I hope these little tips have been helpful in any way! Whether you’re a radio listener, an announcer, or a podcaster, I hope I’ve shared something of worth. I’ve actually enjoyed dumping all this information here on my blog. At least it’s somewhere else and not just cooped up inside my brain.

I’ve had other blogs waiting in line for this series to finish, but since this one keeps growing with each topic I come up with, they’ll have to wait. That and the fact that I’m obsessive about order will make me finish this first before moving on to another topic

We laid the ground work in befriending our SAPs and now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to Playing with Your Voice Inflections.

This would be much easier to share if this were an audio blog that came complete with a podcast. But since I don’t have the toys to do that yet, I’ll do my best to describe how to play with your voice. And you can always stop by my Voice Library over on Vox to give me a listen.

I mentioned in a previous entry to simply Google voice and breathing exercises to help with your technique. My two favorites are rubber lips (expelling air through closed lips) and the vowel-only exercise (recite Mary Had a Little Lamb without the consonants. These have helped me with diaphragmatic breathing, lip relaxing and the mouth’s forming of words.

It’s the strangest thing to see someone do “rubber lips” but I tell ya it works. Works!

• Take a deep breath. Really fill your diaphragm – belly expands, chest remains down and relaxed. Force the air out from your lips as you slowly exhale. Your lips should vibrate up and down rapidly as air escapes through your closed mouth. Look in the mirror. If Daffy Duck looks back at you, you’re doing it right. Try not to face anyone as you’re likely to spray spit. Seriously. Do this five times in a row. Each time should leave your lips with a funny tingling sensation.

I do this right before I step inside the studio, in between takes, and even afterwards. Your lips will really… limber up after this exercise.

Vowels are what make up our pronunciation. Word clarity hinges on how well formed our vowels are. I’m from the school of thought that accent is irrelevant and that it is more important to be understood.

However, broadcasters must have a higher standard for communicating, so oftentimes, a more neutral accent – one that is devoid of any regionalism – is more favored.

The bottomline: speak to be understood.

I guess you could say that spending the first twelve years of my life in the US helped form my speech pattern. I only learned how to speak Pilipino after moving to Manila in 1981. As a result, my Pilipino sounds a bit American but I go to great lengths to sound like a native Pilipino speaker when necessary.

I took this quiz for fun and my results said I have a Midland Accent. But that’s not what defined my success in the business. It was hardwork; going the extra mile; and having a talented team to work with.

Anyway.

Mary Had a Little Lamb is just one of the simplest examples you can use to enunciate your vowels. Feel free to change this with whatever material you want.

• Recite Mary Had a Little Lamb without its consonants. It would look like this if you were to write it out:
  • ay-ee a uh i-uh a oo ee uh ie a oh
    • (Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow)
  • a e-ee-ay a ay-ee e a a uh oo oo oh
    • (And everywhere that Mary went that lamb was sure to go)

Make sense? Practice with some more material to really give your mouth a work out.

Now to inflect. This is basically changing our pitch and adding stress points and pauses and even throwing in some emotion here and there to make your announcing come alive.

Let’s use my previous example:

Joey: Later on I have details on a dog show happening this weekend… stick around to find out where you can see Fido wearing a dress attached to a leash held by actor Sam Milby… Got something from the Foo Fighters right now. This is Everlong… on the Home of Nu Rock.. NU107.

Could be something like this:

Joey: lateron I have///details on a DOG show happening//thisweekend/ stickaround to find out wher YOU can see Fido/wearing/ a/ dress/ attached to a leash held by actor/// Sam Milby///Got something from the *grin* FooFighters right// now. ThisisEverlong// ontheHome of NuRock/NU 107.

Pauses, stresses, compresses and emotions are essential elements of announcing. They help make you sound interesting. And hopefully, keep people coming back for more of your boardwork.

Next lesson is my secret weapon. It was a technique that more announcers should use more of – The Secret of Always Using “You”.