Do I Need Voice Over Training?
Many would-be talents ask themselves, "Do I need voice over training?". The Short Answer: Yes, you absolutely require voice over training if you want any meaningful success. Let me explain why.
You might have the voice of God or that of a golden throated sparrow. You may "get it." You might be an absolute pro at interpreting a script and delivering what the client's looking for, but there ALWAYS will be a vital need for outside direction and critique. As a musician, let me liken it to music
When I write music alone, I'm my own judge, jury, and executioner. The input and feedback going into my composition are coming from precisely one source - myself.
When I write music with other people, I cannot put into words how exponentially better my tracks turn out. It is absolutely insane what many minds can accomplish upon collaboration.
You may be thinking, "I thought I was supposed to work on this every day, alone, spending time learning to listen to myself?".
Yes, daily practice is critical, and reading proper scripts every day is hugely important, but without outside help, you could be practicing yourself down a hole that may be difficult to climb out of in the coming years of your career. You need more ears, and those ears should know what they're listening to and how to guide you in improving your weaknesses and playing to your strengths.
Experience Matters.
Someone who spends their entire 9-5 workday listening to, engineering, and directing voice over will undoubtedly hear something that you can't. We're talking about talent agents, audio engineers, and coaches. It's their job to translate what they hear into a valuable direction in hopes that it "clicks" with you
You're going to grow your voiceover skills tremendously.
Take it from me, and once you've been through enough training, you'll absolutely want to listen back to the early work you did, and it won't even compare with how much you've improved
In a future article, we'll explain the different types of voice over training and what qualities to look for in a good voice over coach.
