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Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice-Over Voice

Short, daily professional voice advice from breathing to conversational reading: specifically for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts, YouTube, commercial voice-overs, ebook and elearning narrators.

Year THREE of short daily episodes to improve the quality of your speaking voice.Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and p
Friday, June 2, 2023

0884 – Mic Fright

Season 3, Ep. 884
2023.06.03 – 0884 – Mic Fright  "The actor's nightmare", “…what it must be like to give birth"Laurence Olivier, on stage fright INTRODUCTION Do you want to express yourself, but it feels like a boa constrictor gets hold of your throat?[1] In this section, we look at powerful mind shifts that can help you get a better broadcast, podcast and voice-over voice. Yes, because the mind does affect the voice. Indeed, you are your voice: what you say is shaped by your culture and experiences, dreams and nightmares; how you verbalise your thoughts are shaped by your mindset and vocabulary; what your words sound like are shaped by things you have little effect on, such as your body shape and length of your vocal folds, but also how, as we have seen, things like how you sit and how you breathe and how tense you are, and also what you are feeling (anger or anxiety, calmness or confusion, sadness or satisfaction are all heard in your voice). But central to all of this is the mind. It’s what drives the thoughts which we want to share, it’s what instructs other organs to breathe and articulate.  You can’t separate yourself from your voice. It is a window into your thoughts. And if you think “I’m nervous”, others may think that of you too when they hear how you talk. So, in this section, we look at what kind of things may create that feeling in you and then, how we can avoid those situations, or how we can re-interpret them. Then we look at confidence, how we get it and build it, and then finally, ways of coping if things do go wrong. [1] In 2014, 25.3% of Americans said they feared speaking in front of a crowd. In 2018 that was 26.2%. https://www.chapman.edu/wilkinson/research-centers/babbie-center/survey-american-fears.aspx
Thursday, June 1, 2023

0883 – Self Massage

Season 3, Ep. 883
2023.06.02 – 0883 – Self Massage Self-massage·        Put your first and forefinger together on each hand. Gently at first and then with stronger pressure stroke by stroke, draw your double-fingers in a diagonal line down the side of your neck from just behind your ear across to where your throat starts, just short of your ‘Adam’s apple’. This massages the large sterno-cleidomastoid muscles which support, turn and nod the head. ·        Now place one palm on top of the back  of your other hand and rotate them slightly to form a diagonal and place them high up on your chest just under your throat. Press and pull down but not actually hard enough to move your hands – keep them in position. Tip your head back and face the ceiling for a second or two, and then open and close your mouth to stretch the muscles down the front of the neck.·        This one may make you a bit squeamish, so do it gently. Take your two forefingers and your thumb as though about to pick something up from your desk. Instead, carefully hold your larynx and wobble it from side to side. You may feel a click or two which is quite normal. ·        Use your thumbs and a picture (from elsewhere in this book) to locate the root of your tongue under your chin and before your neck and ‘Adam’s apple’. Massage this area for 30 seconds.Use your fingertips on the side of your face just above your cheeks, in front of your ears, where your two jaws meet. Bite down and you will feel the bump of a muscle at this joint-point. Gently apply pressure here, massaging for about thirty seconds.