Doing gravelly voices for a long time; how?

[Buck-Beaver]

Taking voice workshops - the kind intended specifically for people who do character voices and voice over work - has been on my long term to do list for awhile. I think there are a lot of techniques to help you cope and avoid injuring your vocal cords but I don't know what thet are.

 

[scarylarrywolf]

Frank Oz admitted to this in the "An Evening with Jim Henson and Frank Oz" video between 9I believe) performing Cookie and Animal.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I heard Frank Oz make that complaint, too; and I think it was on the Eve w/ JH and FO tape.

I found a happy spot in my throat that it doesn't tear my throat up to do the gruff voices, like Cookie, but I can't explain really where it is...however, it still is a sore spot. I guess it's kind of in the throat below the adam's apple (?). That's where I pull my gruff voices from.

I like doing Muley's voice better, because it's just my voice but higher pitched (like you'd expect to hear an adult sounding like a kid).

 

[ScrapsFlippy]

2. Spend all day working on your tax return
1. There's this concept I ran across in the works of Arthur Lessac (a voice and diction instructor from some big ivy-league school who wrote a killer textbook called "The Use and Training of the Human Voice" .) The idea is that your voice can "originate" from different points in your body: The front of your mouth, mid-mouth, throat, stomache, etc. When I do my sort-of-lousy impressions of Cookie monster, Rowlf, etc., my gravelly voice originates at the back of my throat. Not to be gross, but it helps if I'm a little phlegmmy, too.

It will tear the dickens out of your throat. For a sore throat, I chomp on black licorice made with real licorice root. Someone once told me that it was a homeopathic remedy, and I'm into that sort of thing. Even if it's not actually helpful, I like black licorice, so at least it makes me happy.

--Scraps

 

[Puppetplanet]

Black licorice..... Blah!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

If you eat a lot of black licorice, next time you see it it's green.