voiceovers: Lead Ins and Pay Offs Ads of either style often start with a question, another rhetorical device that gets the listener to ‘fill the vacuum’ with an answer: · “ Would you trust Tracey Garcia with your money? ” · “ We gave this man the keys to the Governor’s House … do you know what he gave us in return? ” · “ Just why should you trust Camila Haufman…? ” As we saw before, using a lead-in sentence may help you get into the right ‘tone zone’. That’s a short...
Jan 07, 2023•6 min•Season 3Ep. 737
2023.01.06 – 0736 – Key Words to Highlight in Political Ads All styles usually have a script that is clean, clear and sharp, one which has a point of view to catch the attention and emotion of its target audience. Common rhetorical devices will be used such as comparative balances (“ the wealthy profited, and we paid ”, “ while they only care about their family, we care about yours ”, “ keep your tax dollars in Delaware, not in DC ”), alliteration or rhyme (“ problem solver, job creator ”, “ hon...
Jan 06, 2023•4 min•Season 3Ep. 736
2023.01.05 – 0735 – Voiceovers For Political Ads Political ads These are most common in the US and can be divided into these categories: [1] , [2] · Positive – promoting the attributes of the candidate with an uplifting, aspirational and honest message and tone · Negative (or ‘comparative’ or ‘attack’ ads) – promoting a candidate by highlighting the perceived mistakes of their opponent , in a voice that can cut through in a critical or concerned, fed-up or bewildered tone. At their most tough an...
Jan 05, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 735
2023.01.04 – 0734 – Movie Trailers Voiceovers Movie trailers The ‘god’ of these was the iconic voice of Don LaFontaine who recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers. At the height of his career, he was voicing 60 trailers a week. He became identified with the phrase " In a world. ..", used in so many movie trailers that it became a cliché. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGNqI6RYBrQ But since his dea...
Jan 04, 2023•4 min•Season 3Ep. 734
2023.01.03 – 0733 – Medical Narration Skills Medical VOs These can be quite content-rich and may be for professional medical education or maybe for drug or equipment reps, and will likely have pharmaceutical and physiological terminology. Some of the information may be ‘patient facing’, for example explaining a situation for someone undergoing treatment. That will be made clear in your direction. Your voice needs to have clear, intelligent warmth to transform what could be dense and dry scripts ...
Jan 03, 2023•3 min•Season 3Ep. 733
2023.01.02 – 0732 – The 4 P’s of Speaking Outdoors VOICE BOX Speaking outdoors ‘Public speaking’ at out-door events, garden parties, open-air weddings, theatres and so on can put an added strain on your voice, but some tips are the same as indoor work: warming up (even though the weather may be warm, you need to prepare your voice for what is to come), and hydration (again, the warmer weather may cause you to need more fluid both before and during your open-air speaking engagement [1] ). The Fou...
Jan 02, 2023•6 min•Season 3Ep. 732
2023.01.01 – 0731 – Sport Stadium Announcing In this category could also come ‘announcers’ such as those as sports events. Bob Sheppard was the long-time public address announcer for more than 4,500 Yankees baseball games over 56 years. He was also the in-house voice for New York Giants football games for more than a half-century. Wikipedia says “Sheppard's smooth, distinctive baritone and precise, consistent elocution became iconic aural symbols of both the old Yankee Stadium and Giants Stadium...
Jan 01, 2023•2 min•Season 3Ep. 731
