Observations

One word of advice: PRACTICE

20 May 2009

My extended absence from my blog is due in part to an amazing 2-week cruise from Miami to Los Angeles through the Panama Canal. As faithful readers of this blog know, I always observe lessons applicable to voiceover when I travel, and this latest trip was no exception.

Every cruise ship director hires a variety of performers who must amuse and entertain the passengers. The nightly shows during our sailing on the glorious Norwegian Pearl were particularly enjoyable. We heard pianist Nadia Zaitsev perform some incredibly complex arrangements of Bach, Beatles, Gershwin, and Chopin before tackling a truly thrilling rendition of Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag. Another night, we watched a guy known as Los Gauchos twirl rope with balls at each end with such terrific speed so that it looked like swirling laser beams encircling him. Okay, it sounds like a lame act, but trust me, this guy was mesmerizing. We watched Professor Watson move effortlessly between solos on fiddle, mandolin, and trumpet in successive songs.

With each performer, I first admired their talent. My second thought was about the enormous number of hours that each must have spent in practice of his or her art in order to perform flawlessly before the audience. As voice talent, we also have the responsibility of practicing before we’re in front of an audience, whether that audience is face-to-face, as in a studio session, or virtual in an on-line audition.

During our trip, fellow voiceover artist Terry Daniel wrote an article on his blog about the merits of practice. Terry wisely points out that voice talent have a perpetual need to voice copy out-loud in order to find the best technique and interpretation.

When I’m on vacation, I usually do practice voiceover almost every day. I’ll read aloud the ingredients of shampoo bottles (great practice for medical narrations), the ship’s daily newsletter (practice for travel narrations), and books (practice for audiobook narration and characterizations). However, I admit that I have been lax sometimes about practicing voiceover while at home.

While many people think that voiceover work is simply talking or reading aloud, the ability to read smoothly out-loud is just the starting point in this career. I always encourage newcomers to read everything out-loud in order to bring some reality to their dream.

As a voice talent gets some paid jobs and starts growing a business, it’s easy to forego practice for the sake of practice. We may think we get all the voiceover practice that we need in doing auditions. If you view an audition as part of the job of being a voice talent, though, you can see dedicated practice is necessary before undertaking any auditions.

In addition to Terry’s article, I read a couple of other things recently that re-affirm to me the necessity of constant voiceover practice. An editorial in the New York Times reminds me that reading aloud is a very different physical experience than reading silently. Also, comprehension can be measured by a person’s skill in reading out loud because “…it reveals far more than whether the reader understands the words. It reveals how far into the words — and the pattern of the words — the reader really sees.”

Even more interesting to me is the assertion made by voice talent Anthony Mendez in his insightful and fascinating e-book titled Meditation for Voice-Over: The Voice Actor’s Guide to Not Worrying and Reducing Stress. I liked this ebook immensely because Anthony applies some Law of Attraction and mind power principles to increasing one’s voiceover business. He lists 3 Ms as the benefits of voiceover practice in front of the mic:

1) Your muscles become strong.
2) Your muses conspire to help you realize your intentions.
3) Your mind is focused on a single point, which causes manifestation to occur more quickly.

(Hmmm…maybe that should be 4 Ms!)

Anthony further states that by doing, you will BE.

I can think of no better reason to practice voiceover every day. Toward that end, it’s my intention to record this and future blog posts as part of my practice sessions.

Do you practice voice-over? I’d love to get your thoughts on this topic, so please leave a comment on the blog.

A mathematical viewpoint for success

4 February 2009

Here is a fun little exercise that someone sent me which contains indisputable mathematical logic. It also made me laugh because it seems true, whether we’re talking about becoming a successful voiceover talent or anything else.

Using a strictly mathematical viewpoint, what makes 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. How about achieving 103? What makes up 100% in life?

Here’s a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:

If
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
are represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%
and
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%

But

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

And

P-E-R-S-I-S-T-A-N-C-E
16+5+18+19+9+19+20+1+14+3+5 = 129%

And finally

P-E-R-S-E-V-E-R-A-N-C-E< 16+5+18+19+5+22+5+18+14+3+5 = 130%

So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that while Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close, Attitude will get you there. However, it’s the Persistance and Perseverance that will put you over the top!

Resonance between harp and voice-over

24 August 2008

I had planned to write about an incident with karma, but that’s not the voice-over story that wants to be told today. In 1995, I fell in love while at the Stone Mountain Highland Games. Drew and I were walking through the clan and exhibits area when I heard a pleasant, tinkling sound in the breeze. I followed the sound and was delighted to discover a tent where harpists had gathered and were playing their instruments. I immediately knew that I had to get that sound in my life, so I did what anyone would do in the circumstances: I bought a small harp.

Playing the harp immediately became one of my passions. In 2000, I was thrilled to buy my first and only pedal harp, a magnificent 44-string Camac Clio.

My Camac Clio harp in my music room

When I started playing the harp, I was exercising my desire to do voice work by volunteering for the Georgia Radio Reading Service, which I did for 5 years. I still was a few years away from making the decision to become a voice artist and creating my first demo. Learning to play the harp taught me 5 things every aspiring voice talent should know.

1) If it were easy, everybody would do it.

If someone learns I play harp, the inevitable first question is: Isn’t it hard to play? I always answer that harp is like anything else. It takes continuous practice, and I think it probably takes a lifetime to master if you want to do it well. You always have room to evolve and improve.

If someone learns I am a voice-over talent, the inevitable first question is: People have always told me I have a nice voice. How can I get started in voice-over? Most people assume that voice-over work is as easy as speaking. My answer to the harp people would also work here. I always advise people to start with a book from my recommended reading list and practice reading everything aloud: newspapers, billboards, cereal boxes, shampoo bottles, etc. If a person doesn’t want to read, as evidenced in a common approach from newcomers described Rowell Gormon’s hilarious blog post, I truly can’t imagine how they would become successful in voice-over — a career that is based on reading!

2) You’ll go further and faster if you learn from an experienced teacher.

I knew how to read music, and I had taught myself to play oboe and flute when I was in high school. I naturally thought that learning the harp would be snap, or at least a graceful flick of the wrist. Once I discovered that I could only go far with the information in a book, I decided to take harp lessons.

I called a few universities to learn of harp teachers in the area and was referred to the fantastic Monica Hargrave. For about 3 years, I thoroughly enjoyed my weekly lessons with Monica. I learned proper technique and confidence-building measures. I learned how to take music apart in order to practice and master it. Without Monica’s steady encouragement and advice, I doubt I would have had the confidence and skills needed to play harp at my brother’s wedding.

While the books on voice-over give you a great overview of the industry and/or exposure to a particular skill set, an experienced voice-over coach shows you how to break apart a script in order to serve the client’s goal in communication. Your confidence grows as you learn techniques necessary to thrive in the business. You can create and market a demo secure in the knowledge that you can recreate any cut from it on cue.

We don’t hear ourselves as others hear us, and it can be easy to fall into bad habits. Like professional sports players, professional voice talent still need to practice and get feedback from a coach.

3) You don’t have to make money or become famous from everything you do.

The second inevitable question that people ask me about the harp is: Do you play in the symphony? Most people have only seen harps at a concert. They seem shocked when I tell them that I only play harp in my house, as if they don’t understand how I could play an expensive instrument simply for the love of it.

The second inevitable question that people ask me about my voice-over career is: Where have I heard you? Most people tend to associate voice actors only with the celebrities making big bucks working in cartoons and movies. They seem disappointed when I tell them that I primarily voice corporate training and marketing modules.

I do make money in voice-over, but I’m not famous – yet! 🙂 I don’t do voice work solely for the money, though. I do it because I have an inner calling to do it. You’ll never go to the theater and see the training video on insecticide application prepared for highway workers with the Georgia DOT, but I’m proud to be the one who narrated it.

4) Practice alone does not equate perfection.

Due to my busy schedule, I currently don’t take harp lessons or even make time to play my harp with regular frequency. Whether it’s harp or voice-over technique, repetitive practice will build muscle memory. However, performances based solely on muscle memory are dull and lifeless, not to mention subject to more mistakes. It’s the emotional connection to either the music or script that makes the performance memorable.

5) Listen and learn from others in your field without negatively comparing yourself.

No matter how good you are or how much you accomplish, you always can learn more and improve by listening to others. I have a 100 or more harp CDs, and I see harpists in concert when possible.

In voice-over, I actively listen to radio and TV commercials. I avidly listen to audiobooks. I still listen to voice talent demos on Voicebank. I consciously listen to narrations for shows on the Discovery, History, and Travel TV channels. While audiobooks and TV programs are entertaining, I like to hear the pacing, characterization, and pronunciation of the voice talent booked in areas where I am focusing my career.

I have different levels of expertise in harp and voice-over. Listening to others doesn’t make me feel discouraged about my level of achievement. Instead, I feel inspired. If something is possible for someone else, it’s possible for me.

In either case, I am reminded of a quote from Pat Conroy:

I was a baitfish struggling upstream with the leaping wild salmon,
but I was swimming in the same river and happy to be there.

SaveSave

For love…or money?

2 August 2008

A while back, I wrote about offering unsolicited advice to anyone, especially potential or existing voice-over clients. Today, I have a story about solicited marketing advice that has made my day!

I have previously mentioned Henriette Klauser’s wonderful book Write It Down, Make It Happen: Knowing What You Want And Getting It. The author provides a variety of writing method which can be emulated to reach your own success. I am a firm believer in the process and consequently find myself writing almost every day, most often in some sort of journal.

I have journals for my voice-over career, my harp practice, design of my dream house, books I’ve read, and, most importantly, my everyday life. Given that I like to write as much as I do, it should not surprise you to know that I enjoy writing with fine pens.

In the last couple of years, Drew and I have become passionate about fountain pens, and we have assembled a small collection. We were therefore were excited to go to our first pen show, which was held in Atlanta this past April.

My favorite color is purple, and I fell in love with this luscious fountain pen the moment I walked in the door.

Taccia prototype fountain pen on display at Atlanta Pen Show

Part of my everyday journal entry for that day relates to this fountain pen and today’s marketing story:

Part of my journal entry from Saturday, 5 April 2008

As you can read, I found myself talking with the Taccia company president, who told me that the pen was a prototype for which a name had not been determined. She was asking for input on the names for the 4 pens in this new collection. On my way home, I thought of a name for the collection and for the individual pens, and I discussed them with her when I returned to the show the next day.

She was very appreciative of my ideas and insisted on giving me a Taccia leather pen case. Most people don’t value ideas unless they pay for them. She didn’t have to give me anything, so her gift of the pen case was generous and representative of good karma. (Stay tuned for an upcoming story about karma.)

I had forgotten this incident until I was reminded of that pen yesterday. When I looked at Taccia’s web site, I was thrilled to discover that most of my idea for these pens had been implemented!

The Taccia Nightlife Collection is available

in NYC Blue, Golden Gate Copper, Vegas Sage, and Paris Lilac.

The collection name is a little different, and the copper color changed to another city. Still, the concept and names of the other cities are true to the ideas I presented.

If you’ve read this far, you may be wondering how this marketing story helped my voice-over career. Actually, I never thought that it would. I’m telling it for 3 reasons:

1) I’m proud and happy that a company chose to use some of my marketing ideas.
2) Everything I do isn’t about me or my voice-over career. I like to help others as good citizen of the world.
3) I love and am good at marketing but don’t need or want to make it my career.

I want to write for a minute about this last point. I have been told countless times in my life that I am good at marketing. People tell me that I should work for an ad agency. While I love marketing, I don’t want to make it my career. Just because you love something or are good at it doesn’t mean that you have to make it a career, or even do it for money. Our society gives the message that the only things worth doing are those which make money. However, it really is okay to do things just because you love doing them!

I believe that if you do something just because someone else thinks that you can make some money from it, you may find yourself feeling miserable much of the time. Almost every day, I hear from someone who wants to become a voice-over talent because they have been told they have a nice voice. They want to use their nice voice to make money.

To my ear, most people have nice-sounding voices. It’s what you can DO with your voice in transparently interpreting the client’s copy that can possibly earn money for you. Since it takes time, money and energy for classes and demo production, I always recommend that newcomers start with a book from my recommended reading list.

If you want to become a professional voice-over artist, you will be someone who runs a business and constantly markets yourself and that business. If you aren’t prepared or don’t want to operate as a business person, you still can use your very nice voice to volunteer to read/record for the blind, tell stories to children at libraries and hospitals, announce sporting events in your community, be a political activist, etc. In other words, use your voice and time in ways that you love and not just because someone else made you think that you can make some easy money as a voice-over talent.

To finish with the pen story, I already own 2 Taccia fountain pens, and you can be sure that I soon will own a third — the Paris Lilac that I named! 🙂

12 lessons from Dancing With The Stars

10 April 2008

I have been too busy in the past month to post an article here on my blog. In that time, a new season of the TV show Dancing With The Stars began. Given my views on American Idol, you might think I would have no interest in this show. You might also think that dancing with the stars (DWTS) has nothing to do with a voice-over career. If so, this entry may surprise you.

Watching TV is a passive activity that does nothing toward accomplishing my goals. I prefer instead to spend the time with my husband or do things to advance my voice-over career, such as marketing tasks, auditions, etc. In order to efficiently manage my TV-viewing time, I don’t necessarily watch shows during their broadcast. I prefer to record them and watch them at my convenience. I also don’t spend much time chit-chatting about TV shows to anyone because those kinds of conversations are superficial and inane.

Then why am I spending precious time writing to you about a TV show, especially one considered fluff in many circles? When I first heard about this show, I confess that I thought the idea was dull and that the show would be cancelled. I never watched DWTS until Barry Manilow made a guest appearance. I admit that I quickly became hooked. The show features celebrities from other endeavors who are paired with professional dancers. The dancers teach the celebs the complicated steps for ballroom and Latin dances, and three judges rate all of the performances.

While the thrilling live music, stunning costumes and amazing dance routines are appealing in themselves, I believe the show is widely popular for another reason: We have the opportunity to watch adults in a learning curve.

Learning something new as an adult is a different process than as a child. From watching this show, we can learn 12 valuable lessons that can be applied to a voice-over career:

1) You can’t expect to excel at everything, especially on the first try.

As adults, we don’t like to admit we don’t know everything. When we’re a star in one area of our lives, we take it for granted that we’re a star in every area. This show proves that you can accomplish on some level anything that you set out to do, especially when you relax, enjoy the process and forget about instant gratification. If you also accept that it takes time, persistence and dedicated practice to become a star, you will be more likely to rise to that level.

2) You need to be patient with yourself when learning a new skill.

It’s easy to become frustrated and discouraged when results seem slow in coming. Whether you’re learning to bring authentic interpretation to voice-over scripts, dance the paso doble (who even knew such a thing existed?) or do anything else, you have to remain focused and work through the discomfort of the training to accomplish your goal.

3) You may have natural ability, but a veteran instructor can help you improve and showcase your talent.

The celebs with musicality and rhythm are readily apparent to viewers. Even so, they differ in how fluidly they can execute the routine. The professional dancers create routines that maximize the celebs’ abilities. Voice-over actors are also judged on our fluidity in performing the script. An excellent voice-over coach can guide you to a style that honors, reflects and strengthens your natural vocal characteristics.

4) If you think or say you can’t do it, you can’t. You have to maintain a positive attitude that you CAN do it.

Your attitude is the most critical factor in determining your success at dancing, voice-over, sheep-herding and whatever else you may do in life. Think of the power of your words as a self-fulfilling prophecy (which they are). Would you rather sit out on the dance and wonder if you could do it, or be fully alive and embracing the pain and pleasure of learning something new?

5) Confidence in your abilities grows with each step.

Viewers are taken behind-the-scenes as the competitors learn the dance for the upcoming week. We are able to see them struggle and fall (sometimes literally) while they are learning the routine. We can see that the more they practice, the more comfortable and confident they become. Practice is the key to confidence, whether on the dance floor or in the voice-over booth.

6) Instruction and significant practice are needed in order to compete at a professional level.

Championship figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi is extremely athletic and has spent her life learning a routine choreographed to music. However, she admits that ballroom dancing is very different than ice skating, and she spends long hours learning the intricacies and emotions of the dance each week. In voice-over, commercial scripts are different than narrative scripts, which require different skills than IVR scripts and audiobook projects. Professional voice-over artists continue to study with coaches to improve technique and interpretation in their niche areas.

7) It doesn’t matter how well you performed in practice. Your live performance is all that matters.

I realize I’ve made several comments about practice. It’s obviously extremely important if you expect to become proficient and at some point master anything new! The level of practice shows with the celebrity dancers. Still, they only have one shot each week to win the judges’ favor. As a voice-over artist, we make an impression the moment we step in the booth. A director wants to hear a solid performance on that first live take. When working at a studio, you can’t have the attitude that re-takes are possible until mistakes are fixed. With the confidence from extended practice, your mistakes will be minor and few.

8) No matter how good you are, you can’t take it personally if someone else is deemed better.

One couple gets eliminated on DWTS every week. A voice-over audition is the same way; only one person can win the prize. The criteria and judging are entirely subjective, and the mathematical odds of winning any particular audition are definitely not in your favor! You can’t take it personally when you don’t win auditions. If you keep practicing, submitting good auditions and putting yourself out there, some jobs will eventually be yours.

9) When you approach an activity with a sense of excitement and love, those attributes will be felt by your audience. By the same token, the audience can sense anxiety and fear.

The audience always wants the dancers to do well. When the dancers start thinking about being judged, they make more mistakes. Their anxiety can cause their performance to seem wooden or mechanical. Voice talent have the same performance issues. We allow the negative self-talk in our brains to disrupt our performance. By staying in the moment and concentrating on the feelings of love instead of doubt, we can give our audiences the performance that makes them cheer!

10) Just because it LOOKS easy doesn’t mean that it is!

My husband doesn’t like to dance; for some reason, he thinks he looks uncoordinated. As we watch the show, I will ask him “doesn’t that look like fun?” He always says, “No! It looks incredibly HARD!” The professional dancers are the epitome of beauty and grace, but it has taken them years to reach their level of accomplishment.

Many people enter the voice-over field because they enjoy mimicking others, or they think that the voice-over artist is merely talking into the microphone. While they may have a good ear for sound, they are not experienced in performing scripts, much less with a smooth and original interpretation. As in any career endeavor, I have noticed that the most successful voice talent have worked relentlessly by taking classes and hustling for jobs for 10 years or more before becoming an “overnight success”.

11) Infuse your personality into your work for the most authentic and memorable results.

Comedian and DWTS cast member Adam Corolla will never be a professional dancer. However, he inserts his sense of humor into his routines. His creative approach camouflages some of the shortcomings in his technique. I’m not encouraging you to do something to compensate for lack of technique. However, the greatest attribute that you can bring to the table is yourself. No one else sees the world the way you do, and no one else sounds just like you. The best readings are those when the voice artist can access and incorporate her own feelings in the script.

12) It’s possible to do quality work and leave the world better than you found it.

Steve Guttenberg, who is one of the celebs on the show this season, kept grinning ear to ear and gushing about the greatness of the show. This show proves that you don’t need to use foul language or violence in order to create commercial success. In my voice-over work, I won’t perform a script if I don’t like the words that I would be saying. I differ with those who think that it is merely acting to speak the words on the page. Your subconscious mind can’t distinguish between pretend and real, so I refuse to voice scripts that are opposed to my own value system.

I said I had been away from the blog for a month, and now it seems like I’ve been writing this entry for an equally long time! After reading these 12 points learned from a TV show, I hope you see that the success and creativity you observe in another field can inspire you to new heights in your voice-over career.

Michael Palin’s thoughts on integrity

1 January 2008

Happy new year! I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season and are enjoying this day. Each New Year’s Day, I strive to engage in activities that I want to occur all through the year. Symbolically and realistically, I can start the new year by focusing attention on things that matter to me. For instance, I went to the gym first thing this morning, and now I’m writing a blog entry before recording a script.

In mid- to late December, Drew and I took a holiday trip, which may provide musings for future blog entries. During the trip and in recent days, I have been catching up on some reading for pleasure. While I encouraged you on this day one year ago to look forward, today I want to tell you about a commercial script that was written almost 30 years ago.

The commercial in question wasn’t mine, but rather one for Michael Palin, member of the hilarious Monty Python team, fantastic travel writer, and charming TV documentary host. As a longtime fan of Monty Python and avid journal writer, I was excited to start reading Palin’s Diaries 1969-1979: The Python Years. In numerous entries, he has mentioned various voice-over roles. Palin does not indicate whether the commercial discussed in his entry transcribed below was for voice-over or on-camera work, but I certainly admire his refusal to perform it.

Wednesday, April 19th [1978]

Arrival of the Pascall Bon-Bon script over breakfast. I read it and straightaway felt slightly nauseous. Jill had mentioned a figure exceeding 20,000 for this commercial, or possibly two, and what I had just read was a 30-second piece of trivia — worthless, unoriginal and banal. It looked as though it had been written in four minutes after a drunken lunch. Yet again my mind boggles at the huge discrepancy between money and talent.

I could so easily pick up the phone to Jill and say yes. Yes, I will ignore all my creative and artistic instincts. I will get an injection from the doctor on the morning of the commercial which will render me intellectually numb for the period of a day — at the end of which I will have done the horrendous deed, and be thousands of pounds better off.

Quite a temptation. But I realise that if I did this script I would be committing a crime against all the principles that concern me — honesty, value, integrity — all would be totally compromised. Helen read the script and agrees. So I have to phone Jill and withdraw my toe from the seductive waters of advertising yet again.

Fortunately Jill has seen a script and is equally unimpressed, so the problem of hurting her doesn’t arise. She phones the agency. An hour later the director calls back and asks if I would still be interested if the script were entirely rewritten.

While you may think that Michael Palin is a big name who can afford to make a decision to turn down a lucrative offer, the power to say NO rests with each of us. Palin wrote in his 4/13/78 entry some words that I hope will give you pause throughout this coming year and throughout your voice-over career:

So John has polarised his life into earning (routine, no great pleasure) and non-earning (creative and artistically satisfying). A dangerous set-up, I would say. I believe the only sane and satisfying way to live is to fuse the two and avoid, wherever possible, cheapening yourself for money. In that way talent gets eradicated.

I write in my journal almost every day, but I can only wish I had written something so profound. By sharing his journals with all of us, Michael Palin is a teacher to voice-over artists and performers everywhere.

In 2008 and beyond, may your every voice-over job and your entire life bring you artistic fulfillment, prosperity and happiness!

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™