Small things can annoy me big time:
Loud neighbors past midnight.
People who believe the earth is their trash can.
Zigzagging drivers who don’t signal before changing lanes.
Folks who chew gum with their mouth wide open.
Lowballing “colleagues”.
I could go on forever but I won’t because I’ll end up annoying you.
A short while ago I was in my car listening to NPR‘s “Morning Edition,” and something else bugged me. It wasn’t their angle on the news or their choice of topics. It was something more subtle.
I found myself criticizing the loud breaths both presenters were taking. When I pointed it out to the passenger next to me, she acted surprised. She hadn’t noticed a thing. Once I had mentioned it though, she heard it too. Isn’t that the way it always works?
One function of our brain is to filter out the things that aren’t immediately relevant to our survival. That’s actually very useful. Think about it.
Every second of every day you and I are bombarded with sights, sounds, smells and tactile impressions. If we were to pay attention to every single thing, we’d rapidly reach sensory overload and go mad.
So why did my brain choose to have me focus on something as useless as the presenter’s breath?
CONDITIONED RESPONSE
Well, as a voice actor, I suffer from professional deformation. Some people prefer to call it “job conditioning”.
Just as a music critic can’t help but analyze any performance instead of simply enjoying it, I find myself constantly critiquing colleagues, including their noisy intake of oxygen. But it gets worse. When it comes to my own performance, I am absolutely merciless.
Because I listen to myself in close-up all day long, I hear every little detail and have lost the ability to hear my voice the way other people hear it. It’s become my biggest blind spot.
One of the things I’m obsessed with is my breath. You may think it’s no big deal, but some days I can’t stand it.
I have this unwritten rule in my voice-over studio. If a breath distracts from the message I’m trying to convey, it gets cut or I camouflage it in post-production. That takes time.
Mind you: not all breaths distract. Some can actually add drama to a read. There’s the scared breath, the surprised breath, the “I can’t believe I just said that” breath…
Removing all breaths sounds unnatural.
Being mindful of our breath brings up something else.
UNCONSCIOUS CONNECTION
For one, the way we breathe immediately reveals the physical state we’re in. I wrote about that last week (see “Cut the crap. No more excuses“). If we’re in bad shape, our breathing will give us away. Secondly, our breath is closely linked to our emotional state. It’s that mind-body connection.
When we’re anxious or tense, our breath tends to be faster and shallow. When we’re relaxed, our breathing is deeper and slower. It’s one of those amazing autonomic, automatic connections.
I especially notice this interplay between mind and body when I’m distracted and stressed. My breathing becomes irregular and I can clearly hear it when I listen back to what I’ve just recorded. When I’m that unfocused, I do my worst work. This -in turn- annoys me even more, making the situation worse. I know I need to step out of it, but how?
Indian musician Ravi Shankar once said:
“The mind is like a kite, flying here and there, and the breath is like the string of the kite, generally bringing the mind back into the present moment. The breath brings the mind, which is all over the place, back to its source, a natural state of peacefulness and joy.”
As soon as I became aware of the connection, I realized that I could actually influence my state of mind by changing my body. One of the quickest ways to do that, is by changing my breathing. That’s nothing new. Yogis have been doing it since the dawn of time.
TAKE A DEEP BREATH
Good breathing starts with good posture. The kneeling chair I use in my studio not only prevents lower back pain, it helps me sit up straight and it allows the diaphragm to move freely and efficiently, thus promoting better breathing and blood circulation.
I also started practicing diaphragmatic or abdominal breathing.
Babies are natural abdominal breathers, but somehow we nervous grown-ups have forgotten how to do it.
Diaphragmatic breathing comes from the stomach area, rather than from the chest (thoracic breathing). When done properly, the entire torso expands, starting with the belly and followed by the ribcage. It’s often mentioned as an easy way to reduce stress and increase mental focus.
From a voice-over point of view, there are more advantages to belly breathing. Because we’re taking in more oxygen, we can read longer passages without having to gasp for air.
Abdominal breaths are also much more quiet than those coming from the upper part of our body.
WHY YOU SUCK
Thanks to shallow chest breathing, most of us are suckers. We literally suck the air into the upper part of our body, past our vocal cords, as if we’re filling up a vacuum tank. This sucking sound is usually enhanced because we don’t open our mouth fully before we breathe.
For most of us this is a completely unconscious process and we don’t even hear the sound we make as we breathe in…. until we play the audio back.
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather prevent these annoyingly loud breaths rather than having to edit them out.
So, before you take your next breath, sit up straight, open your mouth wide like a singer and take a deep, r e l a x e d breath from the abdomen. This should dramatically reduce the sound you make while filling your lungs with more oxygen.
Most teachers of abdominal breath will tell you to breathe in through the nose and breathe out through the mouth. There’s a reason why I am asking you to breathe in with your mouth open. Not only is it quieter, it prevents those nasty smacks that are the result of you parting your lips.
I take it one step further.
OPEN UP
Not only do I open my mouth at the beginning of a sentence, I keep it open at the very end and for the very same reason. As your lips close, chances are that they make another unwanted sound.
Even though this “technique” sounds like a no-brainer, you’re basically relearning something that you’ve done wrong for most of your life. I’m asking you to become mindful of something you’ve been unaware of and have done almost naturally.
Be soft on yourself as you practice abdominal breathing. It’s okay if you’re not perfect at it straight away. Give yourself a breather.
If you start feeling light-headed, you’re doing it too quickly and with too much effort.
Be gentle. Relax. It’s good for you.
Personally and professionally.
And remember: there’s no quick fix for being out of shape.
The sooner you start to take care of yourself, the better it is.
Paul Strikwerda ©nethervoice
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Are you a workaholic? Do you always have to be connected? My next story is about why you need to unplug, unwind and take care of yourself and those you love.
photo credit: brentdanley via photo pin cc
About the author
I’ll take a small hit on being out of shape, but you tip on keeping your mouth open at the end of a sentence and the breathing techniques explained here are wonderful! Good technique leads to less editing time, which directly affects the bottom line. Good technique is had by practice. I’m glad I don’t “Suck” Thanks for sharing your knowledge Paul.
Wow Paul, I concur with Ted. I was surprised mostly by this sentence, “Not only do I open my mouth at the beginning of a sentence, I keep it open at the very end and for the very same reason.”
I think you might have changed my life
As always, thanks for the fantastic insights Paul!
Always a pleasure, Ted!
At first it sounds very counterintuitive to keep your mouth open at the end of a sentence. It only applies to your time in the studio. Otherwise your friends might get worried about your state of mind…
First of all, I want to thank you for writing your article and helping me. Recently I lost 85 pounds and counting. I have to relearn how to breathe again. I truly believe and know that your breathing has everything to do with how good you sound. Definitely this will be part of my daily workout for the rest of my days as a voice artist. Thank you!
Congratulations on your amazing result, Peacock. Keep it up and keep it off!
In a way, voice-over artists are very much like singers. Breath support is an essential part of playing our instrument. Here’s to making great music!
Oh Paul, this is why I love your blog.
It tends to hit on things that I’m currently thinking/working on.
Changing my breathing over the last 6 months, has LITERALLY changed my life in the booth. The frustration that comes out of hearing those nasty, gasping breath & mouth sounds in playback is motivation enough to try ANYTHING to make them go away.
When I was in acting school, it was always stressed that we needed to breath from the abdomen, so luckily I have that training in my back pocket and it has worked wonders behind the mic. But it takes conscious practice & effort to change a life long habit of shallow breathing.
Thanks for being awesome as always!
Totally going to record today with your article in mind. I should know – I did learn all these things at one point, but have developed bad habits.
As always: Thanks, Paul, I would still suck if it were not for you
Another great article from Paul.
It bears noting that breaths heard over the radio can appear very loud and obnoxious because of the desire of most broadcasters to process their audio so that it’s always as loud as possible. One reason for this is, for example, when people are listening in their cars, there could be windows open, creating wind noise and allowing the sound of traffic into the car.
Unfortunately, when some people new to voice-over come from a radio background, there can be a tendency to try to duplicate that sound by employing too much dynamic compression, which is one tool broadcasters use. While *some* compression can be good, too much is, well, just too much. And, as a result, when the person stops speaking to take a breath, the compressor attempts to bring whatever it “hears” (the breath) up to a level to match that of the voice.
Use minimal compression and, by all means, use Paul’s excellent advice for maximizing the efficiency of your breathing so that it sounds natural, and so that it doesn’t become necessary to spend a lot of extra time fiddling with them in post-production.
Now, we can all breathe a little easier.
Thanks for your awesome comment, Lauren! Good breathing should be part of every professional (voice) actor’s tool kit.
Thanks for your comprehensive comment, Mike. I suspected commercial radio stations of over-compressing their signal, but NPR…
Oh dear! The NPR compression is famous enough that iZotope alloy has a preset called “NPR Voice” and you adjust the “NPRness” of it. It’s a pretty complex scheme, but it does sound like you are doing morning edition!
As a singer, I’ve got the breathing down, but that tip about leaving your mouth open at the end of sentences makes too much sense for me not to have thought of before. You’re right about not getting into such a habit that I do it in ‘real life’ though. Mom used to say, “You’re gonna catch flies with that mouth hanging open like that.”
Excellent tip and great post! Sharing now.
I had no idea, Ted. I only use Izotope Rx2 and it’s phenomenal.
Thanks for sharing, Donna. That totally makes my day!
Uuuaaagh! Funny you should bring this up, Paul.
I sometimes battle back and forth between the proper breathing I do for maximum benefit and lung conditioning while at the gym… carefully working through my weight and aerobic routines… and the breathing I do behind the mic. I too have discovered it is quieter to inhale through the mouth and not through the nose.
I also find that removing ALL breaths from a VO or narration is unnatural. This bothers me the most in many audio books I hear. They literally suck the life out of the narrators story. Some are grossly over edited! It’s especially irritating when I hear a “drop out” from the background noise that exits through the whole piece. The editing draws attention to the noisy background. But that’s another discussion regarding sound quality.
I’m a very “selective breath remover”usually removing the biggest breaths. Besides half the time my VO is going through another production process and I’ll let them edit out what they don’t like.
I just hope I don’t start getting to the “wheezing” stage soon. That calls for an automatic edit!
At the gym it would be useful to have a breath or grunt-remover app. Some of my fellow-members inhale and exhale rather dramatically while working out. It this was Wimbledon, they would be fined….
HA, ha! Good point about Wimbledon! I think the judges there were somehow relating tennis to sex. Hum, what gave ‘em that idea?
Those heavy breathers at the gym are probably not breathing correctly. I hear those folks as well. Generally, you should inhale on the positive part of the exercise and exhale on the negative side… or is it the other way around? I’ve been at it for 29 years now, I just know it as second nature during my exercises. It feels right when it’s right and you don’t overexert or turn blue or ruin the good form used for each exercise. Listen next time at the gym, I’ll bet most of the noise makers are sucking too much air in through their mouth as they inhale instead of gently inhaling through their noses. But back to the studio now…
Nice post! Breathing or the lack of breath, gets me in trouble when I’m cursing along and hit a section of copy that I didn’t prep well. It’s funny to listen to the playback as I attempt to force the last of whatever’s in my lungs to finish the line. Bad me!
I will ask the client if they want a clean, breathless read or a more natural one. A few have never really given it any thought and tell me to do “whatever.” Well, time is time and darn it, natural sounds good!
-JCD
wow, Paul! u haff hit ze nail on ze head again viss diss lasst vonn on how we babes suck! here’s a tube link to a quickie that portrays the sucking news-read of a top pro on the Italian TV pubcaster RAI – i have to zap to another channel; she makes me feel ill listening to her… -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9PvbO-URXk
cheers and greetings from Roma! Edwin.
I just copied part of your blog to keep in my studio-thanks Paul!
Hi Christopher, I’ve never asked a client about breath. Usually, they prefer mine to be fresh.
Hi Edwin, I wouldn’t be surprised if Maria Cuffaro were a smoker. It’s not the smokey sound I enjoy listening to. I have to say that I’d love to be able to rattle in Italian the way she does. There are some awesome tongue twisters in your linked YouTube video.
You copycat, you….
Seriously, Jane, that is a great compliment.
Too funny, I did the same thing – noticing the loud breaths – a couple of weeks ago on a singer.
When doing longer narration pieces, I started taking a slight longer pause before each new sentence, then take a deep breath to hopefully make it through the next one without having to take another breath or only a short and “quiet” one. The longer pause then lets me edit out the deep and usually loud breath completely without interrupting the flow of the piece and making it sound unnatural.
Great tip on keeping the mouth open, thanks!
I’ve used that technique too, Sylvia, and I ended up spending a lot of extra time in the editing room. Pausing before the next sentence did help me focus on my breath and the position of my mouth. It was one of those “stop and think” moments as I was relearning how to breathe and keep my mouth open.
Awesome article and great tips, Paul! I’ve learned the trick of leaving my mouth open, but it isn’t a habit yet. Still have to consciously tell myself to do that.
We all go through the four stages of learning (as described in “The Ying and Yang of Freelancing“)/ Some say that if you practice a new routine for 30 days in a row, it is likely to stick.
Good article, Paul. Another thing I learned in my singing days was to make sure you expel all the breath left in your lungs before taking in another deep breath. The best way to ‘manage’ your breathing is to gauge how much breath you’ll need to get through the next amount of text so that when you finish and need to take another breath, your lungs are already empty. So, for instance, for a shorter sentence, you would take in less breath than for a longer section of text. So when I flub in the middle of a sentence and want to start it again, I expel the breath left in my lungs and then take in a new breath to start over with.
Great tip, Elaine, especially coming from a Singer! Thank you.
I think that puts me at the “Consciously Competent” stage, since I’ve learned that skill, but still have to think about it. On my way to step 4!
Another great article (Yin & Yang of Freelancing), by the way!
I have a couple auditions to knock out this afternoon and will look forward to test this out!
Just discovered your site and blog and love it. Thanks!
Hi Bruce, thanks for finding this blog! I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you, even though that makes typing very hard.
Well written copy makes natural breathing easy. Nasty writing makes natural breathing very difficult.
Since this is an excellent topic, what does that say about most copy?
@Steve: A lot of copy I receive has been written for the purpose of being read, instead of spoken. I’m not sure better breathing would be able to rescue poorly written copy. Part of our job as VO-talent is to lift even badly written words off the page and make them sound good, convincing and natural.