The power of the human voice is often overlooked.
Voice professionals are able to arouse emotions with their audience through the use of their voices.
So many people wonder whose voices are behind Spongebob or Patrick, how they can produce such voices, and most importantly, how to become a voice actor like them?
Before boggling your mind with all the certainties your journey will face as a voice actor, here are the steps on how to become a professional voice actor.
1. Warm-Ups and Good Shape
You should never skip a good warm-up before every audition, every rehearsal,
and every performance that you will be in to make sure you are ready for anything.
Warming up will make a big difference and advantage in anything. With that being said, never forget to make time for some voice work every day. You’ll never know what will you be up to, it’s good to be prepared always.
Relax your jaw to make enough room for your mouth and tongue to function properly, for they are the parts of the mouth where sounds rely on on through the shape you do.
Get yourself used to tongue exercises, such as letting your jaw open, pointing your tongue out, touching both lips, top, and bottom teeth, your bottom gum ridge behind the bottom teeth, and the hard palate, then finally, the floor of your mouth. Repeating this sequence of exercises five times including good breathing will ensure the relaxation of your jaw.
Yawning lessens throat constrictions and will be the easiest voice workout that we are all able to do.
2. Practice Sight-Reading
Running your eyes on works, scripts, and books then reciting them out loud will
remain an essential part of any auditions you decide to take part in.
The more often you practice it, the better you will get. Focus on how can you be more promising and convincing to hear all the time.
Familiarize the consonants and vowels that you are having a hard time delivering smoothly. Be aware of the sensations while you are speaking and reading.
Every word has specific accents and weight and it may differ every time depending on its use in the scene.
3. Breathing Applications
Being an expert when it comes to dividing texts into thoughts helps you receive the best analysis and comprehension of the thoughts of the character.
Proper breathing and punctuation will not just emphasize the beginning and the end of the dialogue but also the emotions and the sentiment of a specific scene.
The core of a powerful voice is no other than your breath. But there are times that we unconsciously restrict it due to events that may shock us and keep us from inhaling.
Those kinds of scenarios can bring bad vocal delivery, so try letting air in deeper, as well as breathing it out. This helps stomach muscles contract to push the air out of the body and have a good balance of oxygenation.
4. Good Posture
Your entire body affects how your voice sounds without you even knowing
it. Keeping your posture correctly aligned will be a great asset to achieve a good voice quality.
Make sure that the air you breathe will pass through your body without any hassle by having a straight back. Don’t over-extend your neck for it will make the distance from your throat to your mouth longer.
5. Hydrate
This may sound common, but frankly, one of the most forgotten tips in achieving vocal health.
While it is the most forgotten, it is one of the most essential. If we are machines, water is our gasoline. Our body is 70% water. Drinking plenty of water will not just be good for our vocal health but also for our overall fitness.
Up to this point, we have learned that to be a good voice actor, we use not just our voice. We use our senses, our body for posture, and our minds to function at full capacity. Water can replenish all the energy lost to each of these parts and maintain quality work.
6. Participate in Acting Classes.
Most people would think that being a voice actor is just basic reading of books like we do in high school. If you grew up watching cartoons you’ll know that it’s not that simple.
It will not be called voice acting if there is no “acting” involved. Acting is not something we are born with, and there are classes offered for us to improve our acting skills.
These classes, with the help of professionals, will help you sharpen your not-yet-discovered talents in the voice acting field. It will shape you into a confident performer as well.
If taking classes would take too much of your time, employing a personal voice-acting coach can be an option too. It will be a more personal and intimate learning experience.
Prowess on acting with the use of voice requires you a lot of effort and a helping hand from the professionals that are first to ever do it to obtain skills.
Voice acting is more than just humor and expressing emotions. You can learn and improve skills such as pronunciations, articulation, delivery, and breathing, all with the assistance of a coach so you can be at your best in every performance.
7. Online Lessons and Reference
A variety of voice acting lessons is also offered online. If you seriously want to learn voice acting in your own free time, make sure to check them.
You can also look for videos, cartoons, video games, and even commercials until you become familiar with the different styles and attacks of voice talents.
The Internet has many things to offer. You just have to know what exactly are you looking for. Whether it is a specific lesson or just an influence or inspiration for your work, you’ll never run out of choices.
8. Record Demos
This is the fruit of your hard work. A recorded material of your learning applications as a voice actor. You can use these demos to show to different producers and companies that may be looking for talent.
The term demo is used in many applications but for voice acting, a demo – reel is a medley of dialogue. It is performed mostly in different characters to showcase the versatility of the actor.
Doing a demo will make it easy for you to identify the specific kind of voice that is appropriate to a certain kind of work. You’d also be able to judge your own work and improve it as you create more and more demos.
9. Auditions
Auditions are the most crucial step in your career, for this is how you can land your possible jobs. You have to be ready before you decide to take this step. This is the make-or-break part of your journey. Your demos play a huge role here.
Playing it safe can be a good choice when you are just starting. Choose the auditions that suit your talent so you can avoid useless rejections, and be at your best
performance ability.
Start exploring the world of voice acting if you have enough experience to back up your interest in growing into different roles and characters.
Master your distinct skills such as diction, pronunciation, character, delivery, and always take care of your voice. That way, instead of looking for many auditions, opportunities will present themselves to you.
10. Practice
You can’t be too cocky after learning a skill if you want to maintain your craft at a high level. Practice is always an important part of going professional even if you are not in a recording studio.
Constant listening and practicing your skills will make you develop a professional-sounding voice that will catch the attention of directors and audiences.
11. Network
The network is not only related to online and internet, it means connections to a group of people. In this topic, it means connections to the people who are in the voice acting field.
Networking will lead you to lots of job opportunities, establish bonds and friendships, and further discover a variety of aspects of your career.
Networking would also open more possibilities for your discovery through someone you know. This will also create the best connections in your way.
To Sum it Up
We know that becoming a voice actor is not an easy task. You need to be
professionally qualified more than just with skills and talents; dedication, passion, hard work, and love for the art and field are also a part of the whole journey.
Being a voice actor means gathering enough devotion out of your soul to get the job done because this is not just a one-day process. It takes years and even decades to be where an aspirant desires to be.
Rejection is a part of growing. It will surely make you better if it did not discourage you. Always have a positive mind to fight through negative comments for it will define your passion for your craft.
Do your best every time. If you want good results, you should start with good preparations that will lead to quality performance. There’s no promise that it will always be good all the time, but it will definitely show more positive results.
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Are you an aspiring voice actor? Do you have an upcoming audition? We hope that this article helped you improve your skills as a voice actor.
If you want to add more tips and share your personal experience with the field of voice acting, leave us a comment and let’s share our ideas so we can help more readers.