As a voiceover professional, you know the few essentials when it comes to taking care of your voice. After all, your voice needs deliver and it needs to sell — whether you’re recording for a commercial or doing narration work.

But there’s more to voiceover work than just having an incredible voice. You need to be an actor, too. If you’re having a hard time turning yourself into a character required in a voice recording project, maybe it’s time you try acting classes on the side.

Listed below are some suggestions on where to get acting experience and exposure.

Volunteer at a read-aloud activity 

Whether it’s at your local community or in your child’s classroom, reading aloud can be beneficial to both the speaker and listeners. Given that stories will have different characters, you will be compelled to read the dialogues and vary your voice acting styles according to the personality of the characters. While this is definitely not an acting class, you are essentially practicing your narrative and acting skills through the vicarious experiences provided for by the stories.

Attend poetry readings 

Poems are not crafted solely to be read in silence; they have to be read aloud in front of an audience. A good first step towards improvisation is to listen to poetry readings. Poems are often laden with emotions, and the reader will often vary their speaking styles to convey a specific emotion. Of course, you could always try reading aloud poem or two, too!

Participate in an acting workshop 

The last thing that any voice acting project requires is a flat, unexciting voice. There’s no better way to improve your acting abilities — and gain better confidence in the process — except to immerse yourself in acting workshops.

Acting workshops may be available through your local community theater or acting schools in your area. Your acting teacher may ask you to improvise on a role, read a script aloud, or perform by way of music and dance. These workshops may also include breathing exercises for flexing vocal muscles and improving voice range, tone, and flexibility when acting on stage.

Voiceover work always requires you get into character and convince your audience. This means ‘acting’ through your voice. All the essential emotions and inflections have to be conveyed in your narration, and you cannot do this if you have zero experience at improvisation. As a voice actor, you have to be able to perform. This is why exposure to and experience in actual performances can benefit your voice-acting career in more ways than one!