voice acting

“You set the tone for your podcast by how you sound and how you interact with the audience. So there are a lot of elements to it, you know, obviously preparation and planning and practice, all those things.” — Dan Friedman

 

This week continues our Clubhouse discussion as voiceover artist and sound engineer Dan Friedman answers questions about voice training, keeping listeners engaged, and overcoming stage fright.

As always, if you have any questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, just visit www.audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find all sorts of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter (on the www.audiobrandingpodcast.com webpage) will let you know when the new podcasts are available.

 

An Audio-Driven World

We continue the Clubhouse chat by talking about how subtle changes to pitch and tone can change a listener’s impression of your voice, and the challenges and successes that artists coming from different audio industries, such as radio and lecturing, can find in voiceover work. “Because we are in such an audio-driven world now,” Dan says, “it is really important that if, especially if you’re running a podcast and you want more listeners, or you want listeners to stick with you, you have to be compelling enough that they are going to want to continue to listen and to tune in every week.”

 

Getting Out of a Rut

Dan warns us about some of the traps of voice rehearsal, how easy it can be to get stuck in a loop of negative self-criticism when listening to your own voice, and some creative ways to break out of that vicious circle. “One of the most fun and extreme things to just really get out of your rut,” he suggests, “if you realize you’re in a rut, is to do your script as a cartoon character.” He explains that once you’ve done so and then immediately switch back to your regular voice, you’ll probably find that the performance feels fresh again and you can jump back into it with a different energy.

 

They Want to Hear You

“If you think about it,” Dan says, “communication is a connection between somebody making sound and somebody listening to sound, and if you’re trying to make sound and spread that connection out to a hundred people, that connection’s going to be pretty weak.” We wrap the Clubhouse chat up with a look at the challenges of public speaking and different strategies for overcoming stage fright, such as imagining an individual that you’re speaking to or even focusing on one person in the audience rather than trying to talk to everyone at once. “Most of the time when you are up there speaking to a roomful of people,” he assures us, “those people are there because they want to hear you.”

 

Episode Summary

• How inflection can change the impression you make
• Keeping your listeners engaged
• Tips for breaking out of a voice performance rut
• Public speaking and overcoming stage fright

 

Connect with Dan:

Website: https://sound4vo.com/

Connect with Dan Friedman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danfriedmanvo

Follow Dan Friedman on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sound4VO/

Follow Dan Friedman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanFriedmanVO

The Power of Sound club on Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/club/the-power-of-sound/

 

Stay tuned for part two of our Clubhouse chat next week as we talk about how inflections can affect the way your voice is perceived, some of the challenges that people coming into voiceover from other industries might face, and how adopting a cartoon voice can help break you out of a rut.

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized and branded audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice-over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand.  You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review or a spoken review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.

“When we’re talking about audio-only formats, it’s especially important that you capture your audience using your voice and it should be impactful so that they tune in and want to continue listening. It only takes seven seconds for somebody to decide they want to change the station, whether that be a song they like or don’t like or something that they’re hearing that they’re not liking.” – Dan Friedman

 

Using your voice to communicate isn’t as easy as it sounds. So what do you do if you feel your voice is letting you down? Would you like some personal techniques to help you improve how you sound and your confidence in speaking? Then this is the right podcast for you. I recorded an excellent Clubhouse discussion with Dan Friedman, an expert in the field of public speaking who’s certified in the Roger Love Voice Method. Those of us in the voice-over industry already know Dan as an accomplished audio engineer, but he’s also a singer, voice actor, and voice coach, and I’ll be having a more in-depth interview with him a little later on. So settle back and let yourself be a fly on the wall as we discuss the power of using your voice for more effective communication.

A few things to note. First, I was hearing and answering people a little ahead of when the audio was being recorded. That’s why my occasional comments are slightly out of sync: it didn’t sound that way at the time. And, just so you know, everyone in the room was aware that it was being recorded and would be released in a future podcast episode. To those who raised their hands to participate in the conversation: thank you. When you asked for advice, you helped everyone understand the issues better. So well done! I’ll have more of these types of discussions in the future – they’re on Wednesdays at 2 PM Eastern Time – so keep a lookout for the schedule of upcoming events in the Clubhouse club, The Power of Sound.

As always, if you have any questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes.  If you have questions for me, just visit www.audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find all sorts of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter (on the www.audiobrandingpodcast.com webpage) will let you know when the new podcasts are available.

 

The Sound of Your Voice

We begin the chat with a talk about ways to build confidence in our speaking, and how awkward just hearing our own voice can be at first. “The lack of confidence,” Dan explains, “usually comes from people hearing their recorded voice for the first time and not really realizing how they actually sound.” He suggests ways of breaking out of a monotone, such as singing just a little, and listening carefully to the natural rhythm of your voice so you’ll know how to change things up. “Everybody needs to be able to communicate effectively these days,” he says, “especially through audio only.”

 

Going Over the Top

“Voiceover,” Dan tells us, “is really kind of you at your very best in whatever emotion you’re in.” We discuss the value of tone and pitch, and how well a monotone voice can work (or NOT work) without visual cues. Dan notes that in audio directing, emotions are often a little over the top, and he answers questions about improving your voice, becoming comfortable with it, and the trick to understanding how you’re being perceived by your listener. “Getting to like the sound of your voice really does take time.”

 

Imagine You’re a Balloon

Dan takes a question from Lisa about the importance of matching your listener’s tone, and tips on how to avoid the glottal stop that many of us have when it comes to vowel sounds. We also talk about how to overcome vocal fry by breathing and speaking through your diaphragm, as if you’re a balloon.  “When you breathe, you should be breathing in through your nose as often as possible and not through your mouth… one of the biggest reasons that we should be breathing in through our nose more than our mouth is because our nose is designed to moisturize the air coming through the vocal cords.”

 

Hitting the High Notes

Next, we talk about singing, and Joe asks about how men can learn to be more comfortable with the higher registers of the human voice. Dan offers his advice on improving your vocal range by practicing speaking with both a higher and lower pitch, and how developing a more flexible tone can lead to a more versatile voice performance. “Pitch is a huge tool for emphasis,” he says, “and as a voice actor, we need to use pitch to emphasize words and phrases, and as humans, we need to do that too.”

 

Episode Summary

• Becoming comfortable with your voice
• How to speak with more inflection
• Expressing emotion through pure audio
• Speaking and breathing through your diaphragm
• Using pitch for a more flexible performance

 

Connect with Dan:

Website: https://sound4vo.com/

Connect with Dan Friedman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danfriedmanvo

Follow Dan Friedman on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sound4VO/

Follow Dan Friedman on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DanFriedmanVO

The Power of Sound club on Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/club/the-power-of-sound/

 

Stay tuned for part two of our Clubhouse chat next week as we talk about how inflections can affect the way your voice is perceived, some of the challenges that people coming into voiceover from other industries might face, and how adopting a cartoon voice can help break you out of a rut.

Get your complimentary mini e-book and learn how to create your personalized and branded audio branding strategy with my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy.

Do you need a voice talent for your next project? Visit my voice-over website to find out more about how my voice can help you with your audio brand.  You can also subscribe to the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube to watch the show’s latest episodes.

Please leave the Audio Branding Podcast a written review or a spoken review so others can find the show on their favorite podcast player!

This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.