Top Tips On Improving Your Voiceover Talent

By Lauren Hulbert

In the current climate, every extra penny that you can bring into your household budget counts. Well, an obvious way of achieving this is to harness a new career. One such career, often overlooked - but surprisingly lucrative is radio voiceover work. In this article, I want to give you a simple, step-by-step plan to ensure that you have plenty of voiceover work coming your way.

The only way to improve a skill is to practice it. However, the way you practice will make a difference to the speed at which you improve. You don't have to spend a lot of money to start. Just talk to yourself in the mirror and get used to hearing your voice being made out loud. Talk into your voicemail system or use your office dictation machine to listen to yourself on playback. You can make great improvements in your voice-over skills using these very cheap techniques. Then consider investing in some better recording equipment. You could buy a computer microphone and use your computer's processors to help you improve your voice over talent. Another great way is to get into public speaking - as daunting as it might seem.

Survey after survey reveals that public speaking is one of the most stressful activities that can occur in your life. But often if you deliberately seek appropriate opportunities and embark on these chances to speak out loud with a sense of humbleness, you will find yourself warmly received. Join the local toastmaster's club, where you will be asked to speak on a weekly basis and during which your friends will analyse and comment on your performance. Then you could try speaking out at work or social functions and notice how you are received and how you felt.

You need to take the first step - as that really is the hardest. Once you generate momentum, you will notice that maintaining momentum is much easier (not easy - just easier). You need to ensure that you notice how well you control your sound, your diction and your breadth of voiceover options. This step will be the one that allows you to apply for a greater range of voiceover jobs.

Begin by simply talking normally. Don't try to do anything too fancy at the start, just start working. Then begin to notice how your voiceovers sound on the recordings that you generate. Try to vary how clear you are, the speed of your voice-over work and the tone of your voice. Keep controlling your breathing whilst you do this.

You should also then try to vary your pace, but keep your diction good. Also change your tonality. Try to sound more gruff or smoother. Try to sound as if you come from a different part of the country. Mess around with intonations. Just try to vary your range of voiceover work and still maintain control.

Remember to judge your recordings on the basis of believablity and comprehensibility. Keep a diary or some ability to record your findings and experiments so that you learn and improve your voiceover talent more rapidly. Remember to practice consistently is the key to enhancing your voice-over talent. Try to set aside 30 minutes a day for 3 months, note your findings and strive to improve. You will be one of the top 1% of voice over providers by the end of the next season if you do this. - 30538

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