It's been a busy, busy week. I've gotten the chance to do a little voice work, but no videos to show for it yet. I've spent the last two days reinstalling Windows, so I'll be learning yet another video editing program sometime soon so I can upload things. In the meantime, here's a quick update on things.
I've been working (not altogether successfully) on the Dr. Magnusson voice as well as trying to more closely match Hoity-Toity for the MLP:FiM thing later on. After listening over and over and matching the track with the show, I finally see how it was a little off, but it's getting there. As for Dr. Magnusson, it has a very interesting quality. I think I'll try to save information on that for a write-up later on.
So, you may be asking: Drew, where are the videos you keep promising us?! Well, here's the thing. Leon, the HL2 mod leader is ALREADY posing, animating, and rendering Dr. Kleiner. Because it took much less time than I thought, I may just wait and put that up instead of a terrible video with pictures. As far as the other videos, Cave Johnson and some of the other projects have taken a back seat to Hoity-Toity and Magnusson. Besides that, I am planning on doing some new accent work soon. I'd like to get my Aussie back (possibly work on New Zealand, as well) and finally work on the Dutch. In addition to all of these things, I've also been looking into teaching English abroad or taking a tech job in Kyrgyzstan.
Anyhow, in the meantime, I've got an advice column for you!!
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As many voice actors (professional or otherwise) will tell you, your voice is your single and only instrument. You must, Must, MUST take care of it. There are a lot of ways to do this, but the single best is the warm up. You shouldn't be singing or speaking for long periods of time without some kind of warm up. Still, there are a lot of quicker, easier things to explain, so we'll come back to that in a few paragraphs.
A quick Google search reveals numerous articles on proper voice care and most are more extensive than I'm going to be.
National Health Institute's Recommendations
Communication Blog
Another Voice Blog [kinda like mine!]
Even More Resources!
And an eHow article!!
In truth, most of the recommendations you'll find will boil down to the same key tenets as being healthy overall. Eat well, sleep well, relax a bit, exercise, avoid certain things, and warm up.
Now, like every teacher / actor, I'm about to tell you things that my friends know are hypocritcal. In fact, I'm doing a couple things I shouldn't and not doing several that I should right now given that I'll be playing around with voice work soon after I finish this.
Now, what about those tips? Your diet can have a rather interesting impact on your voice. It seems a little counter-intuitive at first, but it's definitely true. Crackly chips can make little cuts in your throat and chocolate and milk can coat your throat in a goo that will limit your range and strain your vocal cords. I'm not going to go into a full diet-tribe (hah!), but you need to be wary of eating certain things, especially right before you warm up. You also want to avoid dehydrators and make sure to keep a stead stream of water or mild (preferably decaffeinated) tea with you while recording. This will loosen up your throat and give you longevity in the recording process. When you get paid for this, you'll be at it all day, every day. Remember that.
So, what am I doing wrong right now? I'm drinking coffee. Coffee is bad, really bad. It's not only a dehydrator, it also pumps you full of chemicals that are likely to make it harder to relax. Honestly, as soon as I'm done with this cup, I'll be getting water and start warming up.
"I can't give up coffee, Drew! It keeps the sad away!!" Believe me, I know. As someone with severe insomnia, coffee basically keeps me alive in the morning. I doubt I could give it up again. So, what can you do instead? Well, either quit *shudder* or drink plenty of water and don't have any more caffeine until after you stop recording unless it's in minimal quantities, as in tea.
Cigarettes, despite what you might know about Chris Sabat or other gravely voice actors, are TERRIBLE for voice acting. Don't do it. If you smoke and want to be a voice actor, you WILL have to pick one or the other. They destroy your breathing, may give you cancer, limit your opportunities in the field, and will make you noticeably less relaxed. My only advice on this one is the advice I give myself: meditate. Meditate to relax and to explore the reasons you began (and then the reasons you continued) smoking in the first place. See if you can resolve those issues and build coping mechanisms to handle situations where you might have grabbed a cigarette before. If it's mostly social, realize that any real friends will respect your decision to quit. And, if you need a friend to give you some encouraging advice and stories about quitting, just email me or leave a comment on this post.
"Oh no, I'm sick!!" Well, there's not a lot you can do here. You don't want to get the other VAs and workers sick and you probably can't record. To avoid it in the future, keep a better diet, make sure to get more rest, exercise, make sure you're getting enough vitamins, and look up ways to enhance your immune system. If you absolutely MUST record today, then you have a few helpful options. Doing a bit of exercise, yoga is great under these circumstances, will help you regulate and normalize your breathing. It might also clear your sinuses. As always, drink more water. Beyond that, you probably ought to increase the length of your warm up. If you can't finish your warm up, you shouldn't be on a mic today. Finally, there are a few things that may help: cough drops and honey. Since cough drops are rated at one or two every few hours, it's not really a great idea to eat them by the handfuls. Better is honey. Honey will coat your throat even better than a cough drop, loosen it up, and get you ready for recording. It's also a great way to soothe your angry vocal cords after a long day of recording.
"Drew, you keep touting exercise, why?" Science isn't about why, it's about why not! If you love safe science so much- erhrm, sorry, too much Portal 2. So, why exercise? It's no secret that the overwhelming majority of us are simply lazy. There are real, amazing benefits to exercise for a VA, though. Besides keeping you in shape, working out (especially cardio) does two very wonderful things. First, it makes you genuinely healthier than your counterparts in the field. Voice studios are always glad to work with the voice they think can go longer and the guy who's wheezing at coming up the stairs once is probably not their best bet.
Second, and far more important, is breathing. Exercising will literally force you to have better breath work. In the research I did to write this post, it is mentioned EVERY time. People who are more out of shape and have poorer breathing are more likely to need long gaps in between recording single sentences. Honestly, there are very few times when you'll only record a sentence at a time. More than likely, it will be a paragraph or more, even in dialogue. Besides that, a larger lung capacity also increases your vocal range and decreases the likelihood of straining your vocal muscles.
I'm kind of going about this in a roundabout way, but sleep well is next. Why? Well, sleeping well boosts your immune system. Since many colds will damage your voice, staying healthy is a huge part of your job. Beyond that, sleeping well will also relax you and give your vocal cords a proper rest. Do yourself a huge favor and avoid those late nights whenever possible.
Finally, we come to the warm up. The warm up is. The. Single. Most. Important. Tool in your arsenal. Why? Just take a look at this:
Reporter 2: Yeah, I heard from one of the people who was at FUNimation's panel yesterday who said that Sean once passed out.
TW: Oh yeah, it was Eric Vale.
Reporter 2: Oh, it was Eric Vale?
TW: It wasn't Sean Schemmel. Sean Schemmel had a 30-second scream -- and it was at the top of his register too -- and he just screamed for 30 seconds. Like I said, it's about technique like anything else -- like holding a high note in a singing -- it's all about support from your diaphragm. Basically you're just screaming, and Eric Vale took this huge breath which you never do -- you never just blare it out; you take this three-quarters breath and then support it -- and it was like this throaty yell and I think he got like 18-20 seconds into it and you just heard this ba-bump. Then it's like "Oh ****! He just passed out." We open the door and he lies on the floor there, and you're like "Oh my God!" I'm sure Sean Schemmel might have passed out too, but it's all about support; and they are not a whole lot of screaming battle cries anymore. I think Ed and I do it a couple times. I think I just yell at people; it's not like when I snap I'm like "raaaaaaaaaaawwwawrr."
Now, some of you might ask, why aren't you citing a source here? Because this isn't the first time I've heard this story. At Ohayocon one year, I heard Chris Sabat talk about passing out. I don't know if he ever did, but he said it happened. A lot. You may not be auditioning for or voicing the next Dragon Ball Z, but it's an important point.
If you don't warm up and know which muscles and technique to use, you may well pass out in the recording booth. I'm guessing that's not a place or time you want to sleep. Warming up will also help prevent you from doing lasting, permanent damage to your voice.
Given that I've been classically trained and had some voice training, my warm up may actually be a good place for you to start. Most of what I was taught, I got out of the Acting One book I've mentioned before, so you can find better descriptions in there.
- In preparation, drink a little water, maybe have a spoonful of honey if your voice is feeling a little off or strained. Brushing your teeth (Be sure to clean your tongue!!!) and gargling with water and making sounds through the water can also be a nice first step.
- When you're ready, close your eyes, take a couple of deep breaths, and clear your thoughts. Believe me, this is going to get silly and you need to let your inhibitions go. You're going to look ridiculous, but it's okay. Once you prove your vocal range and work ethic, you may have others doing warm ups like this, too. Then THEY get to look silly!
- The next step is to blow out some air (open your eyes or don't, you won't need them until you have to read in a bit). Relax your lips, purse them together, and blow air out. You'll sound, and look, like a horse. It's pretty hilarious. Do this at least a couple times before moving on. It can also be helpful to gently massage your face muscles.
- Next, we're going to add a bit of sound. It doesn't matter what sound, just add some. We'll be working with range in a moment. Do this for a minimum of five breaths.
- After this, it's time to get a great range going. I have no doubt that this part of the exercise is where my voice modulation abilities and exceptional octave range comes from during recording. Play around with range. At breath one, start at a normal speaking voice (though you won't be saying any words). Blow out with your flappy, funny lips and project a sound out as you blow. You'll probably sound like a plane here. Next (in whatever order you like), go for a full breath at a high range and then a low range. See how high and how low you can go. After at least trying one breath of each, start playing with the range in between. Finally, play with your range during a single breath. Breath in, normal, do ray me fa so la ti do and back down again. Get as far as you can in a single breath. No one will blame you if you start laughing. Even when I'm alone, I still find this hysterical.
- Once you're content with a little range, the next step is chewing. Wait, what?! What does that mean? Basically, you're going to do every step thus far and then shut your mouth so you kind of look like a blow fish and swish around the sound in your mouth. This is kind of an abstract concept. Since I can't show it to you, I'll explain as best I can. The idea is that you've already worked on your relaxing, then your breathing, then your sound, and then your range. Now you're working on relaxing your face muscles and getting them to work with your mouth and voice. Chewing the sound around in your mouth feels like having a harmless buzzy bee in your mouth that wants to keep moving from side to side.
- Last in this part of the warm up is the sound. By this point in the warm up, this should produce a really strong, solid note. Breath in, purse your lips, breath out and make sound, chew your words, and then open your mouth and let the sound escape with a beautiful "Maaaaaaaaa." If you do it right, it will probably be right around the same sound as your speaking voice, but with a clearer, nicer tone and fuller body. Hard to explain what that means, but you should know it when you hear it. Anyone familiar with this method who has a better way of explaining it, please let me know and I'll update this post. I would do this at least a few times before moving on. Play with the octave if you like, it's a great way to build your range. Just be careful not to strain yourself before you've even made it to recording.
- After this, I recommend shaking your entire body. One side, then the other. Right leg, then left, right arm, then left (or vice versa, it doesn't matter), then shiver your whole body. Work out any remaining tension. It can be super helpful to relax your face muscles and play with your face and tongue here to. Just loosen up.
- Then we come to the final step: actual speaking. Not normal speaking, though, ho no. Tongue Twisters. Tongue twisters are the hardest things to do in any language. They're designed to make you trip up and say something funny or just gibberish. Tongue twisters are 9 times out of 10 more difficult than any line you'll say all day. Warming up with them means the hardest work is out of the way and your articulation will be much better than if you'd left them alone. So. Try some out. Instead of posting some here, I've got one better. A site with literally hundreds of tongue twisters, it's a really amazing place. If you're like me, a few isn't enough because some are simply easier than others and your easier ones may be my hardest. Just play around with a few that seem difficult and a few that seem easy. Be sure to be articulate and crank up the speed when you feel ready.
- Now get out there and record!
A piece of advice when warming up: do what works for you. Look up other warm up techniques and see if any work better than this for your voice. If so, share a link in the comments for others to see! Besides that, this is meant as the fastest warm up. I generally take at least two or three minutes at every step instead of a couple breaths. Try to figure out how much you think you need and keep at it. If you land a real voice acting job, you may want to quickly warm up again after lunch.
At some point in the near future, I do plan to record this so you have a better idea of what some of this may sound like.
So, that's that. Good luck out there!
Make sure to take care of your voice and good luck out there.
~Drew
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