Want to improve your voice for Radio ?

I've just finished working my way through a new book / CD Rom package
"The Broadcast Voice" written by Jenni Mills and published by Elsevier / Focal press priced £24.99.  

ISBN: 0240519396     Book/Paperback

The book and CD Rom provide a very useful package for anyone who is looking for coaching on voice techniques for broadcasters.

Well worth the money and just what you need if like me, you worry about your voice and how it sounds when you are on air.  The package is designed for broadcasters at any level of experience.

For more information paste the following links in to your browser.

http://books.elsevier.com/uk/focalbooks/uk/subindex.asp?isbn=0240519396&country=United+Kingdom&community=focalbooks&mscssid=KMUS8SS7MV7K9K4XCHH8C3G3AFCW77W9

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0240519396/qid%3D1082320517/202-4205213-5600600

Enjoy.

Charlie Brown  

Whilst we're on the subject, if you want to get into voice-overs (not quite the same thing that charliebrown's book covers), there is another book with a useful CD attached called Voice-Overs - A Practical Guide by Bernard Graham Shaw. This has a lot of sensible advice in it, and is well worth reading and listening to (complete with practice backing tracks).

ISBN 0-7136-5369-8

Hey charliebrown, what's on the Jenni Mills CD-ROM?

Hi Steve

The CD Rom contains both audio clips and video tutorials that are
designed to help understand the materials in the book.  Audio clips are of different voice problems and the video tutorials explain some of the exercises  and techniques described in the book.

Charlie  

All good stuff. The day any pro in any proffesion says he can't learn any more is the day he should by a pair of slippers and retire! We can never learn enough. Steve recommended the above book to me, and although I am experienced in voice-over work I did learn a few things. It's just like coming here actually, we're constantly learning from each other, even though many of us have been doing it for years. It's good to see you're taking it seriously enough to want to learn about it Charlie  

['The Art of Voice Acting']

Okay, a bit of an update. Since I was offered a copy of the Jenni Mills book at a discont price, I bought it. There is some good advice in there, but it is predominantly about sounding 'natural' when broadcasting in general (although it does seem to be radio biased). Shame about the video clips, though - they look and sound as though they were shot and edited by rank amateurs. She deserved better treatment than this.

But whilst we're on the subject, there are a couple of other books worth mentioning in this context. There's a fascinating book by James R. Alburger called 'The Art of Voice Acting' which is predominantly about a particularly American approach to this, I feel, but nevertheless contains a wealth of useful information, and is particularaly good on voice care. Focal Press ISBN 0-240-80340-X

And probably the best book written so far about radio interviewing is Jim Beaman's 'Interviewing for Radio'. Even some of the 'old hands' claim to have learned from this book - it's got it all. This one's been on my student booklist ever since it was published. Routledge ISBN 0-415-22910-3.

Of course Charlie, the best way to improve your voice is to use it and get some real experience. 99.9% of the pros didn't learn their craft from a book .. at some point you've got to put the books down and get your feet wet/hands dirty. It's the only way you will ever find out if you even have a radio voice.

Many people have found my book very useful as a starting point in making it as a radio presenter/broadcaster. My book's details are as follows:

How To Get Into Radio, starting your career as a radio broadcaster, by Bernie Simmons [ISBN: 1-85703-143-1] published by How-To Books.

It was published in 1995 and was in print until 2003, which is a long run for this type of book. Your local libraries will be able to get it for you, and if they tell you it's out of print, tell them to request it from The British Library. I'll tell you now, that the thrust of the message of the book is along the lines of stop thinking and talking about and put some headphones and get on with it and learn your craft!

If at any time you want to contact me privately for any help at all, just hit that PM button or email me.

Good luck - you won't need it!