Date: Thu, 5 Dec 96 12:26:19 -0600 (CST)
From: Buster <jmaroon1-AT-mail.airmail.net>
Subject: Re: Puppet Voices


At 03:46 PM 12/5/96 UT, Lynn wrote:
>Hi!
>As our first year draws to a close for our puppet team, i've set some goals 
>for the new year.  One being, we need help in developing our "puppet" voices. 

Our vocal sounds are created with the diaphragm, lungs, vocal cords, mouth
cavity, tongue, teeth, lips, and nasal cavity.  Any time you change any of
these areas, you change your voice.  

One of the easiest voices to do is to open everything as wide as you can:
your mouth, nasal cavity, and vocal cords.  Basically, do a simulated yawn,
and then vocalize it.  This gives a kind of dumb voice. If you stick your
top teeth out over your bottom teeth, it will be even more pronounced. Thing
is, every person in your puppet team can do this voice, and because everyone
has a different shaped face and vocal muscles, they will all sound different.

Another is to just do a nasal voice.  Force the air up through your nasal
cavity, or shut off the air going out of your nose.  Another is to tighten
the vocal chords, which gives a higher pitched voice than you normally have.
It is a good one for doing kid voices.

Yet another is to force air out faster than you normally would.  Control the
voice and volume level, but force out the air, getting a kind of breathy
sound.  This will give you an old man voice.

Crack your voice with a mix of normal and falsetto.  Not steady falsetto
like Micky Mouse, but just break it.  Depending on the amount of falsetto,
this can either be a nerdy teen or an old man or woman.

Gravel voices are good for either old men or bad guys, but they can be
painful.  These are created by kind of growling as you speak.  Make sure you
warm up plenty, and use it sparingly.

Don't forget speech mannerisms, either.  For instance, if your character is
a kid, it helps a lot if it talks like a kid, not just sounds like one.
Accents help a lot, so try mixing them with some of the above.

Lastly, try combining the different techniques above for a completely
different sound.  You may be surprised. Try doing the yawn voice combined
with shutting off the nasal passage, or the tightened voice with the gravel.
However, it is better to master both techniques before trying to combine them.

--Jim Maroon
The Storytelling Home Page    http://members.aol.com/storypage



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