Instantly establish your Money Voice

December 14, 2022|Voice0ver Blog Posts

Here is how to find your money voice, right now. Repeat this, UM-HUmn! Good. We call that a reset. UH-HUmn! The rising inflection has to be there on the end. UM-HUmn! Then say a few words. Try this, “UM-HUmn! My name is Joe Coburn.” Only use your name. Go ahead. UM-HUmn! Do it again.

That’s it. Your money voice is a little higher than your habitual voice. I’ll detail all the things that are right about that in a few minutes, right here.

First, let’s get this out of the way, your voice IS your voice!

Don’t attempt to push or force your voice into some idea you have about the voice you think you need. You’ll sound like an amatuer and you will not work. I heard a person’s demo the other day that included an Action Movie trailer soundtrack. There was this young person, forcing the voice they didn’t have to meet an idea of what a Trailer VO sounds like. NO ONE would ever hire this person to do that kind of work. Their DEMO was laughable!

The people who do the hiring in voice-over look for someone who already has the voice they want! That’s how things are cast. If they are looking for your voice, and you can do the work, you get the job. If they are looking for your voice, and you’ve twisted it around to meet some delusion you suffer about what is good, you will NOT get the job, and you will damage your reputation in the bargain. You also will not get the job if you cannot or refuse to actually learn the job.

The only element of your career over which you exercise any degree of control is your reputation. This is how you establish a positive reputation: Show up on time and prepared. Speak clearly. Understand what you are saying. Smile (unless directed otherwise). Finally, you want to sound like you sound on a good day! You want to sound like a good friend talking to me.

I know this from working in Advertising Agencies, Commercial Broadcasting, Recording, Acting, and in the Motion Picture industry. People hire people who are RIGHT for the job. Tragically, they laugh at the people who are WRONG for the job. Then, there were the times I auditioned for jobs for which I was completely wrong, and learned the difference. I’ve already learned all the mistakes, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel of mistakes that rolls in perpetuity.

There are jobs for every voice, you only need to become professional with the voice with which you were blessed. The word used in the business is “Commercial”. Commercial means that, whatever the job, voice, face, lighting, writing, set design, soundtrack, and on, and on., the work meets THE AUDIENCE’S EXPECTATIONS OF A PROFESSIONAL. Anything that draws the audience’s attention away from the story is unacceptable.

So, you, pretending to sound like your idea of greatness … eh … wrong, thank you for playing our game. Tragically there is no consolation prize for sounding bad.

You are an audience member and have been all your life. You have been programmed from the earliest age to recognize professional level work. When it’s not good enough you know it immediately. You may not be able to articulate what is wrong but you know it’s not right. Anything that pulls your attention away from the message is not right.

What’s good about good voice over? You don’t notice it. It doesn’t sound like voice over. Your diction and the sound of your voice, along with the emotional understanding, support the words and help tell the story.

Your ego tells you that your speech is crisp and clear. Your ego lies. Your brain tells you (or some unprincipled “VO Coach”) what your voice SHOULD sound like in order to get work. Your brain and your VO Coach are Liars! Only you know your own voice and you don’t know it yet! It takes a couple of years to learn the sound of your own voice.

If you are not willing to put in the time it takes to learn your voice, the trade, the marketing, or where your talents lie, then quit now. Serious people are going to work harder at Voice Over then you are willing to and you will just waste everyone’s time.

The amount of work out there is staggering. There is plenty of room for YOUR VOICE. So, let’s learn your voice, and GET COMMERICAL! TRAIN TO MEET THE AUDIENCE’S EXPECTATION OF A VOICE OVER PROFESSIONAL.

The lesson is, work with YOUR VOICE, the one you have, know your voice instead of trying to change it. You may be going in the wrong direction.

How to instantly establish your optimal pitch and get working “In The Mask”.

‘In the Mask’ is a technical reference employed in Speech Pathology.  The Mask is a triangular area beginning at the top of your nasal cavity, and includes your mouth, and to a lesser extent your throat. “Placements”, a voiceover industry term, refers to the practice of moving your voice, consciously, from the chest to the throat, the adenoids, the nose, the eyes, even the top of your head. The tools of speech: the soft and hard palettes, upper and lower tooth ridges, the teeth themselves, the tongue, lips, and to some extent the cheeks, bend and shape the sound made by air passing over the vocal cords. These are the tools of human articulation, the tools of speech. It is important to be able to dinstinguish these things when talking about voice-over.  

You will use placements in animation. Animation is an entirely exclusive practice in VO. Some people have a talent for it. Animation includes placements, accents, immitations, impediments, obstructions, impacts, and a good deal more deliberate practice than even voiceover. Ask me if you would like to learn more.

Here’s a free lesson in voiceover for animation. Who do you already imitate who has a distinct way of speaking? Start with your Mom. What is a catch phrase that your mom always used that everyone recognizes as your mom? Say that the way she did. Now say it with an overbite. Now say it with an underbite. Now say it with a lisp. Now with a stutter. Now, keep the stutter/underbite imitation, and push that down into your throat. Now, do Mom with the stutter, an overbite, and a significant code in da dose (cold in the nose). There is your fist characterization of Hanna/Barberra’s new animated feature, “Bob’s Mom!” Coming soon to a wall-mounted monitor near you.

Your speaking habits are particular to you but they are not unique.  You’ve heard it said before, “Everyone has lazy lips”.  Some people have a nasality to their voices while others maintain their voices in their adenoids, throat, chest, even in their eyes.

When you get into the mask you fix a full compliment of problems, some of which you may not yet be aware.

The Sound Chain of your voice begins in the Diaphragm.  The diaphragm is the muscle that rests at the bottom of the lungs and controls the volume of air that passes over your vocal cords.

Your optimal pitch begins with diaphragmatic breathing.  It starts at your tummy, NOT getting all puffed up and filling the top of your chest. Your lungs fill from, and are controlled from, the bottom. Most people employ what is called “Top-Breathing”.  In top-breathing, the upper 1/3rd of the lungs fill with the air that powers your speech.  The biggest problem with top-breathing is in producing enough air to complete a thought.  

Top-breathing starts your voice from a place of weakness.

Take a deep breath then read the following sentence aloud, “With the upper lung expanded, your throat, chest, and vocal mechanism are constricted, making the sound thin, and strained.” You can hear it.

Push your tummy muscles out, the solar plexus, and read that same sentence again.

You’ll notice two things immediately: your voice sounded full and rich, and you did not run out of air. You will notice, when you do this again, that your whole lung fills with air, instantly, and effortlessly. Additionally, there is no breathing noise from the throat, as you get when you gulp to fill your lungs from the top. 

Diaphragmatic breathing fills the lung all the way to the bottom. Diaphragmatic breathing is relaxed and orgainic. Watch a baby breathe when it’s laying on its back. You’ll see the tummy rise and fall. When you breathe from your diaphragm you are in full control of the air moving across your vocal cords. Diaphragmatic breathing makes your voice louder, giving it a richer sound, greater dynamics, and more range.  At the same time, with more air moving through the mechanism, you open your mouth more, then you engage the tools of speech more completely, making your speech and articulation more crisp.

In fact, you can say, “Crispness” without it sounding like “Christmas”.

When you are in the mask, the first thing you notice is that your optimal pitch is higher than your habitual pitch.  That means you automatically have greater range, higher highs, and comparatively deeper lows.

Now, can you still do it? The Reset? Can you still do it?

Um-HUMN!

That’s it.  Just like you do when someone asks if you’d like a free refill.  Um-HuMN, just like that, with the rising inflection on the last syllable.  Um-HuMN!

The same in every language, that everyone agrees means, “Yes, Please”.  

Um-HuMN, and you are breathing diaphragmatically.  Um-HuMN, and you are in the mask.  Um-HuMN, and you’ve increased your range and volume.  Um-HuMN, and you articulate with greater clarity, organically. Um-HuMN, and you even smile!

This practice embraces the principle that voice over is instinctive and not intellectual in its nature.  You cannot figure it out in advance and memorize it.

Try it. Figure out how you will ask your sweetheart to marry you. Plan it all out, which words you will emphasize and which you will not. Get it all fixed in your head. Let me know how your plan worked out. Don’t forget to smile!

Working in a way that is principle-centered beats working in a way that is unprincipled, every time.  Voiceover is instinctive. You don’t have to learn your instincts, they’re … instinctive. You only need to permit them. The second principle in Voice-Over is that you must be connected with your listener.  You already know who you are talking to. They want to know what you’re talking about. Imagine them listening and permit your instinctive responses, the emotion.

The whole process is completely organic. You do it every day and in every conversation. You would think there is no way to screw that up, wouldn’t you? 

Uhm-HUMNNNnn, with lowering inflection, screws that practice up.

UM-humn, with the accent on the first syllable screws up your practice. 

I’ve even heard it with a combined rising and falling inflection.  That really screws up the magic.  

Um-HuMN!  Rising inflection on the end of the second syllable, works every time and cannot fail. Yes, people often make the effort to push the sound into their chests and throats, to go along with their habitual pitch. That’s where a coach comes in handy, to keep you honest and your practice correct.

Your coach will show you how to employ the magic in your training.

Training means doing a thing technically until it is second nature when you work.

We want to employ correct, deliberate practice of this agreeable sound in all your practice sessions.  

Correct, deliberate practice solves all of the problems and establishes all the positive habits, creating a muscle memory of correct work, irrespective of the discipline.  

In order to prepare yourself to work professionally in voice-over you must practice correctly, and deliberately until correct work is second nature.  

There, I’ve said that at least three ways so that you are now clear about what is expected of you, Correct, Deliberate, Repetition of the Fundamentals, over time (the only proven path to learning). You may have heard it here first but it was Socrates who said it.

The next problem we have to address in your training is your reading problem.  Don’t lie about it, EVERYBODY HAS READING PROBLEMS.

Right now, your eyes are darting around the page, looking for the end of this or that sentence, and the first idea in the next sentence.  

You’ve read this way your whole life.  

There are other reading problems.  You may be starting to read a sentence, then about half-way through, before you get to the end, you have to look back to the beginning of the sentence and start it over just to “make sure”.  You just did it … again. Exactly what you need to make sure of, we never quite learn but it’s the second most common problem in reading.

These problems, and more, prohibit one from ever getting a full understanding of what is written and that’s a particular problem when reading aloud — you know, voiceover.

BOTH PROBLEMS ARE EYE PROBLEMS, NOT UNDERSTANDING PROBLEMS, but they plague your understanding of the written word.

Your brain can process a staggering amount of information per second, including vocal inflections, facial tells, eye movement, whispers, mumbling, shouting, and a full compliment of emotional underpinnings.  The eye, on the other hand, can only grab a couple dozen symbols in that same second.  Your mouth, tragically, can only articulate two to five words in that same second, depending upon things like familiarity with the symbols and common sentence structure.

The training required to solve your reading problem is a means by which you consciously grab fewer words at a time, and permit your brain, eyes, and mouth to all work at the same speed.  The slow speed.  The mouth speed.  

We can always speed you up later.

Can I get an Um-HuMN, up in here?

That’s voiceover humor.  Implying that it’s your religion now.

I digress.

Remember, we are training your eyes, not your brain.  This is not how you will handle your professional assignments, this is how you will conduct your practices.  The “Three Words Thing”, the official title of this exercise IS ONLY AN EXERCISE, A MEANS BY WHICH YOU WILL CREATE POSITIVE WORK HABITS AND OVERCOME POOR WORK HABITS WITH SPECIFIC REGARD TO VOICE-OVER.

To aid you in your correct practice you will employ a couple of props. First The Actor’s Tool.  You will recognize it as your finger. Next you have to connect with your voiceover partner Your listening.  Normally, this will be someone imaginary who you know well and is interested in the subject matter at hand.  You must make this connection to bring the nature of a real conversation to your voice over assignments and to do so organically, and instinctively.

You can use a mirror with the exercise, a photograph of anyone, a teddy bear, anything with eyes with which you will connect.

Now the exercise is filled out.

Hold your finger under the first three words you will say, grab those three words with your eyes and brain, look away and into the eyes of your voiceover partner (Mirror/Picture/Teddy), reset (what we call the Um-HuMN), say your three words to your partner.

Here is the basic exercise with which we will begin your training.  It’s an exercise, like lifting barbells is an exercise.  You practice the exercise then when there is some actual heavy lifting to do you will automatically do it correctly and in a way that is healthy because that’s the way you’ve trained.

Um-HuMN, I want you – Um-HuMN, to read only – Um-HuMN, three words at – Um-HuMN, a time then – Um-HuMN, look away from – Um-HuMN, the page to – Um-HuMN, make this sound – Um-HuMN, then three words –  Um-HuMN, then this sound – Um-HuMN, three more words –  Um-HuMN, then the reset – Um-HuMN, then three words – etc., until you run out of words.  

At this point I’m compelled to say, STOP trying to figure this out. You’re wasting time. It’s brain defying on purpose. You are not training in a new way to think. Your thinking is just fine. You need to cultivate the habit of trusting your instincts. Voice over is not something you think, it’s something you do.

Practice Doing!

Grab three words, look up, connect, reset, say your words, look back down at the text, move your finger to the next three words (you will probably notice your finger following your eyes and darting all over the page — relax and simply grab the next three words). Now, look up and connect with your partner, reset, say your three words.

Look down, move your finger, grab three words, look up and connect, reset, say three words, Look down, move your finger, grab three words, look up and connect, reset, say three words, Look down, move your finger, grab three words, look up and connect, reset, say three words, etc., keep doing that until you run out of text.

YES, IGNORE ALL PUNCTUATION AND DO NOT TRY TO MAKE THIS MAKE SENSE.  WE ARE TRAINING YOUR EYES, NOT YOUR BRAIN.  YOUR BRAIN WORKS FINE.  Only your eyes need re-parenting.

That’s the exercise.  Do that for 12 to 15 minutes then stop.  STOP.  Have an apple. Look out of the window. DO NOT check your eMail! When you’re rested begin practice again. Work for another 15-20 munutes. Keep this routine up until you’ve exhausted an hour, then quit. Later in the day practice for another hour as prescribed.

Now, employ the magic. Remember the magic? We spoke earlier of the magic.

Begin that group of sentences again, this time read it normally, the way you might read to a sick friend.

What just happened?

What did you notice when you read normally after doing the exercise correctly?

If you said, “Nothing”, then you are not doing the exercise correctly. Begin again.

Relax, drink water, look out the window.  Return to your RESET/3WORD practice for another 15 minutes.  STOP.  

If you will practice correctly for two hours every day, the results of your second day should inspire you in short order.  At the end of ten days of practice you will be ready to practice more, you will have built a routine of correct, deliberate practice, and you will begin to see positive results when you just read things aloud.  When you are working correctly, this is the time to practice more, not less.

IF you practiced for two hours in the exact way prescribed and can demonstrate your correct practice THEN we can move on to the advanced exercise.  IF you have not practiced and cannot demonstrate correct practice and see the results of your practice THEN you will have to pay the teacher 10 times the established rate.  If you don’t practice, you’re harder to train and are just wasting your time and mine. So, you have to pay a stupidity surcharge, in your classes, as in life.

No it’s not funny.

Assuming you have practiced correctly for a couple of hours each day, and have established a serious work ethic then we can move forward. It takes 10 weeks to establish a habit, by the way.

You will do the advanced exercise for 10 weeks. It is impossible for you to predict what you will get out of 10 weeks of correct, deliberate practice. Two things are predictable. First, through your correct practice you will run out of mistakes. Second, if you are ever stuck, you can do the exercise three or eleven times and you will instantly return to your correct habits.

Good training lasts a lifetime. Bad training is almost instantly forgotten.

THE ADVANCED EXERCISE

The advanced exercise asks that you grab one idea at a time instead of three words.  An idea can be 1 word, 2 words, 3, 4, even 5 words, depending, but no more.  If you think you’ve found an idea that is six words or more, you’re wrong, it’s two ideas.  Now, practice this like a race horse.

So, practice the one idea at a time thing, get into the mask, connect with your voice-over partner, glance down, move your finger, grab the next idea, connect with your listener, reset, say your line, repeat.

Remember, UM-Hmn, if, UM-Hmn, what you are reading, UM-Hmn, has short ideas, UM-Hmn, one word only, UM-Hmn, then respect that. UM-Hmn, Sometimes, UM-Hmn, one word, UM-Hmn, is one idea.

After a while, and that while is dependent upon your practices, you will begin to automatically get into the mask every time you practice. You’ll start doing the reset only once or twice per text. OK. By the time that that happens, usually after a couple of months, you might start to fool around with readings and get playful. Good. But not until you’ve established those positive work habits and they are unshakable in your work.

Run through the full text of your voice over job this way five or ten times.  Then, just read the text in the way that you would say it to your listener, a specific friend who is interested in in the topic.  

What did you get out of that?  What did you learn about correct breathing, getting into the mask, connecting with your partner, and trusting your instincts?

Don’t those sound like really good qualities in a voice-over professional?

Please, comment below.  The more people who embrace this the greater your opportunity to elevate voice-over and make everyone work at your level. If twelve people comment, and you read all the comments, that’s 12 free lessons.

All that goodness comes from doing the simplest things, correctly, deliberately, repeatedly, over time.  That’s just the beginning.

Thanks for listening.

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