How to enhance My Voice
Voice Training Exercise | Easy steps to improve the sound of your voice
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hello its Peter Baker here from
voiceover masterclass comm I've been in
the voice-over business for a very long
time since the early 70s and one
question that comes up again in the game
is how does one improve one's voice and
the word improve what does that mean
usually when people say how could I
improve my voice they want to sound more
like an announcer with lots of resonance
and resonance or depth and voice is a
very good aspirational thing too to get
basically a resonant deep voice gives a
short Authority it gives you the the
sound of someone that you want to listen
to it makes it easier to listen to as
well so resonance is a good thing for
men and for women by the way and people
who have maybe a thin voice want to know
how to make it a little bit deeper well
it's kind of difficult on a video where
I can hear your voice at the moment to
give you any specific tips as to what to
do with your own voice I can give some
general tips but really you need to see
a speech therapist or someone who can
help with with drama who could listen to
your voice maybe there's something
physical if not psychological in your
makeup or some little things that you
say in the way that you say them or the
way that you use your voice but let's
err first of all talk about a music shop
you go to a music shop and you ask for a
new string for your guitar you get it in
a little bag you take it out and you
pluck it doesn't sound anything like it
is on the guitar you suddenly put it on
your acoustic guitar and it sounds like
a guitar it's the same basically with
the human body you have vocal cords they
vibrate my vocal cords are vibrating now
but I sound like me
because those vocal cords are basically
reverberating throughout the cavities I
have in my body everybody is different
and usually though not always usually
the larger the body the larger the sound
the more in-depth you get the more
resonance you get the more assured
Authority you get brother says not
always and if you notice when you wake
up in the morning you're a little bit
groggy a little bit tired your voice is
always deeper for some reason it's
because you're relaxed the problem I
find with people is
start off with voiceovers they're so
worried about how their voice is going
to sound what the producer is saying the
other side of the glass or you know it's
it's the tension basically because
you're behind that microphone and that
tension then tightens up all the muscles
and all the places you don't want them
to tighten up and suddenly your voice
becomes a little bit thin a little bit
forced like that you you simply cannot
physically get lower than that note
because you're tensed up all the time
now imagine you are woken up in the
morning morning there how are you like
some breakfast you're naturally deep in
a romantic candlelit dinner with your
partner it's a having a nice meal you
know you're relaxed and suddenly you
come out all sounding deep so the first
thing is relax as much as you possibly
can relax force yourself to relax
understand in your body what muscles it
is that do tense up in fact do an
experiment now just pretend you're on
stage loads of people are looking at you
you're absolutely terrified at your wits
just put yourself in that mode just
think about what tense is that normally
your shoulders go up a bit you're
normally staring ahead your head doesn't
want to move from side to side now just
think of those muscles just identify
them that your brain identify the
muscles that affect your voice there the
end I'm not a doctor I can't tell you
the name of the muscles they're the ones
at the back of the throat and ones that
should be relaxed now you've identified
them try to relax them and we do this by
humming exercises humming exercises are
absolutely brilliant generally for
relaxing one and also for help indicate
your voice deeper and this is a good
general exercise for everyone to do and
it's an easy one to do as well because
you can low hum on a long car journey on
your way to work wherever maybe not
doing on a bus because people next to
you might think you're a bit crazy but
if you're on your own certainly in a car
do some low humming and I mean really
low humming and you can test how low
you're going by putting your hand on top
of your chest so I don't touch my
microphone you put your hand there and
go as low as you can like mmm
lower
lower find the lowest note you can do
without it breaking up for me it's
I don't know if the microphone can pick
that out but my hand is picking up
vibrations that's what you want you want
those vibrations now the next thing to
do once you've found the lowest note you
can possibly hum sorry I hit the
microphone is basically to open up those
muscles dramatically the ones that you
have identified the ones that are
causing you to tense up and not get
below your current low note and it's the
same muscle that you use when you're
throwing up after a party oh right hmm
when you do that would you do that for
me please
mmm that is the muscle that you need to
relax and it's right there in your
throat system I say I'm not a doctor
you're a doctor you probably laughing at
this right now but is that one so I am
now going to relax that muscle you see
how lower I can get so this is my low
note at the moment now I'm going to open
up that muscle and you'll hear it sound
much more mellow and deep and because I
can't speak and Hammer at the same time
my hand is up when it's tense when I
relax that muscle it's down just listen
to the chain okay
subtle I hope you got it on your
computer speakers but it basically is a
mellower sound now when you start
speaking in that mode suddenly become
more like the announcer maybe you wish
to be now some of you is now thinking
well we don't all want to be announcers
don't I see audition scripts that says
no announcer that's absolutely right and
you've got to learn how to switch
yourself out of that quite often in fact
earlier today I was doing some scripts
for a museum in Belgium had to be
various historical characters that
people pick up on the headphones you
know you get things like that you get
acting jobs where you don't want to be
an announcer you don't want to be on
narrator you have to be a real person
and they're quite often my voice is too
deep for that and sometimes I don't get
the jobs you know so deep isn't always
good but if you want to go deep humming
that low humming where you go right you
do that basically and you when you do
that in that mode relax that muscle when
you're speaking you go from this voice
into this voice because you'll really
relaxed you've now loosened the muscle
of the back of your throat and you're
talking nice and relaxed and it's
amazing how low you can get and to get
lower you continue doing these humming
exercises basically you do your low hum
as much as you can
I'd say ten minutes a day after a week
or two weeks certainly you will know a
difference suddenly whoa I don't know I
can get as low as that and that with
your relaxation really helps a lot so
humming exercises really really good use
as much as you can now there are other
resonance exercises but they would need
to be specific to your voice that's why
you need to see an expert face to face
but there's no point having that
wonderful resonance if you haven't got
the clarity and so I always say QE QR is
the best exercise you can possibly do I
talked about this in the full voiceover
masterclass of lessons and basically you
say the letter Q then e then Q then R
you'll notice this stretches the mouth
from a tiny little Q to e which is like
a letter
shape that cue again then are you really
open now we don't open our mouths enough
when we talk in the Western world you
know and it really helps you as a
voiceover particularly because I can't
see you to get that diction correct so
you can speak as much as you like
however you should not over enunciate
like that because that sounds ridiculous
but just your qu e qu r please try it
for me now who e qu r - e Q R gives our
muscles a workout you sent your mouth to
the gym and it comes back a happier
mouth I hope you found that useful more
tips and content on w WV / master course
calm I've gotta get there back to my
museum characters so are see you soon
Bonjour
