What make a "good" voice coach?

[Jeff Emery]

I've read so much about having a voice coach. I'm really curious though about what makes a coach good.

I suppose some coaching would be helpful especially for the lone voice talent. But seriously, what does a voice coach do that is of real value to voice talent?

I realize someone with some knowledge of the inner workings of the VO industry may be able to provide some hints and such, but when it comes to developing a voice or voicing skill, isn't it more or less just the "coach's" opinion?

I mean no disrespect to anyone who does provide coaching services. I'm just trying to understand the true benefit of a voice coach. There are plenty of "coaching" services available and I would assume that they all have their own phikosophies. I don't understand the high cost of these services. I don't knock anyone for how much they charge if someone is willing to pay that price. It seems to me the basic principles could be covered in a 10 page report.

So what does a voice coach actually do? What do "good" coaches do that makes them good?

Jeff

[Mike Sommer]

Originally Posted by Jeff Emery

I've read so much about having a voice coach. I'm really curious though about what makes a coach good.

Preferably someone that has worked 20 or more years as a full-time voice actor and or director. Someone who also has a good ear, and can find the smallest flaws in your performance, and can help you correct them. Someone who pushes you stretches your abilities, challenges you and has you crawling out of the booth, but also builds you back up.

I suppose some coaching would be helpful especially for the lone voice talent. But seriously, what does a voice coach do that is of real value to voice talent?

Besides all of the above. ALL voice talent can use a good coach and a mentor that they can turn to for real help, because nobody knows everything, and there is always room for improvement. To think otherwise is foolish.

I realize someone with some knowledge of the inner workings of the VO industry may be able to provide some hints and such, but when it comes to developing a voice or voicing skill, isn't it more or less just the "coach's" opinion?

I was recently in a VO class and there were several radio guys and a few seasoned actors, and they all had wonderful skill sets. Sure they could read the copy, but that's what it sounded like --like they were reading. It didn't sound conversational or believable, it sounded like a typical radio station on-air read. The instructor taught them how to hear the music in the words, when to hit the copy points and why. He taught them how to polish that turd of a script to a shinny luster.

Sure it was his opinion, but that's the way it is in the real world. Some of us actually have to go to studios and face the director, the writer, and the buyer, and guess who's opinion we have to follow then? Even though we're the "Talent," it's what they want, and it's our job as the talent to give them what they want. And if you can only give them the one read you've worked so hard on, you're sunk. I dare to say you can only gain this skill from actually being directed. On the job training is nice, but the director won't think much of it.

Let me point out: Working at home is one thing --that's your time. But when you walk into a studio that's costing the client $1000 to $2000+ an hour, and you don't have your stuff together. You'll never work for that client or that director again. And that's where real world training will teach you what's expected of you and how to get the job done as a professional. The real pros get in get out and on to the next job.

I mean no disrespect to anyone who does provide coaching services. I'm just trying to understand the true benefit of a voice coach. There are plenty of "coaching" services available and I would assume that they all have their own phikosophies. I don't understand the high cost of these services. I don't knock anyone for how much they charge if someone is willing to pay that price...

Well, if you're paying more then $150 a week in a group course I think you're paying to much, the same would go for one on one sessions. Where a lot of the money goes to is the studio time and the engineer that runs the board. Some instructors that have there own studios still has to pay an engineer to run the board. Then there's the paper, ink, sometimes CD's and cases if they record your workouts, time planning the class in the end it adds up. That's why VO classes often cost more then regular acting classes.

I've often wanted to ask this of clients but have held my tongue, "How much is your time worth?"
It would seem sometimes far more then what they pay me. Yet, I'm doing all the heavy lifting.

It seems to me the basic principles could be covered in a 10 page report.

Umm Okay... I want to be a painter so I'll just get a paint by numbers set, and BAM I'm a painter. And what lovely paintings they are.

Why does anyone need a football coach? Can't I just read the rule book and go out and play a football game? Sure I could, but I wouldn't be very good at it, if all I knew was the book. And that's where the coach comes in, to point out your mistakes, to give you their years of accumulated knowledge, to drill you, to tear you down and build you back up- to teach you the stuff that's not in the rule books.
And that's why everyone should seek out some kind of voice over coaching. Otherwise it's grabass football and someone's going to get hurt.

Sure there's practical knowledge in everything we do, but there are things that have to be discovered things that have to be shown, things that have to be taught.

I can't be an armchair gardner, I have to get my hands dirty.

So what does a voice coach actually do? What do "good" coaches do that makes them good?

See all of the above.


Allow me to add: This learning process should not just end with one voice coach, you should have many voice coaches, attend seminars, acting classes, improve classes, and work out groups. It's all about growth, and learning from other people. You often learn just as much from you fellow students as you do your instructor - especially what not to do.

[Jeff Emery]

Mike,

Thanks so much for taking the time to give your input. It all makes sense now. I wasn't aware that so much more was involved during a coaching session. I thought it was pretty much the "student" and coach in a room with the student reading the copy and the coach making comments or the student submitting a recorded VO and the coach critiquing it. I didn't realize that it was typically done in a studio setting with an engineer.

Most of the "coaching" I've had in the past has either been from radio station program directors or news directors telling me how to deliver my reads. And, I've also gotten input from some other voice actors.

I have so much to learn and only 20 years or so to learn it in.

Thanks again,

Jeff

[Mike Sommer]

No problem.

In Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliners, he suggest that it takes people about 10,000 house to become proficient at anything --of course environment and ability and other factors come into play-- but for the most part I think he's on track with this number.
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Take someone like Bob Bergen, who started out imitating Warner Bro. cartoons as a kid ,and wanted to be the voice Porky Pig. He worked, and worked, and worked, and from what I can gather had a great mom that encouraged him (got to love those moms) and by the time he's in his 20's he's workin' in the biz.

So if it take 10,000 hours. Two hours a day intently working on it you'll be ready to go in 14 years. Or work on it Five hours a day, you can pull it together in a bout 5.5 years.


But then again how much you put into it determines how much you'll get out of it.