Like many kids who grew up watching cartoons, I was amazed by the vocal gymnastics performed by Mel Blanc: “the man of 1000 voices.” Blanc was the voice behind so many cartoon characters, possessing such a range that he could voice the majority of characters in a show without any two voices sounding alike.
As I went about my weekend it occurred to me that I could try to be more like Blanc in my voiceover work. I spoke in my announcer’s voice when I was in my voiceover “class” but that’s certainly not all I can do. While listening to the N.C. State game on the radio, for instance, I easily slipped into a good ol’ boy Southern accent as I repeated one of the commercials.
“Duh!” I thought. This is the kind of stuff I do all the time without thinking about it. I can make my voice sound just about any way I want to.
For the rest of the weekend, I spent the break time between the stuff I was doing just recording little clips of voices I had come up with: creating a vocal library. All of those little voices I use off and on during the day can be easily forgotten if I don’t capture them.
The voices themselves might not be marketable but the exercise itself helps me expand my vocal variety. And it’s fun, too!