So!
I'm helping out on many different projects, all run by bronies, though not all are linked to MLP.
One such brony is starting work on a game. Due to non-disclosure and other legal things, I won't reveal anything, but it's a non-MLP game that I may be doing lots of vocal stuff for. Either way, the project leader has expressed interest in voice acting but is concerned because he has a weak voice.
Now, here's the thing... While a voice may be soft or unable to take a lot of strain, those of us with stronger voices usually don't have anything physically different than anyone else. It's simply a matter of exercises, proper care, and practice. On the other hand, what can be done to quickly improve?
Well, this is a combination of microphone magic and the above techniques.
Soft voices are really only a problem with poor recording equipment. Obviously, if it's a bad mic, it will pic up lots of static and the white noise removal won't work well because it will remove most of the speaker's voice. With a good mic, the recording quality is much better. You can record a second of silence before you start speaking, use that as your white noise reference point, use the noise removal (most recording software has this tool), and then amplify your vocal track without excess noise. Even Audacity, my preferred recording software, has all of these neat tricks and it's FREE! Plus, many voices can only be done softly. Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z is an excellent example. Chris Sabbat got right next to the mic and spoke extremely softly to get that voice properly.
So, that's the technical-wizardry aspect of voice overs for those with weak voices. This technique is excellent when a voice actor is first starting out because it allows you to begin recording before you've built up your vocal cords, but keep in mind a strengthened voice leads to changed pitches and tones, so you may have to work extra hard later to match the same voice.
As for the rapid progress on the vocal side, it only requires dedication. I already mentioned this in a previous blog post, so I'm only going to briefly cover caring for your voice here.
1. Avoid sugary foods in general
2. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!
3. Water, green tea, and honey are your best friends
4. Tobacco, other forms of smoke, and large quantities of caffeine will make your voice a sad panda
5. Warmup!
6. Be cautious
What do I mean when I say be cautious? Why? Because you're toning a new muscle group. You can (and very well might) overextend your vocal cords and thus lose your voice. When first building your vocal muscles, which takes time and experience, you need to keep an eye on your voice. Feel it out. Are you getting sore? Are neck muscles tensing? Is your esophagus constricting? Is it taking more effort to speak? Pay attention to your throat and the sounds it's producing so you don't overdo it.
Take your time with lines. Practice speaking. Don't record too much in one day. There's always other work to be done. Recording sessions rarely last more than a few hours per person in a day anyhow, so don't overdo it. If you do a full eight hours of voice acting, of course you're going to be sore or lose your voice, especially if you've never been on-stage.
So those are the tips for rapid progress. Use tech magic, take care of your voice, be careful.
What about building your voice over time? Well, the single best way is theater. Even if you've never been in a play and don't want to, learning to speak to the back row of an auditorium is the hands-down best way to build your voice. Find a gym and deliver a speech to a friend at the back of the room until she can hear every word enunciated clearly.
Continue remembering the basics. Know your limits and only push them a little. Always warmup before a new recording session. Don't EVER skimp on the warmup, you'll regret it. Be kind to your throat with less sugar (pop is horrible for your throat) and more fluids and coating substances like honey. Then just practice, practice, practice. Get a bit louder over time.
Microphones can do a lot for you, but some characters are heroes and need to scream, yell, and get angry. What do you do in those situations? Well, you follow the guidelines I've laid out here to build your voice and then remember the following:
This is the most important lesson I can impart. You can feel real, full anger and deliver it convincingly WITHOUT, I repeat WITHOUT, going to the highest, loudest vocal register you can manage. As I've said in previous posts, almost every voice actor for DBZ passed out in the booth at least once. Why? Because they went to the angriest and loudest they could without listening to what their body was telling them. Most of the recordings for the show, the screaming that is, are not from the tapes where they passed out. They still sound convincing, though, don't they? It's about learning to act, emote, and feel what your character feels without overcompensating or letting it get away from you. It takes an acting coach to learn that, though. All I can say is ask for help.
So, for my friends over at Invocation of Awesome, there's your post on how to improve your voice if you're worried about losing it or damaging your vocal cords. Hope that helped!!
Also, here's that voice candy I promised two weeks ago. >.>
Or here. Aaand:
Or if you can't see it, here.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Accent Work
Okay, so... Here's the situation: I'm gradually running out of money being unemployed and trying to make car / student loan payments. My bank account is currently at almost 0. Many will ask: What does that mean for me? Well, it means I'm here to apologize for not posting as much as I'd like to. I wanted to be posting once a week or so, but haven't been able to because the job search has basically taken over my life right now. Still, if I found time to write a quick fan fic yesterday, I can find time to keep my promise on here. So, without further ado, I provide the following workshop on how to take your normal voice and get to a completely new accent.
================
In a previous post, I mentioned some tips I'll go over in more detail here. These were: I will give a tiny preview of ways to improve accent work:
-Resources
-Script Analysis
-Over extend the stereotype
-Minimize the stereotype thereafter
-See if you can force yourself to think in the accent
-Do tongue twisters in the accent
-Sing in the accent
Now, something I'd like to add before we get into this is that you need to take your current accent into account. Depending on the accent you already have, this may or may not be easy for you. If you're not a native English speaker, it could get even harder. For example, the Japanese (stereotypically) have trouble with r's and l's in English. Why? Because they have a solid single sound. Japanese is all about syllables. Speech transitions like that are difficult and take years of practice (or very intense study) to overcome.
Luckily, I'm guessing most of the people here are native English speakers, so it won't be too much of a problem. I'm not a speech therapist and I can't really help when it comes to stuttering or properly speaking dialogue when you're not a native English speaker. So, sorry, but this is going to be geared towards people who are entirely fluent and have only regional accents, rather than International ones.
So, back to the point at hand. What does that have to do with anything? Well, it's hard to get rid of an accent. I should know. I spent my first 10 years in West Virginia, then moved to Georgia. I had a Southern accent for four years and then tried to drop it as soon as we moved back to the North. My point is, it took me a really long time, months of practice, to get rid of whatever accent I previously had. Even Northeast Ohio (where they send news anchors to learn that monotone drawl) has an accent.
So, what's your best first step? Identify an accent close to yours and then try to learn it. It will get you out of the mindset of "this is how people talk" without being too complicated. For example, Wisconsinites might consider trying a basic Canadian accent. Georgians (state, not country) might want to try the Texas variation of the Southern accent. Stick to a regionally close area with a similar dialect. Of course, New York's a tough one because there are distinct accents for every ethnic community or suburb. Once you've got a handle on that, you can move on to tougher accents. Some people have a natural ear and can mimic anything they hear. For those of you like that, good on ya! Good luck, just go grab some stuff on IDEA and get to it.
For those that don't or those that want to jump into a complicated accent... well, this is for you.
Before we begin, I'll also mention that this is written by an American, but the methods will work for any English speaker looking to work with any accent.
Step One: Resources
Of course, you need resources to begin this process. Just saying "I've heard British people talk before" isn't enough for learning a British accent. A quick look at the IDEA page for the British dialect shows there are specific regions and dialects within each region. So my response is "Which British? Do you remember exactly what it sounded like? Do you know for a fact they were actually British?" 'Cause I'll tell ya, I enjoyed doing an Aussie accent when I went out with my friends for a couple hours.
What resources should you have? Audio clips. Any you can get your hands on. YouTube and IDEA are great starting points. If you have friends with the accent, talk to them, too. Record them if you can.
Step Two: Script Analysis
I will warn you right now, this is the least fun part of the entire process. Script analysis SUCKS. It was the single most valuable class I had in college and the hardest, even including high level computer programming and calculus classes. It's merciless and unforgiving and takes a LOT of practice. Since they tend to teach non-standard symbols, I'm just going to offer two suggestions, either make up your own symbol alphabet that makes sense for every phonetic sound you need to make OR learn / use the international standard. I don't know it and I've got my own way, but I know a lot of actors and linguists who love it.
Step Two A: Analyze the Region
What do I mean by that? Well! Here's the thing: The region is going to have certain characteristics that work well for it. You don't need to know the why, just the how. Liverpool is different than London is different than Dublin is different than Atlanta. Some accents become easier when you work on others first. If you're having a lot of trouble, consider trying another nearby region.
I've also heard that learning a Southern accent is invaluable for learning any British accent. I'll explain why in Two C.
Step Two B: Analyze the Text
This is probably the least fun part of the entire process. You're going to have to print or transcribe a speech in the accent you want. I recommend double spacing it so you can have space to either make notes or write a phonetic transcript, which is what I usually do, to read off of later. This is one of the reasons IDEA is such an important resource! They only have two scripts for hundreds upon hundreds of accents. You can compare your accent to the one you're trying to learn with a lot less effort.
Another piece of advice... this is going to take a while. You need to go through the text SLOWLY. It took me over an hour to do two minutes of dialogue. Take your time, this is the place it's most well spent.
Step Two C: Analyze Video
This step is going to be really hard if you can't find any video. If you can, thank your lucky stars. You may not notice this until you start looking for it, but facial expressions are the same across cultures. What isn't the same is the frequency with which they appear and the mouth movements for individual sounds. Many British dialects use very drawn together, closed lips without a lot of movement. Therefore, expression comes from tone rather than actual speech. It's very expressive, but in a way that's very different from American English. The exception is our Southern dialect. The mouth positions are very similar and conversation relies more heavily on tone than it does context and word choice. A friend has also said the British can talk about absolutely nothing for hours and hours and still be entertaining, I fully believe it.
So! Look for videos, try to imitate the mouth movements you see. If you have trouble with the accent in the later steps, try doing something different and weird with your mouth.
Step Three: Warm Up
Now that you have your resources squared away and a piece of text to work with, it's time to begin. Before doing so... please, please, please! remember to warm up. If you haven't taken a look at the workshop-y post I put up a bit ago, please check it out. Doing a warmup will save your voice later on. This is going to be super rough on your vocal cords. Have some water, possibly even tea and spoonfuls of honey, at the ready. Be sure you haven't had too much caffeine or smoked recently and STAY HYDRATED!
Step Four: Overextend the Stereotype
Okay, now that you're in the thick of it and actually speaking, this is the first step. You're not even going to have to try to overextend the stereotype. When working on it at first, it's probably just going to happen. If you have a mic or tape recorder, try to listen to yourself. For lack of anything else, put one finger in your ear and just see how you sound. Chances are, you're off, but it'll be hard to pinpoint why. The reason is probably because you're overextending the vowel and consonant sounds to the point at which it's just slightly unnatural and rings a little off.
Step Five: Minimize the Stereotype
So, how do you fix that? Well my saddened friend, back to script analysis or a variation of it. There are two ways to make it what it needs to be, natural.
A natural voice is one you're comfortable with. It isn't an act, it's just a part of you. That's why a lot of accent work is hard for people not native to the dialect they're imitating. It's also the main reason you'll be overextending the stereotype when you first start out.
As I said, there are two things you can do. One is to analyze your own voice. Try to figure out where you're holding vowels too long, where the consonants are too hard, which consonants are you saying that the dialect actually drops? These and similar questions are the ones you want to look at if your accent is a bit off. And let me tell you, it is. Even with the best training and the hardest work, I'd bet money that you'll still sound not-quite-right to someone who naturally speaks in that dialect.
However! That statement is mostly geared towards Australian, Irish, Scottish, and British dialects. If you want to imitate an Egyptian American, it's very different. You can sound a little off and no one will notice because the community is small and people have very different ways of learning a new language.
If you're looking to craft a voice for an South African who moved to Ireland... eh, good luck is all I can say. You're not going to find many resources since IDEA is based in America (and therefore every dialect is [Country] American rather than [Country] England / Ireland / etc. To do that requires a step that's going to be even less fun. You'll have to analyze the linguistics of the original language (pauses, inflections, body language, tones, alphabet type, possibly syntax and morphology) and then map it to your dialect. In other words, how does a non-native English speaker learn British English or whichever variation you know. If you're non-American and trying to craft an accent for a foreign language to a non-American dialect... well, good luck. If you have tips, please share them. I'm nowhere near experienced enough to offer more advice than I've just written down.
Now that the above rant is over... The other piece of advice is to get more comfortable in your chosen accent which is what the next few steps will help you with.
Step Six: Find Your Voice
Now that you've mapped the accent, imitated it, and toned down the stereotype, it's time to find your voice. Chances are you've been imitating more than just the accent. You've probably been imitating the tone and inflection of your target example, too.
How do you find your voice in the accent again? Well, the best thing is to grab other samples of the same accent and imitate them until you form a pattern for exactly the way consonants, vowels, diphthongs (two letter pairs), and triphthongs (three letter pairs, like -ing) are said regardless of the speaker. Try to figure these out and then try to speak in your natural voice with the accent's modifications.
Step Seven: Think in the Accent
It doesn't matter if you "just think" or if you actually think in complete words (most of us don't). Try to pick some daily tasks, like reading over a grocery list or set of chores, and think through it. Clearly enunciate every word, but wait! Don't do it out loud! That's right, force yourself to learn how to think in this accent. Make the voice, the accent, your voice, your thoughts.
Does an Irishmen think in Irish dialect? You bet! To truly become comfortable with an accent, for it to be natural, it has to FEEL natural TO YOU. To do that requires that you slightly alter the way you think. If you think a line ahead and think that line out in the accent, it will come out more fluidly and naturally than anyone who's simply imitating.
Step Eight: Tongue Twisters
Another thing you can do to become comfortable with the accent is to do a second warmup. Do the warmup in your accent. See how hard it is, and how different, to read out loud in the accent. This is another way to force you to think about how you're speaking and ingrain "this style of speech is natural" in your brain.
Tongue twisters are meant to be difficult, but many are designed for American English. Some can be really entertaining in a different accent. They may get easier or much, much harder. Play around with it. Being silly and ridiculous in the accent makes acting with it more comfortable. The more comfortable you are, the less you overextend the accent, the less you stereotype the better you're perceived and the more realistic the accent.
Step Nine: Singing
Finally, we come to the final step. This is when all else has failed or if you plan to move to said country and want to fit in more quickly. Singing uses an entirely different part of the brain than speaking. Additionally, many singers lose their accents when they sing and just have sound. So, if you can force yourself to sing in an accent (one of my favorite tricks for quickly learning it), then you can get perfectly comfortable in it.
Now keep in mind, I'm advocating two steps here. First, sing in as stereotyped an accent as you can. Like I said, people tend not to have accents when they sing. The Beatles and Scars on 45 or rappers tend to be an exception. Why? Because their accents are very thick and their singing is closer to speech than to belting out lyrics like Ozzy. So, sing in a heavy, stereotyped accent first.
Then go back to your original accent (the comfortable one) and sing in that. Try to analyze some singers and see if you can catch the small hints in their lyrics that betray an accent. They are there, they're just subtle. See if you can handle it. If you can, congrats! That's a very difficult and very impressive feat.
This step can also be a first step if you're a singer looking to learn an accent. If you want to learn a British accent, it may help you to sing a bunch of Beatles songs and match their inflections in song before trying to learn Liverpool.
Step Ten (Optional): Craft a Character
Now, this is an interesting step. This is for when you aren't intending to use your own voice, but still need an accent. I have to tell you, this is the roughest thing out there for voice actors. Not only must you convey everything through your voice, but you must also act, feel, emote, and express in a voice AND an accent that aren't yours.
This is where you'll have to learn layering. I think I may need to come back to this in a full blog post, but for now I'll give a step-by-step process.
1. Decide how you think you want the character to sound based on cues from the script, director, and artwork
2. Get the voice down first, the nasally or the gravely, the feeling and the emotions
3. Layer each on top of the other
4. Get comfortable with that
5. Then add the accent on top of it
6. Get comfortable with the accent with the new voice
7. Then audition
I wouldn't handle it any other way... this is just... leaps and bounds beyond most voice actors. I don't recommend trying to do it unless you almost never speak in your own voice to begin with and have years of experience and vocal training. I'm rarely comfortable with doing it. An accent on its own is essentially a new voice and will rarely sound like you, but adding a character voice to the accent... forget it. I can do it, but I rarely want to. It's hard. Really hard. If you're doing this... good luck.
============
Now, a question that might be occurring is: Can this be used to imitate celebrities and / or craft new voices? Absolutely! These techniques are great for making new voices for voice-less characters. Anyone interested in voice acting will need to be able to look at a character sketch and basic personality profile and instantly craft a voice from it. It requires a little more work and I may try and write that down someday, but for now, these tips should be enough.
It may be that not every step is necessary, but I recommend going through each and every one if you're having trouble. To test yourself, see if you can find someone with that accent and convince them you're from somewhere nearby.
If you're still having trouble after all of this, you should speak with a friend who has a good ear. Ask them if they can figure it out. If not, message me and I'll take a listen or you can try a new accent and come back to this one. It's always possible you've been working too hard.
Cheers,
Drew
================
In a previous post, I mentioned some tips I'll go over in more detail here. These were: I will give a tiny preview of ways to improve accent work:
-Resources
-Script Analysis
-Over extend the stereotype
-Minimize the stereotype thereafter
-See if you can force yourself to think in the accent
-Do tongue twisters in the accent
-Sing in the accent
Now, something I'd like to add before we get into this is that you need to take your current accent into account. Depending on the accent you already have, this may or may not be easy for you. If you're not a native English speaker, it could get even harder. For example, the Japanese (stereotypically) have trouble with r's and l's in English. Why? Because they have a solid single sound. Japanese is all about syllables. Speech transitions like that are difficult and take years of practice (or very intense study) to overcome.
Luckily, I'm guessing most of the people here are native English speakers, so it won't be too much of a problem. I'm not a speech therapist and I can't really help when it comes to stuttering or properly speaking dialogue when you're not a native English speaker. So, sorry, but this is going to be geared towards people who are entirely fluent and have only regional accents, rather than International ones.
So, back to the point at hand. What does that have to do with anything? Well, it's hard to get rid of an accent. I should know. I spent my first 10 years in West Virginia, then moved to Georgia. I had a Southern accent for four years and then tried to drop it as soon as we moved back to the North. My point is, it took me a really long time, months of practice, to get rid of whatever accent I previously had. Even Northeast Ohio (where they send news anchors to learn that monotone drawl) has an accent.
So, what's your best first step? Identify an accent close to yours and then try to learn it. It will get you out of the mindset of "this is how people talk" without being too complicated. For example, Wisconsinites might consider trying a basic Canadian accent. Georgians (state, not country) might want to try the Texas variation of the Southern accent. Stick to a regionally close area with a similar dialect. Of course, New York's a tough one because there are distinct accents for every ethnic community or suburb. Once you've got a handle on that, you can move on to tougher accents. Some people have a natural ear and can mimic anything they hear. For those of you like that, good on ya! Good luck, just go grab some stuff on IDEA and get to it.
For those that don't or those that want to jump into a complicated accent... well, this is for you.
Before we begin, I'll also mention that this is written by an American, but the methods will work for any English speaker looking to work with any accent.
Step One: Resources
Of course, you need resources to begin this process. Just saying "I've heard British people talk before" isn't enough for learning a British accent. A quick look at the IDEA page for the British dialect shows there are specific regions and dialects within each region. So my response is "Which British? Do you remember exactly what it sounded like? Do you know for a fact they were actually British?" 'Cause I'll tell ya, I enjoyed doing an Aussie accent when I went out with my friends for a couple hours.
What resources should you have? Audio clips. Any you can get your hands on. YouTube and IDEA are great starting points. If you have friends with the accent, talk to them, too. Record them if you can.
Step Two: Script Analysis
I will warn you right now, this is the least fun part of the entire process. Script analysis SUCKS. It was the single most valuable class I had in college and the hardest, even including high level computer programming and calculus classes. It's merciless and unforgiving and takes a LOT of practice. Since they tend to teach non-standard symbols, I'm just going to offer two suggestions, either make up your own symbol alphabet that makes sense for every phonetic sound you need to make OR learn / use the international standard. I don't know it and I've got my own way, but I know a lot of actors and linguists who love it.
Step Two A: Analyze the Region
What do I mean by that? Well! Here's the thing: The region is going to have certain characteristics that work well for it. You don't need to know the why, just the how. Liverpool is different than London is different than Dublin is different than Atlanta. Some accents become easier when you work on others first. If you're having a lot of trouble, consider trying another nearby region.
I've also heard that learning a Southern accent is invaluable for learning any British accent. I'll explain why in Two C.
Step Two B: Analyze the Text
This is probably the least fun part of the entire process. You're going to have to print or transcribe a speech in the accent you want. I recommend double spacing it so you can have space to either make notes or write a phonetic transcript, which is what I usually do, to read off of later. This is one of the reasons IDEA is such an important resource! They only have two scripts for hundreds upon hundreds of accents. You can compare your accent to the one you're trying to learn with a lot less effort.
Another piece of advice... this is going to take a while. You need to go through the text SLOWLY. It took me over an hour to do two minutes of dialogue. Take your time, this is the place it's most well spent.
Step Two C: Analyze Video
This step is going to be really hard if you can't find any video. If you can, thank your lucky stars. You may not notice this until you start looking for it, but facial expressions are the same across cultures. What isn't the same is the frequency with which they appear and the mouth movements for individual sounds. Many British dialects use very drawn together, closed lips without a lot of movement. Therefore, expression comes from tone rather than actual speech. It's very expressive, but in a way that's very different from American English. The exception is our Southern dialect. The mouth positions are very similar and conversation relies more heavily on tone than it does context and word choice. A friend has also said the British can talk about absolutely nothing for hours and hours and still be entertaining, I fully believe it.
So! Look for videos, try to imitate the mouth movements you see. If you have trouble with the accent in the later steps, try doing something different and weird with your mouth.
Step Three: Warm Up
Now that you have your resources squared away and a piece of text to work with, it's time to begin. Before doing so... please, please, please! remember to warm up. If you haven't taken a look at the workshop-y post I put up a bit ago, please check it out. Doing a warmup will save your voice later on. This is going to be super rough on your vocal cords. Have some water, possibly even tea and spoonfuls of honey, at the ready. Be sure you haven't had too much caffeine or smoked recently and STAY HYDRATED!
Step Four: Overextend the Stereotype
Okay, now that you're in the thick of it and actually speaking, this is the first step. You're not even going to have to try to overextend the stereotype. When working on it at first, it's probably just going to happen. If you have a mic or tape recorder, try to listen to yourself. For lack of anything else, put one finger in your ear and just see how you sound. Chances are, you're off, but it'll be hard to pinpoint why. The reason is probably because you're overextending the vowel and consonant sounds to the point at which it's just slightly unnatural and rings a little off.
Step Five: Minimize the Stereotype
So, how do you fix that? Well my saddened friend, back to script analysis or a variation of it. There are two ways to make it what it needs to be, natural.
A natural voice is one you're comfortable with. It isn't an act, it's just a part of you. That's why a lot of accent work is hard for people not native to the dialect they're imitating. It's also the main reason you'll be overextending the stereotype when you first start out.
As I said, there are two things you can do. One is to analyze your own voice. Try to figure out where you're holding vowels too long, where the consonants are too hard, which consonants are you saying that the dialect actually drops? These and similar questions are the ones you want to look at if your accent is a bit off. And let me tell you, it is. Even with the best training and the hardest work, I'd bet money that you'll still sound not-quite-right to someone who naturally speaks in that dialect.
However! That statement is mostly geared towards Australian, Irish, Scottish, and British dialects. If you want to imitate an Egyptian American, it's very different. You can sound a little off and no one will notice because the community is small and people have very different ways of learning a new language.
If you're looking to craft a voice for an South African who moved to Ireland... eh, good luck is all I can say. You're not going to find many resources since IDEA is based in America (and therefore every dialect is [Country] American rather than [Country] England / Ireland / etc. To do that requires a step that's going to be even less fun. You'll have to analyze the linguistics of the original language (pauses, inflections, body language, tones, alphabet type, possibly syntax and morphology) and then map it to your dialect. In other words, how does a non-native English speaker learn British English or whichever variation you know. If you're non-American and trying to craft an accent for a foreign language to a non-American dialect... well, good luck. If you have tips, please share them. I'm nowhere near experienced enough to offer more advice than I've just written down.
Now that the above rant is over... The other piece of advice is to get more comfortable in your chosen accent which is what the next few steps will help you with.
Step Six: Find Your Voice
Now that you've mapped the accent, imitated it, and toned down the stereotype, it's time to find your voice. Chances are you've been imitating more than just the accent. You've probably been imitating the tone and inflection of your target example, too.
How do you find your voice in the accent again? Well, the best thing is to grab other samples of the same accent and imitate them until you form a pattern for exactly the way consonants, vowels, diphthongs (two letter pairs), and triphthongs (three letter pairs, like -ing) are said regardless of the speaker. Try to figure these out and then try to speak in your natural voice with the accent's modifications.
Step Seven: Think in the Accent
It doesn't matter if you "just think" or if you actually think in complete words (most of us don't). Try to pick some daily tasks, like reading over a grocery list or set of chores, and think through it. Clearly enunciate every word, but wait! Don't do it out loud! That's right, force yourself to learn how to think in this accent. Make the voice, the accent, your voice, your thoughts.
Does an Irishmen think in Irish dialect? You bet! To truly become comfortable with an accent, for it to be natural, it has to FEEL natural TO YOU. To do that requires that you slightly alter the way you think. If you think a line ahead and think that line out in the accent, it will come out more fluidly and naturally than anyone who's simply imitating.
Step Eight: Tongue Twisters
Another thing you can do to become comfortable with the accent is to do a second warmup. Do the warmup in your accent. See how hard it is, and how different, to read out loud in the accent. This is another way to force you to think about how you're speaking and ingrain "this style of speech is natural" in your brain.
Tongue twisters are meant to be difficult, but many are designed for American English. Some can be really entertaining in a different accent. They may get easier or much, much harder. Play around with it. Being silly and ridiculous in the accent makes acting with it more comfortable. The more comfortable you are, the less you overextend the accent, the less you stereotype the better you're perceived and the more realistic the accent.
Step Nine: Singing
Finally, we come to the final step. This is when all else has failed or if you plan to move to said country and want to fit in more quickly. Singing uses an entirely different part of the brain than speaking. Additionally, many singers lose their accents when they sing and just have sound. So, if you can force yourself to sing in an accent (one of my favorite tricks for quickly learning it), then you can get perfectly comfortable in it.
Now keep in mind, I'm advocating two steps here. First, sing in as stereotyped an accent as you can. Like I said, people tend not to have accents when they sing. The Beatles and Scars on 45 or rappers tend to be an exception. Why? Because their accents are very thick and their singing is closer to speech than to belting out lyrics like Ozzy. So, sing in a heavy, stereotyped accent first.
Then go back to your original accent (the comfortable one) and sing in that. Try to analyze some singers and see if you can catch the small hints in their lyrics that betray an accent. They are there, they're just subtle. See if you can handle it. If you can, congrats! That's a very difficult and very impressive feat.
This step can also be a first step if you're a singer looking to learn an accent. If you want to learn a British accent, it may help you to sing a bunch of Beatles songs and match their inflections in song before trying to learn Liverpool.
Step Ten (Optional): Craft a Character
Now, this is an interesting step. This is for when you aren't intending to use your own voice, but still need an accent. I have to tell you, this is the roughest thing out there for voice actors. Not only must you convey everything through your voice, but you must also act, feel, emote, and express in a voice AND an accent that aren't yours.
This is where you'll have to learn layering. I think I may need to come back to this in a full blog post, but for now I'll give a step-by-step process.
1. Decide how you think you want the character to sound based on cues from the script, director, and artwork
2. Get the voice down first, the nasally or the gravely, the feeling and the emotions
3. Layer each on top of the other
4. Get comfortable with that
5. Then add the accent on top of it
6. Get comfortable with the accent with the new voice
7. Then audition
I wouldn't handle it any other way... this is just... leaps and bounds beyond most voice actors. I don't recommend trying to do it unless you almost never speak in your own voice to begin with and have years of experience and vocal training. I'm rarely comfortable with doing it. An accent on its own is essentially a new voice and will rarely sound like you, but adding a character voice to the accent... forget it. I can do it, but I rarely want to. It's hard. Really hard. If you're doing this... good luck.
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Now, a question that might be occurring is: Can this be used to imitate celebrities and / or craft new voices? Absolutely! These techniques are great for making new voices for voice-less characters. Anyone interested in voice acting will need to be able to look at a character sketch and basic personality profile and instantly craft a voice from it. It requires a little more work and I may try and write that down someday, but for now, these tips should be enough.
It may be that not every step is necessary, but I recommend going through each and every one if you're having trouble. To test yourself, see if you can find someone with that accent and convince them you're from somewhere nearby.
If you're still having trouble after all of this, you should speak with a friend who has a good ear. Ask them if they can figure it out. If not, message me and I'll take a listen or you can try a new accent and come back to this one. It's always possible you've been working too hard.
Cheers,
Drew
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Believe It or Not...
Believe it or not, I actually haven't been ignoring y'all. I have been extremely busy, both with real life and some voice acting projects. I've been using everything I know to pin down Matt Smith's voice as closely as possible for My Little Time Lord and should be making a full write-up on both that and the accent work I promised a couple weeks ago very soon.
In addition to several videos posted with Matt Smith work (which I will soon put up here), I have also done something I said I never would... On the other hand, it got me on Equestria Daily and has almost 200 listens in under a week.
There is a terrible fan fic called Cupcakes that is written about Pinkie Pie. Think Soylent Green and Hannibal crossed with Christopher Nolan's Joker and add a little bit of confetti. It's pretty horrifying. That being said, I recorded a reaction audio while doing a live reading. People really seem to be enjoying it. It can be found on soundcloud and given the graphic nature and NSFW rating of the fic and the reading... I'm inclined to not link it here. Suffice it to say, I've been busy.
Soon, I'll have shiny new voice candy for all the good boys and girls. Back soon.
-Drew
In addition to several videos posted with Matt Smith work (which I will soon put up here), I have also done something I said I never would... On the other hand, it got me on Equestria Daily and has almost 200 listens in under a week.
There is a terrible fan fic called Cupcakes that is written about Pinkie Pie. Think Soylent Green and Hannibal crossed with Christopher Nolan's Joker and add a little bit of confetti. It's pretty horrifying. That being said, I recorded a reaction audio while doing a live reading. People really seem to be enjoying it. It can be found on soundcloud and given the graphic nature and NSFW rating of the fic and the reading... I'm inclined to not link it here. Suffice it to say, I've been busy.
Soon, I'll have shiny new voice candy for all the good boys and girls. Back soon.
-Drew
Friday, July 8, 2011
MLTL
So... someone is looking to do an audio book of My Little Time Lord. I had spoken with someone about doing it. A very talented young lady, but she's not free for a month and someone else has taken up the mantle. As a result, I'm sending in an audition for the Doctor and hoping I can get that or one of a number of other parts. I've also just finished recording Dr. Magnusson's lines.
Anyhow, that's all for now. Promise I haven't forgotten about the step-by-step accent thing!
Anyhow, that's all for now. Promise I haven't forgotten about the step-by-step accent thing!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Guilty
Oh man... so, yeah. It occurred to me it's been over a week since I put anything up here.
Here's the deal right now: I've had an enormous amount of trouble finding a job and have been focusing almost exclusively on what I need to get done to be ready for work again. I also haven't had a lot of responsibilities in my mod work.
However, there has been stuff getting done. I'm speaking with an amazing lady who has given Derpy a voice and may be doing a reading of a Doctor Whooves fanfic in a month or so. Besides that, Leon over at the HL2 mod just posted a demo of the modeling work for the Kleiner lines. Here you can see the fantastic work the animator has done. A little later on, I'll try to embed it here on Voz De Suenos, as well.
I should also be finishing the Dr. Magnusson lines this week and continuing to perfect the Hoity Toity voice for the ponies mod. Finally, I'll try and get that step-by-step accent work thing posted later in the week when I'm finally done with some really important psych stuff. Stay tuned for more!!
Cheers,
Drew
Here's the deal right now: I've had an enormous amount of trouble finding a job and have been focusing almost exclusively on what I need to get done to be ready for work again. I also haven't had a lot of responsibilities in my mod work.
However, there has been stuff getting done. I'm speaking with an amazing lady who has given Derpy a voice and may be doing a reading of a Doctor Whooves fanfic in a month or so. Besides that, Leon over at the HL2 mod just posted a demo of the modeling work for the Kleiner lines. Here you can see the fantastic work the animator has done. A little later on, I'll try to embed it here on Voz De Suenos, as well.
I should also be finishing the Dr. Magnusson lines this week and continuing to perfect the Hoity Toity voice for the ponies mod. Finally, I'll try and get that step-by-step accent work thing posted later in the week when I'm finally done with some really important psych stuff. Stay tuned for more!!
Cheers,
Drew
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