Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice-Over Voice

2021.11.17 – 0321 – Final Intonation Considerations

Once you have pre-read and rehearsed and are confident in what the sense of the script is, don’t necessarily read it exactly the same way each and every time. To sound convincingly conversational, you need to ‘feel’ the words each time your eyes see them, as though the thoughts are just occurring to you. As long as it’s true to the intended meaning, each time should sound like it is the first time.

Intonation is important: highlighting one different word can change the meaning of the sentence. Stumbling through a script can leave it sounding illogical to the listener.

Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart

Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and

projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career

spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!

And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER

BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.

Look out for more details of the book during 2021.

Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart

Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1 to Heart FM, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama. Other trainees have been music presenters, breakfast show hosts, travel news presenters and voice-over artists.

He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (“Essential Radio Journalism”, “JournoLists”, two editions of “Essential Radio Skills” and three editions of “Broadcast Journalism”) and has written on voice and presentation skills in the BBC’s in-house newspaper “Ariel”.

Peter has presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with formats as diverse as music-presentation, interview shows, ‘special’ programmes for elections and budgets, live outside broadcasts and commentaries and even the occasional sports, gardening and dedication programmes. He has read several thousand news bulletins, and hosted nearly 2,000 podcast episodes, and is a vocal image consultant advising in all aspects of voice and speech training for presenters on radio and TV, podcasts and YouTube, voiceovers and videocalls.

The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?

This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.

Music credits:

"Bleeping Demo" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/7012-bleeping-demo

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

"Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

"Envision" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4706-envision

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

"Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5710-limit-70

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

"Rising Tide" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Link: https://incompete...

2021.11.30 – 0334 – The Broken Feedback Loop

In a face-to-face or even voice-to-voice conversation (such as a phone call), most people constantly monitor their role in relation to others:

· taking turns so they don’t monopolise a conversation

· the speaker adds verbal checks to confirm that the other person is listening and understanding (“you know what I mean?”)

· the listener adds verbal confirmations back to the speaker to show they are listening and understanding (“Go on...”, “oh yeah?”) or negative feedback to signal a desire to end the conversation (“O-kaaaaay”, “Right!”) or to hurry them on (“uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh”).

· there’s non-verbal feedback such as nodding, holding eye contact as a way to encourage and engage... or folding arms and looking away to signal boredom and a desire to escape, or stepping back if someone is too loud and imposing

· and so on

Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart

Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!

And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.

Look out for more details of the book during 2022.

Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart

Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama.

He has written a number of books on audio and video presentation and production (see contacts clink above) and presented hundreds of radio shows (you may have heard him on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, Virgin Radio or Kiss, as well as BBC regional radio) with various formats. He has read tens of thousands of news bulletins and hosted 3,000+ podcast episodes.

The podcast title refers to those who may wish to change their speaking voice in some way. It is not a suggestion that anyone should, or be pressured into needing to. We love accents and dialects, and are well aware that how we speak changes over time. The key is: is your voice successfully communicating your message, so it is being understood (and potentially being acted upon) by your target audience?

This podcast is London-based and examples are spoken in the RP (Received Pronunciation) / standard-English / BBC English pronunciation, although invariably applicable to other languages, accents and dialects.

Music credits: all Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

"Beauty Flow" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2021.12.18 – 0352 – Screaming And Shouting – Part 1

Screaming and shouting

It may be that a script, say in an animation, calls for you to scream – the epitome of projection. This can potentially cause damage to your folds if you don’t prepare correctly, and could limit your work for the next few hours, days or longer.

‘Hydration before violent projection’ is part of the answer. Wet folds are less easily damaged than dry ones slamming against each other. But as we have seen this is more than sips of water on the day, your whole system needs to be hydrated ahead of a screaming session, more than ever.

Another classic tip that’s as useful for ‘extreme screams’ as any other voice work, is the warming up. Don’t go in and simply shout at the top of your voice, you need a lead up to such pressure on your voice. What’s important here is the warming up of the folds and throat which we have seen before, such as swooping up and down the notes in your range with hums, or low ‘err’ sounds into vocal fries, for example.

For the shout or scream itself, st and up so you have the best airflow for the sound and projection. Be well-grounded (again we looked at this before), so with a ‘steady stance’ with (to paraphrase Paula Abdul), one foot forward, one foot back and the soles firmly on the floor. You may also want to loosen the knees a little. A variety of semi or full crouching positions may help you get a more guttural, natural sound, and gesticulations (perhaps arms aloft or out wide, or maybe fists) may also help in the characterisation.

You won’t need to do a great ‘lungful of air scream’. The bigger your breath in, the more pressure will be built up, and the greater the tension in the throat as that carbon dioxide is driven over the folds. So try a ‘less airified’ projection and see if you can achieve a similar sound with less harmful results.

Beware of overly-tensing your body for the shout or scream. You are already going to put the body under pressure vocally and it may feel natural without you realising it, to tense your throat, raise your shoulders and freeze your face as you make the sound, but a more relaxed body may achieve the same sound without putting your ‘frame under strain’ so much.

Watch the levels on the mic, so stand back from it and turn the levels of the recording and headphones down!

Audio recording script and show notes (c) 2021 Peter Stewart

Through these around-5-minute episodes, you can build your confidence and competence with advice on breathing and reading, inflection and projection, the roles played by better scripting and better sitting, mic techniques and voice care tips... with exercises and anecdotes from a career spent in TV and radio studios. If you're wondering about how to start a podcast, or have had one for a while - download every episode!

And as themes develop over the weeks (that is, they are not random topics day-by-day), this is a free, course to help you GET A BETTER BROADCAST, PODCAST AND VIDEO VOICE.

Look out for more details of the book during 2022.

Contacts: https://linktr.ee/Peter_Stewart

Peter has been around voice and audio all his working life and has trained hundreds of broadcasters in all styles of radio from pop music stations such as Capital FM and BBC Radio 1, the classical music station BBC Radio 3 and regional BBC stations. He’s trained news presenters on regional TV, the BBC News Channel and on flagship programmes such as the BBC’s Panorama.

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.