The Beginner’s SIMPLE Guide to Voice Over Training

You’re brand new to voice over and you think you want to become a voice actor. So how do you get started?

Your first real step will be to start training, but in order to do that, you need to understand the various types of voice over training available and that’s what I’m going to guide you through today, so that you can choose the kind of training that’s right for you and your level of interest and budget.

I’ll go through the different types of training and how much they cost, including free sources of training.

But, let me be clear about one thing first. Voice over and voice acting, since the pandemic, is oversaturated in 2 ways – first there are more voice actors than ever before, and second, more untrained and undertrained voice actors than ever before.

From 2020 to 2022 massive numbers of people bought a USB mic, hopped on Fiverr, Voices, and Voice123 and called themselves a voice actor. The overwhelming majority never bothered to get proper training. As a result, the pay-to-plays and the freelancer sites are flooded with people who quite frankly suck. Bad performers producing bad audio.

Honestly, if you’ve cast anything recently using a pay-to-play, easily 50% of the audio is garbage. It wasn’t always like that, but welcome to the world we live in now.

My point is that if you ever intend to be a pro voice actor, that is to earn a professional wage and operating a profitable business doing the work, even when it’s part time, you absolutely must get proper training.

Why? To win work at pro rates, you will be competing with actors who have years, often decades of training. They have been honing their craft for years.

If that sounds daunting. I get it. It can be. But here’s the great thing: An inexperienced but well-trained voice actor can beat out a highly experienced and trained voice actor for any given job on any given day, and it happens more than you might think.

Notice I said inexperienced but well trained. That’s entirely different from an untrained or undertrained voice actor. Those don’t stand a chance. So if you think you’re just going to get a mic and recording space and “break into voiceover,” it’s just not gonna happen.

So training is your first step. Typically, most folk begin their training is two genres by default: commercial and narration. I’m honestly not sure why these are the defaults. Maybe because commercial training is a great way to learn script analysis, character breakdown, and acting, and corporate is a great way to hone skills that will generally result in being able to find good work early in your career.

But if you feel strongly that you do not want to begin training in theses genres… maybe you want to start in animation, or video games, or audiobooks, or something else, by all means, start where your passion lies. Any genre will challenge you, so make sure you choose genres that you’ll likely have fun in.

In broad strokes I think of the three levels of training like this: Private, 1:1 Coaching at the top, then group training, then free training. I’m going to break each one of those down for you starting at the bottom with…

Free Training

I honestly believe you get what you pay for, but in the internet age there are several sources of free training that do provide some benefit. One of the easiest and most prolific sources is YouTube.

If you’ve done any research on VO at all on YouTube, you’ve probably run across Voiceover Masterclass, by Peter Baker. The good news is, the training is free, the bad news is, well the training is free. If you start here, it’s not the worse place in the world, and you will get some benefits – you’ll learn some of the jargon of the trade, some basic techniques, and it’s nto the worst place in world to get your feet wet.

Secondly, there a several performance coaches who provide performance-based tips and tricks here on YouTube. The problem is, you have no way of knowing who is reputable and who isn’t. Who is simply trying to suck you in for an upsell and who is genuinely trying to provide helpful information.

I guess I should mention at this point, I don’t coach voice actors in performance, so I don’t have any agenda behind this video, it’s just my personal beliefs from being in the business as a full-time working voice actor.

Thirdly there is some free training available through learning platforms like Udemy and the like.

Fourth, there are peer workout groups. Some of these are paid, but many are free. You can find these in some of the voice over Facebook Groups, Discord servers, and such. Peer workout groups can be helpful in making you a better performer because you are getting objective third-party feedback. The problem with peer groups, especially when you’re new, is that the feedback you get may or may not be correct, helpful, or actionable.

And finally, some private coaches occasionally offer free webinars or workshops as a way for beginners to sample their coaching, see that it’s like to work with them, and consider training with them privately down the road.

I will say this about all free training, again, probably not the worst places to start and you’ll likely get some value, but if you think you’re going to take an online course, or a webinar, or a weekend workshop in voice over and it will make you a competitive voice actor, you’re sadly, horribly mistaken.

The second major category of voice over training is…

Group Training

which generally breaks into two subtypes: Webinars and workshops, and Group Classes.

Group webinars and workshops can be a great way to sample coaches you’ve never worked with. To find out what a coach’s style is and if they have a vibe that resonates with you. One great source of peer workouts is the LIVO (short for Long Island VO) Takeover Group, which runs monthly paid but affordable peer workouts. You don’t have to live in or near New York as the workouts are on Zoom, and I’ll put the link in the description.

While many webinars are paid, a few are free. Regardless, carry in a healthy skepticism because there will usually be a sales pitch involved.

That doesn’t mean that that coach is necessarily sleazy, but just do your research and vet each coach before you commit to training with them privately and spending a significant investment. Well, Paul, just how do I go about doing that research? So glad you asked, I did a whole video about that very topic right here.

Some coaches also offer group classes. For example, Universal Voice Training offers group classes that you can either enroll in separately, or as part of one of their packages. The advantage of group classes is that they are cheaper than private coaching, and if you fully engage and listen while other people are reading and getting coached, you can extract a lot of great training.

Because group classes are cheaper, you can likely afford to take them more often, say weekly or biweekly, as opposed to private training, which you may do less often to help balance costs.

And finally, we have…

Private 1-on-1 Training

To me, there is no substitute. Training 1:1 with a reputable coach is the single best way to become a really good, great, or elite voice actor. This is where you will get objective, actionable feedback from a qualified coach, which you can then apply through purposeful practice, both in session and between sessions, to improve.

Private training is so much more effective than free training because it’s that highly-qualified, third-party feedback that accelerates your learning and development as a performer. A good private coach’s ears have much more experience and are significantly more finely tuned than even the most well-meaning peers in a workout group.

Now private training investment varies. Reputable 1:1 coaching generally starts about $100 - $125 an hour, all the way up to $200 or more for the best in the business.

Finally, when you’re just starting out, I recommend starting with group classes or lower cost private training. You may get 6 sessions in and decide voice acting isn’t right for you. You may discover you don’t have the passion or the talent or the drive. That’s fine. No need to sink a ton of money into training from the jump.

Today, we dove deep into training, which is just one of the steps in getting into the VO business. To get my free e-book, 7 Steps to Starting and Developing a Career in Voice Over, click the link in the description, and visit VOPro.pro to get information on the VO Pro Education Community and my Move Touch Inspire Newsletter for Voice Actors every Thursday.

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I am deeply grateful for your support and we’ll see ya again here soon. Thanks for watching and listening.