One of the most treasured assets the human body possesses is the voice. Most people can perform basic operations of the voice without any training as we learn how to use if for speaking and other things like humming a tune. It is a marvelous process that should not be taken for granted. Even though the larynx is about as small as your thumb, it does some miraculous things.
If you just imagine what your voice goes through when you are yelling and screaming for your favorite team at a sporting event, or while using it to perform even though you have no formal training, it is not hard to see that your vocal cords take a beating. Your vocal instrument endures much abuse, but it generally keeps on working even though it may be in a hoarser tone. This is because the abuse it has sustained has caused your vocal cords to swell. Just try beating your hand on a wall to see what I mean.
Constant abuse of the vocal cords can cause them to develop nodes or calluses which over time may result in surgery to remove them the way pop singers like Julie Andrews, Robert Plant, Freddie Mercury, Miley Cyrus, Madonna and others have done. Of course, there was no intention to abuse their voices, but it happened anyway.
Something that many performers fail to realize is that they must receive formal training if they are going to be able to reach the full potential of what their voice can do. This is because most do not understand how the entire body works together to produce sounds. When you compare the approach most musicians take when getting ready for a performance to that of many vocal performers, this is easy to see. While those playing instruments spend hours in practice, many vocal performers, especially those doing voice overs fail to see the significance of even warming up their own instrument.
If you were learning to play the guitar, wouldn’t you at least buy a lesson book to use during your studies? You would never just pick up any instrument and think that you were ready to play unless you have first learned how. This is not the way it often works with those who are interested in doing voice over work. They often feel that all they have to do is start speaking and everything will be all right. This, of course, is not the way it works. You need to receive training, no matter what it is you are doing.
Even though there may be some great features to an untrained voice, there are still some things that must be learned. Even someone who is considered to be tone deaf by others still has the option of proving them wrong just by getting the training they need. The truth is that even though we may not feel it is necessary, the approach we take to training other instruments must be applied to the voice as well. It is important that it be trained properly if is it going to operate effectively for life.
You may not realize it but using your voice commercially is hard work, and it takes practice to get it right. Just as with playing any other instrument, or playing a sport, you must put in the practice and hard work to get it right. You also need the assistance of a qualified instructor. A competent voice coach is a valuable asset.