The way you deliver your lines on set, or in an audition setting, can make or break your career. I know that kind of sounds obvious, but here’s what I mean.

Your vocal delivery is something that directors think of as “permanent.” Facial expressions and reactions are easy to shift. That’s what they train to do.

Your vocalizations are easy to shift too, but most directors don’t see it that way. Most casting directors don’t immediately see it that way either and that can cause you to stay stuck in our career.

Professional actors know this and they put a ton of effort into perfecting their vocalizations and tonality, making sure their voice is always screen-ready.

If you want to be a professional actor, this is something you can’t ignore...

We recently talked about all of the opportunities availble in voice acting right now. Today, we’re going to discuss how to use your voice effectively and ensure that you can always deliver a world class performance, whether you’re on set or in a sound booth.

Over the years I’ve seen actors overcomplicate this over and over again. 4 different tonalities are pretty much all you need because they cover almost every interaction your characters will have on set.

Here’s what they are...

1. Flat

2. Ending on a higher pitch

3. Starting high and ending on a lower pitch,

4. Starting at a normal pitch and ending on a lower pitch

That’s it!

Let’s talk about when to use each of the 4 tonalities.

Flat tonality is when your voice stays at a flat pitch throughout your statement. That doesn’t mean it has to be delivered completely monotone. It just means you will stay within a very small pitch range.

This tonality is used when you are making a statement and delivering information that doesn’t have an underlying emotional charge for your character. Whatever the information is, it just is.

For example, if you are playing a doctor this tonality would be used as your character reviews a patient's chart with a colleague.

Ending on a higher pitch is almost for dialogue that includes a question. It can either be an explicit question like “What’s your name?” or it can be a response that includes a question.

That would be something like “you think I was there too?”
The third tone is just as simple as the first two. It is used to give your character a friendly tone.

Think of what happens when you introduce yourself to someone. Your voice naturally starts at a high pitch when you are being friendly

Here’s a simple rule of thumb. The longer your voice stays at an elevated pitch, the friendlier your character is trying to be.

The fourth tone is used to show authority or to add some gravity to your statement. Your voice starts at your normal pitch and then drops towards the end of a statement.

This can also be used to pace your scenes. If you draw out the amount of time it takes you to get from your starting pitch to the lowest pitch, you will slow down the scene.

We’ll talk more about pacing in the weeks to come, because that is another incredibly powerful thing that professional actors are very good at using.

What you have right now, with tonality alone will make an incredible difference. If you are struggling to effectively bring a certain emotion to your character, start with this. It’s a simple way to start troubleshooting the problem.

Sometimes you may be trying to deliver lines in the form of a statement, but your voice keeps going up at the end, making it sound like more of a question.

When something doesn’t “feel right” but you can’t really figure out what the problem could be, it’s typically a subtle vocal problem in the delivery.

Unless you are working with a world class director, they may not catch it either, so look for this when you are watching your scenes back.
You can even mix different vocal ranges to layer your characters and make complex character choices.

For example, there may be times when your character needs to be serious but inquisitive at the same time. In that case, you would mix two different tonalities within a very short time frame.

Of course this all depends on whether or not you have enough opportunities to get on set. If you are having trouble with that. Here’s a great place to start.

Being able to deliver on set, or during an audition, only matters if you are actually going on auditions, booking jobs, and getting on set.

If you could use more opportunities, it’s important that you take a step back and focus on the parts of the industry that most actors ignore: the parts that actually help you build a career.

Most actors never make much career progress because they don’t take the time to make themselves visible to the industry. Instead they think that if they just get “good enough” Casting Directors will seek them out.

Casting Directors will seek you out when you have a stellar industry reputation and you can show how talented you are.

What we talked about today, will help with the second part but having just one or the other will make things more difficult for you.

So don’t leave it completely to chance. Give yourself every advantage possible to succeed and make sure that you are building your career on a solid foundation.

As you practice building your character’s voice, things will become second nature. At first, it will take some practice so remember I’m always only a comment or an email away if you need some help with this.

So, don’t hesitate to get in touch because I truly want to...

See you at the top,
Scott