Hi Peeps,

I can do two distinct voices from my own normal voice, but every additional voice sounds kinda like one of those 3 voices. It's kinda frustrating to me because I want to do a few more puppets, but don't have distinct voices for them?

Any tips? Or would getting a voice coach help? Thanks much.

I found the DVD "Fun with Character Voices" by Liz VonSeggan very helpful!

I can also suggest Pat Fraley's "Creating Character Voices for Fun and Profit."

http://patfraley.com/shop/Shop.html

Bob

Other than tweaking the pitch, you can vary in terms of:
1) Speed (Speak slowly, fast, or stutter)
2) Adding catch phrase or pet phrase
3) Volume

I had that one, it was very good!

Consider doing what Dawes Butler did: A lot of the Hanna/Barbera characters were based on celebrities.

-Philip

What did Butler do exactly? To imitate a celebrity voice do you just try to copy it or is there a better way to mimic it?

Listen to Yogi Bear...he's based on Art Carney in the Honeymooners! Snagglepuss is Bert Lahr. Other voicers for H/B imitated stars, too...Wally Gator was based on Ed Wynn...there was Alan Reed's imitation of Jackie Gleason in the Honeymooners: Fred Flintstone. Hokey Wolf was based on Phil Silvers, and his sidekick Dingaling was based on Buddy Hackett.
Jabberjaw the shark sounds like Curley Howard of the Three Stooges.
And so on.
The imitations didn't have to be right-on (in fact, they didn't want them to be: Bert Lahr threatened to sue at one point)...but the stars themselves were good jumping-off points for different voices.

-Philip

You can also try adding accent(s) to your voices like I do with my Cletus figure (hillbilly, Southern, Brittish, etc.). I also add a lot of slang expressions/words and they work quite well when spoken with accent.

Yes, but be careful. Most people do really sh**ty accents. Only use an accent if you can do a good one.

-Philip

Someone recently recommended the book and CD Mouth Sounds. I got it and it is wonderful. So I will recommend it to you.

I have always played around with accents (still doing them properly) and have started using it in my venting to give me a bigger range of voices or characters.

I find doing bad imitations of stars makes for a great comic character voice. My bear uses a voice somewhat like that of John Wayne. People immediately identify what he's doing and get a kick out of the fact he isn't that good at it.

Yep...and that's essentially the secret of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters. Yogi Bear is pretty much a bad imitation of Art Carney...and so forth!

-Philip