How to Do a Million and One Character Voices

The voice is one hell of an instrument. I mean, how many guitars can do a Scottish accent, or a perfect recreation of Gollum’s eerie tones? There’s nothing else on the planet quite like it. I listened to an audiobook recently and had my mind blown when I discovered it only had one narrator. The way they changed and shaped their voice to each of the characters was nothing less than incredible and it made me very jealous. So move over Mel Blanc, today we’re learning how to develop a million (and one) character voices.

The ability to develop different character voices is hugely beneficial for actors; it can allow you to work in a diverse array of fields such as animation, audio books and even video games. Character voices will require consistent warm-ups and a focus on skill areas such as accents and dialects, as well as developing traits and qualities particular to a given role. At all times, your choices have to feel real—no matter how ridiculous the job. Aim for transformation, rather than imitation.

Okay: let’s start out with the basics and get a little crazy from there. The first voice to develop is the most important. And that’s your own…

Get Warm

Your voice is a muscle. Kind of. In fact, there are a BUNCH of muscles that work together to make and shape sound. So as with any muscle, before we start putting it under any kind of pressure, we need to warm it up. 

If you’ve been in the game for a while, you should already have a well-rounded and consistent voice warm-up routine. If you’re new around these parts, I’d suggest checking out this epic warm-up article written by our very own fearless leader, Andy. 

The trick is to develop a routine that works for you. It can be something you learn from a class, find online or add to and subtract as needed. Lately, I’ve been using an app called Warm Me Up which I couldn’t recommend enough (though it does cost a bit of pocket money.)

Starting Simple: Accents

“Simple” might be an understatement here, depending on your comfort level. But accents are your bread and butter when it comes to character voices. Learning how to do different accents might seem like a mere party trick, but it’s a foundational skill of your vocal ability.

All right: do you know your ABCs? Well, let me introduce you to a whole new type of alphabet.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

Every sound the human voice is capable of making has been documented in the phonetic alphabet. Which is nothing short of mind-blowing. Rather than our well-known Roman Alphabet, the international phonetic alphabet is made up of a whole load of funky symbols that represent different sounds. Check out an example via this link.

At the end of the day, the voice is just air being pushed through our vocal folds to create vibrations. We manipulate these vibrations using our tongue, lips and throat, which shape this air into sounds we use to communicate. Isn’t that incredible?!

Different accents use different phonetic sounds, shaped by the evolution of language and the culture surrounding those speakers. And while those accents might use the same language, the words spoken can sound remarkably different. Imagine this paragraph spoken by a New Yorker, and then by a Boston native just four hours away.

Speaking of accents, let me introduce you to the second most mind-blowing tool on the internet.

IDEA: International Dialects of English

Every accent in the English Language is recorded and documented right here on IDEA. So if you’ve been struggling with a character’s Slovakian accent, with no Slovakian friend to use as reference, you can find the answer to your troubles right here. 

By using this amazing archive in conjunction with the IPA, there isn’t a single accent in English you can’t learn. Here’s how we do it.

Dissecting an Accent

First, pick an accent. Let’s use our above example: Slovakian.

Now, jump onto IDEA and have a listen to Slovakia 2. What we’re looking for as we listen to any accent are key vowel sounds that are different to our own.

As an example, at 0:51, the subject says “Washed her face in a hurry.” Let’s look at the way he says “hurry.” I have an Australian accent so when I say hurry, the “u” sound is “uh” or “ɐ” in IPA. When our Slovakian subject says hurry, the vowel sound becomes “eh” or “ø”.

Next, we can look at the consonants.  A little further on in the speech, he says “dress” in which he taps the “r” sound which is represented by “ɾ” in IPA. Try to mimic that sound by bringing your tongue to the roof of your mouth and rolling it down and back when you say “dress.”

If you listen further, you’ll notice that this ‘tapped’ r is a crucial part of the accent. So pay attention to when it happens and when it doesn’t. In certain accents, tapped r’s only occur in the middle of words, not the beginning or the end. But in the Slovakian accent, it appears consistently throughout.

By approaching accents like a scientist, you create a good foundational understanding of the voice and the way it works.

Getting Specific: Vocal Qualities

Let’s say you’ve nailed your Slovakian accent and you’re going around convincing hapless baristas that you’re a Bratislava native. All well and good, but if we want to actually create a character distinct from ourselves, we need to get more specific about the way we’re speaking.

“Vocal Qualities” is a broad term. Here, I’m specifically referring to pitch, tone and timbre. We’ll play with some more unique qualities in a bit, but let’s stick to the sandpit for now.

Using your flawless Slovakian accent, start by changing the pitch. Resist the urge to go to the extremes right away–you’ll create a more convincing voice if you start by making slight modifications.

Try pitching it up a few notes first and notice the difference in how it feels–maybe your throat feels a little tighter? Maybe your getting more vibration in your nasal cavity and head? What about if you go down a few notes?

Now, let’s play with tone. You want to concentrate on moving the sound around your resonators including your chest, nose and head. You’ll notice different tonal qualities depending on where your voice is ‘sitting.’ Maybe it sounds soft and airy, deep and gravelly or nasal and sharp?

Finally, timbre. This is the most specific of the three qualities because it involves adding little flourishes like breathiness, raspiness or smoothness. Try rounding out or shaving the edges of the vowel sounds without diverting too far from your chosen accent. Tricky, right? But this kind of texture is what separates the hopeful voice artists from the professionals.

You can, of course, play with these qualities with your natural accent, too. In fact, I’ve probably jumped the gun by making you work with an accent right away! Pay attention to how these qualities change in your ordinary voice because they really do change every day. It’ll give you more toys to play with as you work on your character voices.

Give it Some Physicality

In the same way that the body and mind aren’t actually separate (despite what popular western philosophy might insist) neither are the body and the voice. The way you hold yourself changes the way your voice sounds.

Quick experiment for you: sit comfortably, in your natural posture, and say “hello.” Now crane your neck as far forward as you can and say it again. Crazy difference, right? 

Even if you’re in a recording booth, your whole body should be engaged. Try different facial expressions: tightening your lips will have a significant impact on the way you sound. Even pyscho-physical adjustments like hunching over slightly to create a character who is nervous or shy will affect your voice.

It might be slight but that’s where the juicy detail is. Play with different shapes in your body and notice how they affect not only your voice but also your psychology then notice how your psychology affects your voice and so on. The human body is a beautiful feedback loop that can be harvested for information by the keen and curious.

Give it Some Personality

Now we’re going to turn that voice into a character—distinguishing them further with performance choices. Is this person a fast or a slow talker? If they’re a fast talker, is it because they’re really clever and have a lot to share or are they stressed out of their minds? Do they speak languidly and easily or is their speech choppy and inconsistent?

What about things like their age? This is a whole can of worms that could influence a lot of other things like pitch, tone and timbre. Maybe you’ll need to make a few adjustments once you’ve decided how old they are.

It’s funny: you make the same adjustments to a character voice that you would a role on screen or stage. Find the things that differentiate them from yourself—from everybody—and use those qualities to bring them to life!

Cheat Code: Vocal Hooks

Once you settle on a voice you really like, you’ll need a way of remembering it. Recording yourself is the easiest way to build up an archive, but you’ll also need to pay attention to vocal hooks so that you can easily slip back into a voice after you’ve left it on the shelf for a while.

Vocal hooks are key sounds or phrases that get you back into a voice. They’re most commonly used with accents. As an example, when I was in a production of The Laramie Project, we had to perfect a Southern accent and a phrase we all used to get it right was “Lemon yellow Cadillac rolling down the road.” The phrase is particularly useful for a Southern accent because there is a lot of emphasis on the “L” and “R” sounds—key sounds that helped me get a quick grasp of what I needed to be doing.

So as you develop a voice, come up with a catchphrase for it that hones in on key sounds. “She dressed in a hurry.” could be a good one for your Slovakian character.

A Final Note: Imitation vs Transformation

When I was in drama school, we were assigned a Welsh accent as our study, which is notoriously difficult. I’ve always been one to cut corners on assignments, so all I did was listen to the Welsh recording on IDEA a few times and hope that was enough.

My vocal tutor knew immediately that I hadn’t touched my IPA. They explained that while I was quite adept at imitation, I hadn’t completely transformed my voice and so, had fallen short.

There is a difference between an imitation artist and a voice artist. You can start out by imitating popular voices to get a feel for shaping your voice, but you’ll eventually want to start tweaking the details to make the voice your own and truly transform. The more considered your voice work is, the more real and grounded your character will become.

Conclusion

Once your phone starts to fill up with voice memos of different character voices, give them names and decide which archetype they fit into. This one could be Johnny Quick-Hands, a charming thief with a greasy smile; that one could be Lady Lollabout, a rich bourgeois who is obsessed with cats.

Details are what create voices and characters that are truly convincing. Get nerdy and learn as much as you can about how the voice works and how you can bend it to your will. It is one hell of an instrument, after all…

Hope this helps. See you around the traps!