Anyone in the voiceover business is usually thinking one thing at all times: “How can I book more voiceover auditions?” I addressed that question in a very broad way, meaning with a right brain and also left brain answer. According to the theory of left-brain versus right-brain dominance, a left-brainer is said to more logical, analytical, and objective, while a right-brainer is more intuitive, thoughtful, and subjective. To understand your own processes even better, here’s a bit more detail:
The left brain is thought to excel at tasks such as language, logic, critical thinking, numbers, and reasoning. Task mastery associated with the right brain includes recognizing faces, expressing/reading emotions, music, color, images, and creativity. The most recent research says this dichotomous way of thinking has been exaggerated, and that activities such as math, which seem traditionally to be left-brain associated, are most successful when both halves of the brain work in unison. I have no doubt that many geniuses of our time have been the ones to join together these two skill sets and create masterpieces of thought, machinery, science, art, etc… I also believe that we have access to both. There still exists the possibility however, that we prefer one over the other, and lean on it more. Understanding which we excel at can enable us to work better at coming at voiceover technique from the right angle, and can also allow us to work on the other side of our brain to later join forces with it. To better understand these concepts you can read up more on it through this left/right brain thinking article.
I have found that while both are important, I am most successful in coaching voiceover students if I understand right now which side of the brain they lean on more. If it’s right brain, we may use scenarios: who are you talking to?, where are you talking to them?, what are you wearing?, how do you feel about this subject?, etc…. If it’s left brain, I might tell them exactly where to put a high inflection note, or we might analyze the exact meaning of a sentence and which words specifically make its point stronger. I invite you to discover which you are and start playing with that angle. That’s the start. When you’ve got the ball rolling you can then work on that other side of your brain. As for me, well, I’m happy to let my husband do the math for now.