’cause ya ain’t never done learnin’
I got a call recently from my friend and fellow voice over professional Deb Stamp who works in lovely Raleigh, NC. She called me to ask about some of the voice over training I’ve done, about my upcoming workshop with Marice Tobias in Atlanta and to discuss some of the training Deb has done. And then of course we also shot the shi…I always enjoy talking biz with Deb.
For the record, I get calls like this and questions like this all the time – why do you train, who do you train with, what goes on in a workshop, why do you need to train since you’ve been doing voice over for 27 years?!
And usually the questions are asked just that fast with little or no punctuation 😉
I’ll answer those oft asked questions (most of which Deb did not directly ask) with the same question most voice over teachers have asked of me at the beginning of their sessions: “Peter, what do you want to learn/take away from this workshop?”
My answer is usually the same: “The more experience I get in my industry, the more I know just how much I don’t know about performing in voice over. There are many ways one can approach a script and performance for an audition or client; many times my ways work and sometimes they do not. So (today) I want to learn your approaches to voice over and see if there are new ideas or twists that I can apply to my work. I’m also interested to get your opinion on my performance and how you think it might be improved or tweaked.”
Is your answer the same? Is it different? It might vary based on the topic of the seminar or you may have a completely different approach to why you consider professional voice training.
Each performer’s needs are different and certainly personal. Some voice over teachers you’ll click with and some you won’t (just like in school).
But the need for regular, professional voice over training is an imperative for everyone in our business…bar none. And I mean no one.
What about your expectations for voice over training? Generally, what do expect to get out of a training session? Or if you care to share, what specifically do you hope to work on with a voice teacher or what are you currently working on with your teacher?
