Reflection – Voice Training

In today’s session we had help to understand how to bring in emphasis on key words when broadcasting. Also how to bring light and shade into the voice tones. This will help me to sound much more natural and not as if I am reading from a script or auto cue. Also to get away from it all been monotone.

Today I leaned that women often have to lower their voice to a much deeper tone as they can be squeaky. This can be a distraction to listeners. Talking from the lower part of the diaphragm gives the reader more breathing time and makes the sound much more control. Guiding the voice is key to success. It depends what the piece is about but you can add depth within the tones, helping to create a mood and spark emotions. It is our job as broadcasters to understand how we can change and adopt our voice for different types of stories.

We did a practice run, with a script we had prepared earlier. We had to read it first then re-read it but put emphasis on the key elements within the news story. It was a good environment to get constructive feedback. This will allow me to understand what I can do to make myself a better broadcaster. My feedback was that I sometimes over emphasised and my script writing could have been improved more for speech.

We had to think about the techniques shown to us the week before about taking three deep breaths before going live. This brings down the pitch of the voice, this makes it sound much more professional and also improves the delivery of the content. Cat explained that if there’s ever a figure or statistic it must be emphasised, slow down when speaking and pauses can help to make sure that the audience can understand, hear and taking the key facts.

To me as a journalist it is an incredibly important skill to have and something that is a transferrable skill to different career choices. Voice training is key for me as I want to go into the broadcasting industry, so I need to know what I can do to make myself much more professional.

Writing for Speech

In the session we all were given key facts to a piece of news. We were asked to write a script using the facts. The script became the building blocks for use to have voice training. We practised and got feedback each time.

First Attempt

Local family of four told they must leave the country. The Caverna family originally from New Jersey came to the UK to work. Now eight years on the family are told they must leave when there visa runs out in August.

Vaughn Caverna “we’ve had eight incredible years and don’t want to leave” The Caverna’s are extremely sad to leave as they have invested over £100,000 into the country at the Craft and Bee, North Ferriby.

The feedback I got was that the script could have been stronger. With practice I could have made it more professional. Also when reading it I didn’t emphasis key words and rushed through it. This is because I was nervous and peers where listening to me.

Second attempt

Local family of four are Devastated after been told they must leave the country.

Now eight years on the family are sad to leave when their visas expire in august.

They have a very successful Local family business in North Ferriby and have invested over £100,000 over the years into it.

Sound bite (VT of the parents saying how sad they are)

I felt this time around the script reflected that for speech. It was more condensed and key words in bold where the ones I emphasised. I still need to work on my speed and delivery and work on really projecting my voice.

Voice Traning – Audio Production

In today’s session with Cat Hepple, we went over key skills and techniques that can help to create a better quality sound project. For my sound and Video Journalism assignments this is crucial as I am expected to develop and create high professional soundbites for either radio or broadcast. To make my products sound better I had to go through voice coaching.

This session was incredibly useful as it helped me gain a better understanding on the importance of how to Write for speech, Project, Breathe and use the diaphragm, to manipulate the ways my voice sounds.

By using this skills learned from this session, I will be less likely to strain my vocal chords. Which will result in me producing higher quality products. When practicing today reading a news piece I noticed a huge difference from my first attempt to the last on. It was great to get constructive criticism from my peers as it allowed me to see where I can improve. One of the things was to project more instead of just reading from the sheet and be more confident. Voice training is key for me to get the hang of as I want to go into broadcast journalism so need to gain better understandings of how to manipulate my voice for the types of stories and target audiences.

I now know what I can do to achieve better sound quality.