A Voice Over From The Seventh Grade

I can trace the seeds of my voice over passion back to a seventh grade English class. I remember sitting in junior high school when each of us students took turns reading from a language arts book out loud. Everybody read maybe three or four paragraphs. But when it got to me, I read and I read and I read and I looked at the teacher and he said keep reading. He liked what he was hearing. And I liked how my voice worked! My communications career was born.

That English class taught me voiceover fundamentals that live with me till this day. A professional voiceover is a sincere form of communication. But the words mean nothing unless they are expressed meaningfully, artfully, and articulately. Should the voiceover be conversational? Should the voice feel loud or soft? Should there be a dialect or an accent?  This is where the voiceover artist must also be a voice actor. It’s a learned and powerful form of communication.

Today, the voice over is a sales tool.  And that doesn’t just mean commercials.  Whether the script explains an idea, or describes a traumatic experience, or promotes a new product—the voice over is what brings the idea or the experience or the product to life. It is the voice over that sells that reality.

This is the passion which fuels my desire to communicate through the voiceover. When I am asked to voice a business telephone system’s greeting or message on hold, I recognize that I am now the voice of that company’s business. That’s a huge responsibility. It’s an honor. And it’s what connects the voiceovers that I produce today to an inspirational reading lesson way back in my seventh grade English class.