There’s something about sharing secrets that makes the act simply devious. Don’t you agree? Naturally, it’s always done either in a hushed tone or through whispers. We whisper when we don’t want to share certain information with everybody. But whispering is actually one of the most attention grabbing methods of communicating.
Of course, shouting may draw way more attention but whispers come with a better shelf life. In fact, theories suggest that whispered messages are more likely to be retained in our memories. Shouting, on the other hand, helps us remember only the event or the person associated with it. In fact, we develop a negative perception about the individual shouting.
So, whispering is a much better way of communicating information. Here are a few ways in which you can incorporate whispering into your audio/video production as part of your voiceover recordings.
Make the most of human psychology
Gossiping is a bad habit but it is also an irresistible one for most people. There is a connection between gossiping and whispering. So when you whisper, people are bound to get interested because they associate it with secrets. In fact, lowering one’s voice to a whisper can be a great strategy if you want to attract the curiosity of a listener. By whispering information in the right manner, you can convince your audience that you’re sharing information specifically with them.
Get attention quick
When we listen to audio, whether it is in the form of music or speech, we expect to hear things at a suitable volume. We are used to having an established tolerance level for sound under specific circumstances. In fact, there’s a reason why we’re told to modulate our sound levels when speaking in certain situations.
That is why our immediate reaction to anything overtly loud is to get away from it. On the other hand, a whisper gets our attention almost immediately. We even put in a little extra effort to make sure we can hear everything.
Show confidence
If you were presented with two speakers – one who shouts the message and the other who whispers the message – which one would you consider to be more confident?
It’s obviously the one who speaks with a clear, steady, and soft spoken tone. A voice that relies on theatrics and noise to convince people is unreliable. That’s the kind of effect that whispering has.
As they say, the ones who shout are the ones desperately looking for validation.
ABOUT ROBERTA –
Roberta is a Professional AND award Winning International Voiceover Actor, as well as an accomplished on-camera actress and spokesperson. She lives in the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area and is the owner of Roberta Kennedy Voice Talent and RK Productions, Inc.
She voices for companies around the world using her state of the art, broadcast quality studio. She’s hired for commercials, web demos and explainer videos, product infomercials, documentaries, promo/imaging, political ads, e-learning videos, podcasts, guided real estate tours, telephony/IVR projects, high profile corporate presentations, video games and character animation.
Her voice is described as: playful, contemporary, compelling, commanding, inviting, sultry and smooth. A hip edge with sophistication, bold, warm, interesting and engaging are also commonly used adjectives to describe her voice.
Her home studio is equipped with ipDTL, ISDN and phone patch capability with lightning fast turnaround times! A voiceover talent with over 20 years of voiceover acting experience, she offers a full range of voiceover services at highly competitive rates & will work with your budget to help you promote your business to new levels of excellence!
To request a personal quote or audition and/or to review more of her credits & demos, feel free to visit the Contact Page – or mail her at roberta@robertakennedy.com. You can even give her a call on (408) 313-7202.