Are you one of the podcasters who are conscious of their voices while they record a podcast? Needless to say, most podcasters go through the same hassle, and nothing beats a good vocal warm-up before you hit the record button for your podcasts! So today, let’s discuss some fantastic voice exercises for podcasters that will help warm up your voice and sound crystal clear and energetic for your audience! Let’s get started!
Why Is Your Voice Important?
Apart from your scripts, recording, editing, and everything related to podcasting, your voice is a prime foundation for a successful podcast.
If you do not have a clear and energetic voice, the vibe of the podcast will be hampered, resulting in poor delivery of your podcast content. If your health and the quality of your voice are affected due to any unforeseen issues, your confidence may drop, you may sound boring, and your listeners may just unsubscribe you right away!
The stakes are high here! Hence, your voice is one of the key elements in creating a high-quality podcast and engaging with your listeners.
How To Do A Vocal Warm-Up Before Recording?
Just like you warm up before your workout session, for smooth, injury-free, and optimum performance, your vocal cords need the same care, too, before you start recording a podcast. Your vocal cords primarily consist of two folds of the mucus membrane, which is right over your larynx. With these simple voice exercises for podcasters, you can easily warm up your voice to create stellar podcasts! Let’s check them out in detail.
Lip Bubble
This vocal exercise for podcasters is very similar to blowing raspberries as a kid.
Here’s the process:
- Step 1: Place your fingers on your cheeks right beside your lips
- Step 2: Try relaxing your mouth and jaws gradually.
- Step 3: Make a subtle blow like you used to do to raspberries without making any noise. Keep the pace intact as long as you do not disrupt the airflow.
- Step 4: Add the ‘aah’ sound to make it more efficient.
This vocal exercise will help in releasing the vocal tension before you start recording your podcast!
Body Stretch
Body stretches are perfect for releasing that extra tension in your muscle joints which tend to make you stiff. The stiffness can affect your voice and is very evident when you speak into the mic. A few side stretches can fix this. Check it out below!
- Step 1: Keep your feet apart at your hip-width distance.
- Step 2: Raise your hands upwards and stretch them. Slowly take a deep breath.
- Step 3: Exhale and lean towards your left slowly. Hold this exact position for at least two to five seconds.
- Step 4: Inhale gradually again.
- Step 5: As you exhale, move back to the same position slowly. Repeat the same on the other side as well.
Tongue Roll Exercise
Ever noticed the purring sound that cats make? Of course, you have! The tongue rolls vocal exercise is pretty similar to this. You need to just roll your tongue and make that purring sound or even near to that.
Most people do not make the ‘R’ sound. The tongue roll exercise can help to master that sound and make your podcast pitch perfect!
Tongue Twisters
If you start jabbering your script in your podcasts without even clearly pronouncing every word, there is pretty much no reason why your listeners will hang on to you till the end of the episode! You will not be able to convey your words in the right way.
This is when the good old tongue twisters, the favorite game of almost every kid, come into the picture! Every podcaster should practice at least one tongue twister every day to keep their pronunciation pristine!
You can find out a myriad of tongue twisters on the internet. Here are some examples for you:
How many cookies could a good cook if a good cook could cook cookies? A good cook could cook as many cookies as a good cook who could cook cookies!
Or
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked
Or
She sells seashells by the seashore!
Yawning
Yawning is an incredible way to relax your throat and release the tension in your vocal cords. However, this is not your regular yawning. Here’s how you do the yawn-sigh exercise:
- Step 1: Open your mouth like you do to yawn regularly
- Step 2: Move your voice gradually right from the highest point of the range to the lowest point./
- Step 3: Repeat this a few times, and you are good to go!
Effective 10 Minutes Vocal Warm-Up
Now you might be wondering how to incorporate all of these vocal exercises into your routine. Well, the best way to make the most out of these vocal exercises is to practice them regularly.
Do each exercise for about 30-40 seconds and move to the next one. Keep about 3 rounds for every warm-up exercise, and this will take you less than 10 minutes to clear out your vocal cords and get your recording voice ready!
The Importance Of Posture
These vocal exercises are excellent to warm up your voice and improve it for recording. However, many other crucial factors determine the voice quality of your podcasts that are often overlooked, such as your posture!
Even though you may never pay enough attention to your posture, it is imperative to bring out the best in your vocals while recording a podcast.
Ideally, the best posture while recording a podcast is to stand up, which is certainly not possible every time. It may constrict the natural flow of your voice if you keep standing for hours and hours.
Hence, you can sit down comfortably and try out these tips to improve your posture while recording your podcasts! Check them out here.
Tip #1 Warm Up Your Body!
Just like you warmed up your vocal cords before, you also need to warm up your body to have a sense of comfort and peace while recording your podcasts!
You don’t want to struggle with muscle tension or strained muscles while talking into the mic! Here’s a quick routine that can help you quickly warm up your body!
- Step 1: Place your arms high towards the ceiling and stretch it for about 5 seconds.
- Step 2: Shake your arms and shoulders to loosen up a bit.
- Step 3: Move your legs sideways or front and back to loosen up
- Step 4: Jump lightly. Ensure to land very softly to prevent hurting your legs.
- Step 5: Stretch your arms behind you and loosen up your shoulders gradually.
This quick warm-up routine is perfect for loosening out any stress within your body and keeping the nervousness levels lower before you start recording.
Ensure to keep breathing slowly and steadily. Be very aware of every breath. This will also help in improving your overall concentration while you sit for your podcast recording.
Tip #2 Relax While You Sit
As simple as it may sound, most podcasters tend to sit very uncomfortably to adjust to the mic. Sure, you need to have a safe distance between your mouth and the mic; you also need to ensure that you are sitting comfortably and relaxing while you are speaking into the mic.
Keep your head straight up, comfortably place your arms on either side of the sofa or chair wherever you are sitting, and relax.
This will instantly bring back your confidence and the flow of the conversation while interacting with your audience over your podcast.
Tip #3 Relax The Tension In Your Body
While warming up your body and vocal cords helps you, this will take the levels even higher by focusing on the stress on your shoulder, neck, and chest regions.
Slightly massage these areas of the body before you start recording your podcast. Even better if you can arrange for a friend or family to give you a quick message beforehand to relax your muscles.
The Ideal Vocal Warm-Up Routine For Podcasters And Voice Artists
Now that we know everything you should do before you start recording your podcasts let’s check out an ideal everyday podcast routine. Feel free to tweak the routine and suit your interests.
Preparing Your Voice
Even if you are recording in a soundproof studio with the best quality mics, you must keep your voice prepared before you start recording. An unprepared voice will sound shaky, nervous, and underconfident, which is certainly not the most appealing to your audience.
Start your routine with the complete vocal warm-up and proceed to the posture tips that we mentioned right above.
Additionally, do multiple rehearsals with your script to check out the pronunciation, tone, pitch, and voice quality before the final recording.
It doesn’t matter how pro or experienced you are at podcasting. Rehearsals will help you feel much more confident on D-day and interact freely with your audience.
However, don’t just overdo your rehearsals and strain your vocal cords.
Sounding Fresh
If you just pulled an all-nighter for your project and worked more than 9 hours a day at your workplace, you are bound to sound tired, dull, and lifeless while podcasting!
You certainly do not need to quit whatever you do during the day. However, the smarter way here is to schedule your podcasts in a way that would give you ample time to rest and sound fresh to record your podcasts.
Here are some tips that might help you in sounding fresh for your podcasts!
- Always have a minimum of six to eight hours of sleep before the day of the recording. Have a very consistent sleeping schedule for the entire week.
- Don’t scream, yellow talk excessively with anybody. This can strain your vocal cords massively!
- Avoid drinking chilled beverages or water a few days before the day o recording your podcasts. Always opt for room-temperature water to keep your vocal cords stable.
- Stay hydrated every day to prevent dehydration while speaking on the podcasts.
Relax And Speak Naturally
A good quality podcast demands you to be stress-free and mentally clear with the script in your mind. You need to ditch every other tension you have in your life and focus only on the script and your audience!
Prevent thinking about the past and get your senses into the present moment.
Relax your mind and breath with awareness. Be very calm and composed. Act like you are just speaking to your friend and not your interviewer!
This will help you sound as flowy and organic as ever! Don’t try to be very commercial or perfect. Instead, be original and real while interacting with your audience.
Get Rid Of Stress
Your physical and mental stress is the ultimate hindrance to your way of recording a good-quality podcast. You should have a good work-life balance and ample sleep in your life. Also, a balanced diet will help you stay fresh and energetic throughout the duration!
You can also practice meditation a few minutes before your podcast recording to build focus and concentration. Even better if you practice it every day for at least fifteen minutes with your vocal and body warm-up exercises!
Get Rid Of Shaky Voice
Suppose your voice gets shaky while recording a podcast. In that case, you may sound underconfident and not knowledgeable enough to create the podcast on that particular topic which is a complete turnoff for your audience!
Stage fear is natural. But you need to overcome it gradually. Having a stress-free and relaxed mind and body will help eliminate the shakiness of your voice significantly.
If you feel your voice shaking in the middle of a recording, take a pause and breath slowly to calm down your mind.
Helping Your Nervous Guest Relax
If you are hosting a podcast interview, your guest may not be the most comfortable, especially if they are not very familiar with podcasting.
As a podcast host, you need to ensure that your guest is comfortable and relaxed during the entire duration.
Here are some tips for you:
- Don’t just bombard them with ideas or questions. Keep it slow and organic.
- Explain the complete recording process before starting it to help them get prepared for it.
- Assist them with the correct posture and the distance of the mouth from the microphone.
- Guide them with the vocal warm-up procedure
- Keep a bottle of water available near them so that they can take some sips in case they feel dry while talking.
- Take pauses during the duration to give them ample time to rest.
- Keep the pace slow and steady. Do not rush.
Final Thoughts
Improving your audio quality starts with making your voice pristine and confident! These vocal exercises for podcasters and posture tips can tremendously help to ease the tension and bring a consistent flow to your podcast. So get your scripts ready and start the warm-up exercises right away to release the stress and tension before you record your podcasts!
