We all breathe, but are you breathing in a way that supports your voice? It’s no fun when you are in the middle of a sentence and run out of breath before you reach the end. Understanding how to mark up a script and where to take breaths, will help you tell the story for the client, and make it to the end of those long sentences without running out of air.
Let's talk about the importance of breathing. Yes of course breathing is important but it's very important as a voiceover artist when delivering copy.
It's important to know where to breathe. When you're setting up your copy and marking up your script, you should mark where you're going to breathe. First of all, it's important to maybe breathe before you even start. I always like to take some deep diaphragmatic breaths before I start reading. I like to do that because number one it helps set the pacing and helps set the tone. It set's a relaxed start to the copy. We often want to run into our booth and just read the copy immediately, and so having a little time to just decompress before you begin and get some good diaphragmatic breaths helps. A deep breath helps us to really have a lot of power when we read.
Three seconds inhale through the nose and then exhale out your mouth for about six seconds and do that a couple of times. It's a really great way to start your session in the booth. Then have an idea as to where you're going to breathe during the sentences. A lot of times you can breathe conveniently at a comma, and a lot of times you can breathe in between the sentences. However, if there are no commas, you're going to have to figure out where that comma or that natural pause is going to be.
If you have a long run-on sentence, you might have to take a diaphragmatic breath before. Sometimes you don't know you're going to run out of breath if you haven't already spoken the copy on the mic. It's only when you're into the middle of the sentence you figure it out. What I suggest is to just stop and take a diaphragmatic breath in through the nose and then go ahead and start from the beginning of the sentence and that will really help you navigate it better. It's so empowering to be able to have that breath to deliver the words. There's nothing worse than oh my gosh in the middle of the sentence I ran out of breath and then all you're doing is it is scrambling to try to finish the sentence so you can finish it. Make sure you take the time to breathe in between the sentences and at the commas.
Much love and Keep on rockin' your biz!
XOXO,
Anne
About the Author: Anne Ganguzza is a full-time voice talent and award-winning director and producer who works with students to develop their voice over and business skills - including VO demo training and production. She specializes in Conversational Commercial and Narration styles, including Corporate, E-Learning, Technology, Healthcare - Medical, Telephony, and On-Hold. Located in Orange County, CA, Anne offers private coaching and mentoring services to students in person and via Skype, ipDTL or Zoom.