Just like athletes do conditioning of their bodies before any event they participate, similarly beginner or the experienced Voice over artist must condition their vocal cord before beginning their voice recording, caring for one voice is of utmost importance. So, your vocal cord needs to be in healthy condition, as you never know when your phone ring and you get the work but if your voice is not in shape to deliver the good project. It could be the backlash for your client expectation from you, so always try to keep your voice in shape, so with regular practiced voice actor can give proper control and conditioning to their voice. Although there are many factors that might affect your voice quality, but few important habits can be helpful for any actor to improve their voice acting.
1.Hydrate yourself: This is most important aspect as the quality of sound the hydrated voice give is far better in clarity and pitched, from the one you get from the dehydrate vocal cord. Since voice itself is the main aspect of career for voice actor, the stakes are even higher. So, include this habit in first thing in the morning when you wake up from bed and at least get 6-8 glasses of water in a day this is basic criteria, but you should always check your water intake quantity according to your body type and general health, there is need to over hydrate.
2. Stretching: Always try to stretch your singing muscles which in turn will give your vocal cord good blood circulation, which in turn enhance your voice quality and help you in controlling voice pitch. So, try some simple neck stretch exercises side by side and the one with tongue protruding and neck up and down stretching. This might look crazy for few but if it becomes the habit you can feel the difference yourself. Even the experienced voice over artist should practice this exercise.
3. Warming up voice: When the voice over actor wakes up in the morning their voice is not up to the full potential yet. So, to loosen up the vocal cord and improve the voice performance one need to do warm up so the voice cracks and mouth noises are reduced. So, the professional voice over artist should always incorporate this habit of voice warm up in their daily routine first thing before going for recording, so it will keep your voice in best condition. Some of the effective warm up voice technique include lip trill, taking sound like "m," "z," "l," "n" and tongue trills. Doing humming at different pitches is good warm up for your voice. Start with low pitch and try to feel vibration low in your chest, now raise the pitch feeling vibration rising high in your chest. Again, raise the pitch feeling vibration in your skull and nasal cavity, reverse the exercise moving from high to low pitches.
4. Breathing: Every voice over artist need to master this habit of breathing technique as it will change the way one communicates. When doing any voice over recording even the experienced actors if feel nervous will take some amount of air without filling their lungs. Simple breathing technique will give you great awareness of breath and its control.
Also Read : Voice Over Requirements 5 Things You Need For This Job
Sit up in straight position with feet flat on the floor, place your hand on abdomen and inhale. As you inhale yours stomach and rib cage should expand. As you exhale the movement will be reverse. The abdominal muscle diaphragm, control the movement of expanding and contracting to move air into and out of the lung. While breathing try to keep your upper body still. Chest and shoulder should not lift, only movement should be in and out motion of your stomach and ribs, expand on inhaling and contract on exhaling. Breathing through diaphragm with hand on stomach help in controlling one breath.
