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Vocal Health #1: How Voice Is 
Produced & How to Protect It
Duration: 5:19
 
As a voice actor, how much do you know about the key instrument to your livelihood?
 
We're speaking about your voice, of course - and it's crucial for voice professionals to know how that instrument works, and how to protect it.
 
"Be a smart singer and a smart speaker," says Bettye Zoller, the multiple award winning voice actor, teacher, studio singer, audio producer, and owner of VoicesVoices
 
Few people in the industry today can likely match the depth of experience of Zoller's 30 years behind the mic. And let's add her start as a child actor on the MGM studios lot.
 
Neverthless, Zoller has also studied the medical side of voice, and offers this informative podcast on how voice is produced, with valuable tips for protecting it.
 
DO NO DAMAGE
 
Use it but don't abuse it, Zoller advises in caring your voice. Among suggestions are to:
  • Stay hydrated, with 60 oz. of water per day. At the mic, swish the water around your mouth and then swallow it, to moisten all tissues.
  • See a medical specialist about new breathiness or raspiness in your voice, which could be a sign of nodes in your throat.
  • During prolonged sessions, tell clients you'd like to divide the work into manageable sessions to give your voice a rest.

AWARD WINNER

The recipient of CLIO, ADDY, Golden Radio, and Audie awards, Zoller is a voice-over and speech coach, acting coach, and university educator who also presents voice-over and studio singer workshops nationwide.
 
She is currently the Feagin Guest Artist Professor in the Theatre Division at Tulsa University.
 
Home base is Dallas, where she owns and is an audio engineer/producer in her recording studio.
 
She is also introducing two new audiobooks this summer:
  • The Voice of Experience: Techniques of Voiceovers and Studio Singing for Students and Their Coaches, and
  • Vocal Health for Speakers, Voiceover Performers and Singers
Her latest Simon and Schuster release is a two-CD set, Speaking Effective English, with a foreword by famed actor Edward Asner.
 
 
 
 
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