What is Vocal Sibilance and How To Get Rid of It

hey guys it's Gabby and so today want to talk to you about something that is really important and kind of not so great what is it Zebulon why am over pronouncing my SS so think we all kind of know and understand or have been exposed to vocal fry' this nonsense thanks to the Kardashians really bad really bad counter last night last night deal honey back fall all around I'm gonna win it idea job marry dating means this is really becoming an issue for me for me for me American women have long been known for using glottal fry in the last probably 10 15 years or so and it's kind of this annoying habit letting the ends of your words kind of crinkle and as you're speaking and the Kardashians were really the ones who popularized it and unfortunately there are generations of women now growing up in this country who glottal on the regular but there's another thing that's happening in American women's speech patterns that want to bring to your attention and it is sibilance the over pronouncing of s's in normal everyday speech it's noticeable but it's not quite the end of the world the problem is when we bring microphone into the picture microphones enhance sibilants and make it so much worse and you can have someone who in their normal everyday speech pattern doesn't sound terribly sibilant but when they get on mic boy does it become obvious and voiceover career can really be kind of broken right then and there if someone can't get sibilance problem under control so what are some of the things that you can do if you suspect that you might be sibilant yeah don't like the way that sounds be careful not to select bright microphone things with lot of high end that take out lot of the bass in someone's sound are gonna really enhance sibilants so will certain preamps and other pieces of equipment so you have to choose very very wisely the biggest challenge with sibilance is learning how to reduce it and fix it in your speech pattern biggest thing is where you put your tongue in your mouth when you pronounce the word with an where is your tongue falling if it's touching your front teeth or it's coming really in close contact with the teeth at the front of your mouth or the top of your palate that is part of what's along gating that sound just like when we say snake and we try to make this note where your tongue is when you make an sound like that when you make the snaky sound and determine do need to back it up in my palate do need to move my tongue backward little bit and not force the air so much through my teeth sometimes just the act of opening your mouth more when you speak and not keeping it so closed and tight can help to reduce sibilance lot there are also great tricks that you can do with cork and with pencil to work on diction and enunciation James all Berger's book the art of voice acting has whole section that gets into the how-tos of improving your enunciation and those things can be really helpful and if all else fails please consult with speech pathologist and possibly even speech therapist because they are going to be able to really help you to retrain how you're saying those words and make them much more palatable for your voiceover career and for use on mic thanks for watching my video guys if you want to know more about me please make sure to check out my website Gabrielle mystic calm there's all kinds of information there about how you can work with me on coaching and might even be able to help you if you feel like you're suffering from little bit of sibilance in your voice career currently or if you're just wanting to know more about some of the speech patterns that can make or break voiceover career you