Voice-Over Narration Tutorial: 5 Practical Exercises to Train Your Voice

Discover a selection of professional exercises to help you make the most of your voice, with dubbing artist Sergio Zamora

The voice is our main instrument of communication. So it’s essential to get to know your voice, and to get the most out of this key tool. And there’s nothing like practice to help you progress.

Sergio Zamora (@sergiozamorasola) is one of Spain’s busiest dubbing artists. He lends his voice to some of Hollywood’s most famous actors. He is the Spanish version of actors including: Collin Farrell, Bradley Cooper, Joaquin Phoenix, and Matthew McConaughey.

In this tutorial he shares 5 practical exercises to help you train and warm up your voice. Don’t miss the video!

5 Failsafe Exercises to Train Your Voice

1. The pencil exercise

Sergio’s first voice-warming exercise involves placing a pencil between your teeth and enunciating a sentence. Then simply remove the pencil and repeat the same phrase. It’s a great way to improve diction.

2. Count to 20

The next exercise helps with your breathing. Simply breathe in, hold your tummy in and count to 20. Make sure you have enough air to reach 20, because you could strain your respiratory system if you keep going on next-to-no breath.

3. Jogging

Now pretend you’re in the middle of a race. Move your body to make it look like you’re running, and do little jumps to gently bounce your diaphragm. This helps you locate different registers.

4. Pretend you smoke

This next exercise, which involves pretending the way people speak with a cigarette in their mouth, helps you achieve a similar effect. It helps modulate the voice. You can always stick a finger in one side of your mouth to imitate a cigarette or alternatively keep one side of your mouth closed to achieve the same effect.

5. Larynx movement

Sergio Zamora also recommends moving your larynx to modulate your voice. Raising your larynx raises the tone, while lowering your larynx and expanding your vocal tract produces a lower sound. This is very useful when you want to create an air of magic while telling a story. And it’s also great for public speaking.

Love this tutorial? If you want to learn how to discover your vocal potential and use your voice to communicate your message in any situation, don’t miss Sergio Zamora’s online course: Introduction to Voice-Over Narration.

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