I had my first VO class. It went… ok

Last night, I had my first voice over class. I recently joined the Global Voice Acting Academy (GVAA), and this was the first workout available, so I wanted to jump right in. It was a class on breathing, a subject I know a lot about, but there is always more to learn, and I was curious how it was discussed and applied to voice over. It was a great class.

Near the end, we read a Shakespeare sonnet. Basically, we were to read it through as far as we could on one breath, ignoring punctuation and, as I assumed, the meaning. So I did. I read it without meaning or stress and with a constant voice—basically just connected sounds. I figured it was purely a breathing exercise.

But that wasn’t quite the assignment. There was still supposed to be understanding. The point was that Shakespeare is so good that you can basically breathe anywhere and it still has meaning.

A chill ran down my spine from embarrassment and self-judgement. I felt like a college freshman singing in my first studio class and just making a fool of myself in front of all the upperclassmen.

The class ended at 8, and that feeling stuck with me as I went to bed. I was afraid of how I’d feel in the morning. Would I feel discouraged?

Fortunately, it didn’t feel as bad when I woke up. Once I was moderately conscious, I did the dumb thing where I pointedly reminded myself of what I had felt. But it wasn’t as cutting as I had feared.

So I guess I can shift my perspective to: this was my first class, and I got my crappy first read in front of my peers out of the way early. It was a low-stakes situation, and I’m sure everyone in this situation has had a similar experience. I ripped that bandaid off, perhaps inadvertently, and the sting is going down.

I don’t want to say “it can only go up from here!” for a couple reasons. One, I’m sure it wasn’t nearly as bad as it felt. And two, there isn’t enough wood nearby for me to knock on!

And let’s be real, it probably wasn’t all that bad anyways 😅