VC Radio
Voice Coaches Radio #639 – Is It Possible to Over Practice?
Voice coaches, radio, everything voiceover from the start of your journey. Hi, it's so nice to meet you. I'm looking for my first new car, so the unexpected turn. Hey, that's me. Please tell me. Uh, I, uh. I'm pretty excited. Like right now, I, I may have talked about the fact that I had this opportunity pop up and I was just kind of hoping for the best and, you know, it's like a friend of a friend kind of said, Hey, yeah, I mean, I know you're looking for a voice and you know, my, my friend does this.
And, uh, so, you know, I, I talked with this woman and we have this car commercial that. It's a video ad that they, I guess, I mean, you would think automatically it's gonna be on TV or it's gonna be used maybe, you know, with YouTube or, or something like that. Instead, this is gonna be in movie theaters to start, as far as I'm aware, in the Boston area and.
Yeah, like that's a first for me, so that's pretty cool. I'm not gonna lie. Um, and, you know, that could end up being, uh, you know, on tv. It could end up being on their social media or whatever. And, you know, just talking with them, I, I just kind of said, you know, you got me. So, like, you know, whatever you guys need for the foreseeable future, I mean, just I'm available.
You can always hit me up. And they seem pretty excited about that. So might be a, a, you know, a really cool opportunity that I have now, uh, moving forward. But I'm just excited for the first go at it right here. So, um, yeah, you just never know what's gonna pop up. See, this is why you want to, to talk to people, why you wanna make sure people know what you're doing, why you want to build relationships.
Cultivate relationships and, uh, and, and keep them, uh, you know, because everybody's helping everybody out. It's the way it kind of should be. And then here we are. I had this like, you know, just kind of pop up and, um, yeah, just very cool. So I wanted to share. Anyway, uh, that's, that's my exciting news that, and we had some chickens flying the coop.
Uh, you might know that I have some of those at the house and, and they're named after the friend's characters. So, uh, I'll admit it's Rachel who was the big problem for us. And then it became Phoebe. And then it became Joey, that one by one, they kept understanding they could fly out of our fenced in area.
And it's like, okay, you're not going far. They're staying right next to the fence. So it's not like the biggest issue, but it's a pain in the butt. So we had to clip their wings now that I had no idea how to make that happen. You learn something new every day and Google is an amazing machine and uh, I guess you clip their wings.
It's kind of like clipping our nails, but. It doesn't hurt them at all, and it just makes them unbalanced so they can't fly over the fence. And so far so good. Uh, but yeah, I was a part of the, I hate Rachel Green Club there for a moment, and now I can go back to liking her again and she can be with Ross and it all can be good.
Uh, but, um, yeah, so, you know, I wanted to go over a couple things today. You know, I've been getting a couple little things thrown at me question-wise and just, you know, some basic things I, I think, you know, right off the bat, um. Coolest project I can say that I've worked on recently is the one I started this episode with.
So, so that's, um, you know, just something fun to share because, uh, you know, I, I'll get the questions of like, you know, what's the, the coolest thing you've done or your favorite project or, you know, what kind of radio stuff do you enjoy doing the most? Or in this case, like I did get a, a listener, uh, that had, uh, reached out through email.
It was Emily. Um, and, and she just wanted to know like, what was the weirdest voiceover I've ever done? And I really did have to rack my brain about it. At first, I was like, I don't think I've done anything. All that weird. I mean, you know, doing the, the training or the, um, tour video for the like cow factory or the farm or whatever I did out in Omaha was a little strange, but not.
Considering where I was, uh, but then I thought about it some more and I was like, wait a minute. Uh, when I was doing the job that I had here in, uh, the Albany area for like the longest time, which was, uh, the afternoon drive on, uh, the pop station, um, I, I would get random requests from people and. I ended up, uh, voicing a listener's voicemail.
Uh, and I didn't charge them anything because I'm like, I can't believe you want this, but Okay. And, uh, and I don't even know if they like what they did with it, if they still have it. Like, you know what I mean? It's been all these years later. Uh, does anybody even leave voicemails anymore? Half the time. Uh, but uh, but yeah, that was like what they wanted me to do and I think I did something really like ridiculous and.
Silly on it just because I, I could, and I gave them a couple different options because I just, I had more time then. Um, and that might, that's probably the weirdest thing that I've ever done. Um, so, so I appreciate the question, Emily. Uh, I hopefully you get to do something just as weird at some point. And then I had another question too.
Uh, this came up a couple different times from both Tanya and Marty. Most recently, can I over practice? Um. I mean, the, the short answer is yes, and the long answer is yes and no. Um, I'll explain. So it, when it comes to voiceover, you know, as you're beginning and you're growing your skill, you know, I like what we say to students here at Voice Coaches is like, you know, we want you to probably practice a good 10, 15 minutes a day.
And yeah, we want that to be consistent, 10 to 15 minutes a day, you know, throughout, just so you can go ahead and have that, um. That just like muscle memory starting to get built of, you know, correcting any blips that might happen in your reading and let things be more smooth for you and, you know, have it so your eyes stop playing tricks on you and, and those kind of things.
And so like at first, like, you know, that is what we recommend. When you're just kind of growing your skills and you're just starting and you're just trying to wrap your brain around, what do I need to do for voiceover? I don't think you can overdo it, and it's really because, I mean, think about it. If you started to play a guitar and you sat down 10 to 15 minutes a day, sure you're gonna grow.
You're gonna keep getting better every single day. What if you practiced three hours a day? You are probably gonna sound so much better than the person that's been practicing 10 to 15 minutes a day. You know? And you're gonna be growing at a, a faster, bigger scale or pace. Um, you know, so don't necessarily think that you can.
Practice too much if you're just practicing to practice skill growth and familiarity of reading out loud and, and you know, just the item mouth, kind of, you know, coordination that, that goes along with all of this. However, flip side of things, right? You've got a project coming up, you get the script in advance.
Lucky you. It doesn't always happen. Uh, but you know, you got that script in advance and you start practicing with it. And you practice and you practice and you practice and you practice and day comes to, to go and record, and you get in that booth and you do your first take. All right. Sounds great. Um, now can you go ahead, can you, uh, can you do that again, but can you just like, I want you to emphasize, you know, X, Y, and Z and, uh, can you gimme more smile and just, uh, if you could pick up your pace, just a hair.
Take two. Sounds identical to take one. Gives you more direction. All right, we're gonna do that one more time. Let, let's try this again and this and this. Take three sounds identical to take one and two uhoh. Now we've got a problem. So there are times you can overdo it. And that sucks. Oh my gosh. I can't tell you.
Like we go to get to demo day for, you know, anybody that goes through the program with voice coaches and I, I try to just hit on it so like, you know, I just try to stress it so much that. You don't wanna over practice your pieces for your demo, because that's what can happen. You can get stuck in the way you're performing it and not even be able to hear that you're stuck in the way that you're performing it.
And we can give you all the direction in the world, but like we can't force you to sound different, you know, like that's, that's where the challenge comes in. So it's like, can you over practice? Yes. When it comes to a specific thing, um, and it's not like you don't want to get yourself more familiar with what you're doing, if you can, I mean, clearly you're gonna want to, I mean, it's just gonna make the project easier for you if you don't have to.
Have your eyes potentially scanning ahead, trying to figure out what's to come. Uh, you know, and you have a good idea of the tone that you're supposed to bring and like, you know, it's like, oh, where should I be emphasizing more? Like, you can have that familiarity, but you know, when you start just being able to almost memorize the script, I mean, that's where you're probably gonna start to have some issues.
And, uh, you know, it's like, all right, well you can practice that practice with something similar too, but like, you know, that way you can kind of flip flop it a little bit and you're not. Only practicing the project itself, you're, you're working with something else so you can still be moldable like clay, because that is, that is what directors are going to love is when you are just completely, like, not putty in their hands, but like, you know, the, the Play-Doh.
They can go ahead and form and if they've changed their minds, they can be like, all right, we're gonna start from scratch again and do it all over. And you know, like when I, it's just, it's one of those situations where. You gotta just be cautious. So developing your skills, practice away one single project.
Proceed with caution. Um, so, you know, those are the couple things I wanted to tackle today on the pod. If you've got a question, it's always good to reach on out [email protected] and, uh, again, [email protected]. So it's M-A-R-I-S-S [email protected]. Uh, goal here is to get a couple more people on the pod soon so we can see where some, uh, you know, former students are at and, uh, what kind of things they're exploring and, uh, you know, just.
See what's happening in the wonderful world that is voiceover. Um, so if, uh, you're just starting, I hope your journey is off to a great start if you are well on in. I hope you're flourishing. And, uh, let's get on into the summer, right, A brand new episode of Voice Coaches Radio. It's coming at you next week.
Stay safe. Visit voice coaches.com for more voiceover news and information.
And, uh, so, you know, I, I talked with this woman and we have this car commercial that. It's a video ad that they, I guess, I mean, you would think automatically it's gonna be on TV or it's gonna be used maybe, you know, with YouTube or, or something like that. Instead, this is gonna be in movie theaters to start, as far as I'm aware, in the Boston area and.
Yeah, like that's a first for me, so that's pretty cool. I'm not gonna lie. Um, and, you know, that could end up being, uh, you know, on tv. It could end up being on their social media or whatever. And, you know, just talking with them, I, I just kind of said, you know, you got me. So, like, you know, whatever you guys need for the foreseeable future, I mean, just I'm available.
You can always hit me up. And they seem pretty excited about that. So might be a, a, you know, a really cool opportunity that I have now, uh, moving forward. But I'm just excited for the first go at it right here. So, um, yeah, you just never know what's gonna pop up. See, this is why you want to, to talk to people, why you wanna make sure people know what you're doing, why you want to build relationships.
Cultivate relationships and, uh, and, and keep them, uh, you know, because everybody's helping everybody out. It's the way it kind of should be. And then here we are. I had this like, you know, just kind of pop up and, um, yeah, just very cool. So I wanted to share. Anyway, uh, that's, that's my exciting news that, and we had some chickens flying the coop.
Uh, you might know that I have some of those at the house and, and they're named after the friend's characters. So, uh, I'll admit it's Rachel who was the big problem for us. And then it became Phoebe. And then it became Joey, that one by one, they kept understanding they could fly out of our fenced in area.
And it's like, okay, you're not going far. They're staying right next to the fence. So it's not like the biggest issue, but it's a pain in the butt. So we had to clip their wings now that I had no idea how to make that happen. You learn something new every day and Google is an amazing machine and uh, I guess you clip their wings.
It's kind of like clipping our nails, but. It doesn't hurt them at all, and it just makes them unbalanced so they can't fly over the fence. And so far so good. Uh, but yeah, I was a part of the, I hate Rachel Green Club there for a moment, and now I can go back to liking her again and she can be with Ross and it all can be good.
Uh, but, um, yeah, so, you know, I wanted to go over a couple things today. You know, I've been getting a couple little things thrown at me question-wise and just, you know, some basic things I, I think, you know, right off the bat, um. Coolest project I can say that I've worked on recently is the one I started this episode with.
So, so that's, um, you know, just something fun to share because, uh, you know, I, I'll get the questions of like, you know, what's the, the coolest thing you've done or your favorite project or, you know, what kind of radio stuff do you enjoy doing the most? Or in this case, like I did get a, a listener, uh, that had, uh, reached out through email.
It was Emily. Um, and, and she just wanted to know like, what was the weirdest voiceover I've ever done? And I really did have to rack my brain about it. At first, I was like, I don't think I've done anything. All that weird. I mean, you know, doing the, the training or the, um, tour video for the like cow factory or the farm or whatever I did out in Omaha was a little strange, but not.
Considering where I was, uh, but then I thought about it some more and I was like, wait a minute. Uh, when I was doing the job that I had here in, uh, the Albany area for like the longest time, which was, uh, the afternoon drive on, uh, the pop station, um, I, I would get random requests from people and. I ended up, uh, voicing a listener's voicemail.
Uh, and I didn't charge them anything because I'm like, I can't believe you want this, but Okay. And, uh, and I don't even know if they like what they did with it, if they still have it. Like, you know what I mean? It's been all these years later. Uh, does anybody even leave voicemails anymore? Half the time. Uh, but uh, but yeah, that was like what they wanted me to do and I think I did something really like ridiculous and.
Silly on it just because I, I could, and I gave them a couple different options because I just, I had more time then. Um, and that might, that's probably the weirdest thing that I've ever done. Um, so, so I appreciate the question, Emily. Uh, I hopefully you get to do something just as weird at some point. And then I had another question too.
Uh, this came up a couple different times from both Tanya and Marty. Most recently, can I over practice? Um. I mean, the, the short answer is yes, and the long answer is yes and no. Um, I'll explain. So it, when it comes to voiceover, you know, as you're beginning and you're growing your skill, you know, I like what we say to students here at Voice Coaches is like, you know, we want you to probably practice a good 10, 15 minutes a day.
And yeah, we want that to be consistent, 10 to 15 minutes a day, you know, throughout, just so you can go ahead and have that, um. That just like muscle memory starting to get built of, you know, correcting any blips that might happen in your reading and let things be more smooth for you and, you know, have it so your eyes stop playing tricks on you and, and those kind of things.
And so like at first, like, you know, that is what we recommend. When you're just kind of growing your skills and you're just starting and you're just trying to wrap your brain around, what do I need to do for voiceover? I don't think you can overdo it, and it's really because, I mean, think about it. If you started to play a guitar and you sat down 10 to 15 minutes a day, sure you're gonna grow.
You're gonna keep getting better every single day. What if you practiced three hours a day? You are probably gonna sound so much better than the person that's been practicing 10 to 15 minutes a day. You know? And you're gonna be growing at a, a faster, bigger scale or pace. Um, you know, so don't necessarily think that you can.
Practice too much if you're just practicing to practice skill growth and familiarity of reading out loud and, and you know, just the item mouth, kind of, you know, coordination that, that goes along with all of this. However, flip side of things, right? You've got a project coming up, you get the script in advance.
Lucky you. It doesn't always happen. Uh, but you know, you got that script in advance and you start practicing with it. And you practice and you practice and you practice and you practice and day comes to, to go and record, and you get in that booth and you do your first take. All right. Sounds great. Um, now can you go ahead, can you, uh, can you do that again, but can you just like, I want you to emphasize, you know, X, Y, and Z and, uh, can you gimme more smile and just, uh, if you could pick up your pace, just a hair.
Take two. Sounds identical to take one. Gives you more direction. All right, we're gonna do that one more time. Let, let's try this again and this and this. Take three sounds identical to take one and two uhoh. Now we've got a problem. So there are times you can overdo it. And that sucks. Oh my gosh. I can't tell you.
Like we go to get to demo day for, you know, anybody that goes through the program with voice coaches and I, I try to just hit on it so like, you know, I just try to stress it so much that. You don't wanna over practice your pieces for your demo, because that's what can happen. You can get stuck in the way you're performing it and not even be able to hear that you're stuck in the way that you're performing it.
And we can give you all the direction in the world, but like we can't force you to sound different, you know, like that's, that's where the challenge comes in. So it's like, can you over practice? Yes. When it comes to a specific thing, um, and it's not like you don't want to get yourself more familiar with what you're doing, if you can, I mean, clearly you're gonna want to, I mean, it's just gonna make the project easier for you if you don't have to.
Have your eyes potentially scanning ahead, trying to figure out what's to come. Uh, you know, and you have a good idea of the tone that you're supposed to bring and like, you know, it's like, oh, where should I be emphasizing more? Like, you can have that familiarity, but you know, when you start just being able to almost memorize the script, I mean, that's where you're probably gonna start to have some issues.
And, uh, you know, it's like, all right, well you can practice that practice with something similar too, but like, you know, that way you can kind of flip flop it a little bit and you're not. Only practicing the project itself, you're, you're working with something else so you can still be moldable like clay, because that is, that is what directors are going to love is when you are just completely, like, not putty in their hands, but like, you know, the, the Play-Doh.
They can go ahead and form and if they've changed their minds, they can be like, all right, we're gonna start from scratch again and do it all over. And you know, like when I, it's just, it's one of those situations where. You gotta just be cautious. So developing your skills, practice away one single project.
Proceed with caution. Um, so, you know, those are the couple things I wanted to tackle today on the pod. If you've got a question, it's always good to reach on out [email protected] and, uh, again, [email protected]. So it's M-A-R-I-S-S [email protected]. Uh, goal here is to get a couple more people on the pod soon so we can see where some, uh, you know, former students are at and, uh, what kind of things they're exploring and, uh, you know, just.
See what's happening in the wonderful world that is voiceover. Um, so if, uh, you're just starting, I hope your journey is off to a great start if you are well on in. I hope you're flourishing. And, uh, let's get on into the summer, right, A brand new episode of Voice Coaches Radio. It's coming at you next week.
Stay safe. Visit voice coaches.com for more voiceover news and information.
This week on Voice Coaches Radio, Marissa had the question of, “is it possible to over practice?” The simple answer is yes and no…we’ll discuss.
