The Art of Voice Acting: the art and business of performing for voice over (10 page)

This exercise is a basic meditation technique best done while sitting in a quiet place. Begin by allowing a very slow, deep breath through your nose. Expand your diaphragm to bring in as much air as you can, then expand your chest to completely fill your lungs. Hold your breath for a few seconds, then slowly exhale through your mouth—breathe out all the air. As you do this, think calm thoughts, or simply repeat the word “relax” silently to yourself. Take your time. Do this about 10 times and you will find that your body becomes quite relaxed, and your mind will be much sharper and focused. You may even find yourself becoming slightly dizzy. This is normal and is a result of the increased oxygen going to your brain.

This exercise is an excellent way to convert nervous energy into productive energy. Do this in your car before an audition or session—but not while driving.

Deep breathing to relax your mind will also help to relax your body. Even after some basic relaxation, you may still experience some tension in certain parts of your body. An excellent way to release tension is to combine breathing with stretching. There are several steps to this stretching exercise, so take it slow and if you feel any pain, stop immediately.

Stand with your feet about shoulder width. Close your eyes and breathe deeply from your diaphragm, inhaling and exhaling through your nose. Extend your arms over your head, stretching to reach the ceiling. Stretch all the way through the fingers. Now, slowly bend forward at the waist, lowering your arms as you stretch your back. Try to touch the floor if you can. If you need to bend you knees, go ahead. The idea here is to stretch the muscles in your arms, shoulders, back, and legs. When you feel a good stretch, begin to slowly straighten your body, allowing each vertebra to straighten one at a time as you go. Don’t forget to keep breathing.

Now that you are once again standing, with your arms still over your head, slowly bend at the waist, leaning to the left, reaching for a distant object with both arms. You should feel a stretch along the right side of your body. Slowly straighten and repeat with a lean to the right, then straighten.

Next, lower your arms so they are directly in front of you. Rotate your body to the left, turning at the waist and keeping your feet pointing forward. Allow your hips to follow. Slowly bend at the waist as you stretch your
arms out in front of you. Keep your head up and your back as straight as you can. Now, rotate forward and repeat the stretch as you reach in front of you. Finally, repeat to the other side before returning to an upright position.

A relaxed neck helps keep the vocal cords and throat relaxed. Begin by relaxing your mind and body with the techniques described in Exercises 1 and 2. If you want to close your eyes for this one, feel free.

This exercise should be done very slowly and it can be done sitting or standing. If, at any time, you feel any pain in your neck, stop immediately. There may be a neck injury present that your doctor should know about. Begin by sitting or standing up straight. Slowly tilt your head forward until your chin is almost resting on your chest. Allow your head to fall forward, slightly stretching your neck muscles. Slowly rotate your head to the left until your left ear is over your left shoulder; then move your head back and to the right. Continue to breathe slowly as you move your head around until your chin returns to its starting point. Now rotate your head in the opposite direction. This exercise will help release tension in your neck and throat.

This exercise helps remind you to keep your body moving and converts locked-up nervous energy into productive energy you can use. When you are in a session, it often can be helpful to simply loosen up your body, especially if you have been standing in front of the mic for a long time. Remember that moving your body is a very important part of getting into the flow of the script. Loosen your arms and upper body by letting your arms hang loosely at your side and gently shake them out. This relaxation technique works quickly and can be done inconspicuously. You can also expand your shake out to include your entire upper body.

A relaxed face allows you to be more flexible in creating a character and can help improve articulation. You can use your facial muscles to add sparkle and depth to your delivery. Your face is one of the best tools you have as a voice actor.

Begin by relaxing your body. Then, scrunch up your face as tight as you can and hold it that way for a count of 10. Relax and stretch your face by opening your eyes as wide as you can. Open your mouth wide and stretch your cheeks and lips by moving them while opening and closing your jaw. The process of stretching increases blood flow to your face and gives a feeling of invigoration.

Take a long deep breath and slowly release air through your lips to relax them. Let your lips “flutter” as your breath passes over them. This is a good exercise to do alone in your car on your way to a session. By forcing the air out of one side of your mouth or the other, you can also include your cheeks as part of this exercise. As with the face stretch, this exercise will help you in creating character voices and aid in improving articulation.

This may sound odd, but your tongue can get tense too. A simple stretching exercise can relax your tongue, and also helps relax the muscles at the back of your mouth. You may want to do this exercise in private.

Begin by sticking out your tongue as far as you can, stretching it toward your chin. Hold for a count of five, then stretch toward your right cheek. Do the same toward your left cheek and finally up toward your nose.

Another tongue stretch that also helps open up the throat is to gently grasp your extended tongue with your fingers. You might want to use a tissue or towel to keep your fingers dry. Begin with a deep breath and gently stretch your tongue forward as you slowly exhale and vocalize a “HAAA” sound, much like the sigh you make when yawning. In fact, this exercise may very well make you feel like yawning. If so, good. Yawning helps open your throat.

As you do these exercises, you may feel like yawning. If that happens, enjoy it. Yawning is a good thing. It stretches your throat, relaxing it and opening it up. More important, yawning helps you take in more air, increasing the flow of oxygen to your brain, improving your mental acuity. It also helps lower the pitch of your voice and improves resonance.

To increase the feeling of relaxation, vocalize your yawn with a low pitch “HAAA” sound, concentrating on opening the back of your throat. It is also important that you allow yourself to experience what happens to your body as you yawn.

You may find this exercise a little odd at first, but the results will most likely amaze you. Although a pencil is a suitable substitute, using a cork will give you quicker results simply because it forces you to work your muscles harder.

Get a wine bottle cork—save the wine for later, or have it first (your choice). Now, find a few good paragraphs in a book or newspaper. Before doing anything with the cork, begin by recording yourself reading the copy
out loud. Stop the recorder. Now place the cork in your mouth horizontally so that it is about one-quarter inch behind your front teeth—as though biting on a stubby cigar. If you use a pencil, place it lengthwise between your teeth so you are gently biting it in two places. Don’t bite hard enough to break the pencil, and don’t place the pencil too far back—it should be positioned near the front of your mouth. Now read the same paragraphs out loud several times. Speak very slowly and distinctly, emphasizing every vowel, consonant, and syllable of each word. Don’t cheat and be careful not to drop the ends of words. In a very short time your jaw and tongue will begin to get tired.

After you have spent a few minutes exercising your mouth, remove the cork, turn the recorder back on, and read the copy one more time. Now, play back both recordings. You will notice a remarkable difference in the sound of your voice. The
after
version will be much clearer and easier to listen to.

The cork is an excellent warm-up exercise for any time you feel the need to work on your articulation or enunciation. You can even do this in your car, singing to the radio, or reading street signs aloud as you drive to an audition or session.

Vocal range is important for achieving emotional attitudes and dynamics in your performance. By vocal range, I am referring to the range from your lowest note to your highest note. Start this exercise by taking a deep breath, holding it in, and releasing slowly with a vocalized yawn. This will help to relax you. Now fill your lungs with another deep breath and release it slowly, this time making the lowest note you can with a “HAAAA” sound. Gradually increase the pitch of your voice, sweeping from low to high. It may help to start by holding your hands near your stomach and gradually raise your hands as you raise the pitch of your voice.

You will quite likely find one or two spots where your voice breaks or “cracks.” This is normal and simply reveals those parts of your voice range that are not often used. Over time, as you practice this exercise, your vocal range will improve and as your vocal cords strengthen, the “voice cracking” will become less or may even go away entirely. This is also a good breathing exercise to help you with breath control. If your recordings reveal that you take breaths in midsentence or that the volume (overall loudness) of your voice fluctuates, this exercise will help. Practicing this regularly will improve your lung capacity and speaking power, as well as vocal range.

The following phrases are from a small but excellent book titled
Broadcast Voice Exercises
by Jon Beaupré (1994).
⁴

To improve diction and enunciation, repeat the phrases that follow. Do this exercise slowly and deliberately making sure that each consonant and vowel is spoken clearly and distinctly, stretching your lips and cheeks as you read. Don’t cheat on the ends of words. Watch yourself in a mirror, listen to yourself carefully, and be aware of what you are feeling physically and emotionally. Remember that consistent repetition is necessary to achieve any lasting change. For an extra challenge, try these with the cork.

Specific Letter Sounds—
do each four times, then reverse for four more. Make a clear distinction between the sounds of each letter.

• Gudda-Budda (Budda-Gudda)
  [Emphasize the “B” and “G” sounds.]
  
• Peachy-Weachy (Weachy-Peachy)
  [Emphasize the “P” and “W” sounds.]
  
• Peachy-Neachy (Neachy-Peachy)
  [Emphasize the “P” and “N” sounds.]
  
• Peachy-Leachy (Leachy-Peachy)
  [Emphasize the “P” and “L” sounds.]
  
• Fea-Sma (Sma-Fea) [pronounce as FEH-SMA]
  [Emphasize the difference between the “EH” and “AH” sounds.]
  
• Lip-Sips (Sip-Lips)
  [Make the “P” sound clear and don’t drop the “S” after lips or sips.]
  
• TTT-DDD (Tee Tee Tee, Dee Dee Dee)
  [Emphasize the difference between the “T” sound and the “D”sound.]
  
• PPP-BBB (Puh Puh Puh, Buh Buh Buh)
  [The “PUH” sound should be more breathy and have less vocalizing than the “BUH” sound.]
  
• KKK-GGG (Kuh Kuh Kuh, Guh Guh Guh)
  [Emphasize the difference between the “K” and “G.” Notice where the sounds originate in your mouth and throat.]
  

Short Phrases—
make sure every syllable is spoken clearly and that the ends of words are crisp and clear.