- Developing Your Voiceover Abilities

I had some one email me and the person said that they had taken two voiceover coaching's  and understood what was going and wanted to make a voiceover demo. I declined and mentioned they're are lots of recording studios that a person can hire where they can go in and record what they want.
Sometimes there are natural geniuses that can do that and succeed.
More often than not it doesn't work that way. It's important to develop and A-list set of reading skills in order to be able to compete with that large group of very talented voiceover professionals that are out there.
In any profession, successful people are always working on improving their skill level and it should be the same for us. Client loyalty depends on providing the highest level of skill and service possible.

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Getting Voiceover Work

There is always a lot of discussion about networking to get voiceover work and that is of course very important. It is even more important that ones reading ability in the booth be A- List. There are many stories about people who get hired with great VO demos and then get fired because they just can't do clean reads in the booth. Remember time is money and the people running the jobs count on us to do great clean reads in an efficient manner. Practice relentlessly :)

The Life Changing Importance of Voice Development

Voiceover artists, actors and all professionals have many skills to learn. Perhaps one area that is overlooked or doesn’t get enough focus is voice development.

Our Voice is the Engine that carries all of our ideas, thoughts, and  plans to everyone we come in contact with. Voice development benefits not just voiceover artists and actors, but everyone. People with superior speaking skills have an enormous advantage over others who are less polished. All great athletes have workouts and its not because they don’t know what they are doing. It is because in this competitive world communication skills need to be honed to the highest levels. A trained voice is more responsive to a persons intent in a conversation. Having control over ones tone of voice and breathing is not only an asset in voiceover work, but also critical in communications both professional and personal.

Voiceover Artists Have To Know The Difference Between Screaming and Yelling - To Survive

There has been a lot of discussion about voice actors standing up for themselves when doing extreme voices for video games and other media. All those points are well taken.
Having said that, It is my opinion there should also be much more discussion about how to develop a well produced voice that just doesn't rely on "making hamburger" out of ones self to create a theatrical vocal effect.
A persons voice is the engine that does all the work. Developing it and fine tuning technique is very important. I have actually had some agents tell me that they don't want their actors learning voice development because it will make them loose their"naturalness" Well of course it does if you do it incorrectly and don't understand vocal production. They are reacting to some classes where actors do "voice exercises" that involve screaming until they're hoarse to "build up the muscle".
Yes there's a lot of stupid out there, it just takes some common sense to avoid it.
Voice development and breathing exercises give the voice greater range, sustainability, nuance and yes improved naturalness and believability.  The more control a person has over their voice, the more creative freedom they have because they aren't fighting vocal exhaustion. A voice is a powerful instrument that deserves to be developed and the best of care.