How to take care of your voice
Whether voice acting is your livelihood, part-time passion, or relaxing hobby; taking care of your voice is vital! Voice123 and Heidi Rew from Atlanta voice over studio bring you tips, insights, and best practices to take care of your voice!
How does your voice work?
Speaking, talking, reading aloud, conversing, chatting, voice acting – it all involves the use of our voice. But where does your voice come from?
While we hardly give it much thought because our voice is such an integral part of our being, voice production is more complex than you might think. Speaking involves the interaction of three separate systems inside us:
1. Respiratory. Essentially, your breathing apparatus: your lungs, ribcage, chest muscles, diaphragm, and windpipe.
2. Phonatory. This is the larynx or ‘voice box’, as it’s often called. It includes your vocal cords – two small muscles within the larynx.
3. Resonatory. The vocal tract, which includes your throat, as well as the nasal passages, sinuses, and your mouth.
Your breath powers your voice production. Before you speak you inhale and start speaking when you exhale. The flow of air moving through the voice box and vibrating the vocal cords is what creates your audible voice. By contracting and relaxing your vocal cords, you can produce a variety of buzzing sounds and vary the volume by increasing and decreasing the amount of air that passes through the vocal cords.
What really makes our voices distinct and individual is the way those sounds are shaped – and that’s where resonance comes into play. The length and shape of the vocal tract influences the shaping of our vocal tone. Resonance adds substance to the voice and greatly impacts how others hear us. Vocal training often involves developing resonance because it greatly enhances tone. Of course, once all this buzzing reaches your mouth, you use your tongue, teeth, and lips to turn it into articulate speech!
For most people, an adequate balance between all the systems involved is achieved naturally. When you use your voice professionally as a voice actor and you have to read a demanding script or interpret dialogue for a video game character, however, you have to be a lot more careful. Straining can cause problems.
Best practices to learn how to take care of your voice
Voice training is crucial for any professional voice actor because of the frequent demands the profession places on their voices. Continually straining your voice can destroy it – and voice actors who lose their voices have very short careers.
That’s why Voice123 and Heidi Rew from Atlanta voice over studio are bringing you a new voice over section filled with expert tips, advice, and insights to take care of your voice and have a sustainable career!
In this series, you’ll learn more about
- how to take care of your voice
- what is vocal hygiene
- practical vocal exercises
- tried and tested vocal warm-ups
FAQ's
Vocal hygiene involves exercises and best practices to take care of your voice, which leads to a sustainable voice over career.
As a voice actor, your voice is your main tool or instrument in order to audition and complete voice over jobs. Caring for it is vital so that your voice is always at the top of its game!
Share this post!
A blog owner yourself? Relevant links to quality sites will help your performance on search engines. If your readers will benefit from the services or information on The Booth's Voice over Guide, please consider linking to this post or the guide itself.