Having difficulty adding a voice or character to puppets any tips

Sit with your puppet in front of a mirror and just start playing with him or her to see what you come up with. It also helps to have a back story or history for your puppet. Knowing where your puppet was born and lives can help. If he was born in America then he would have an American accent (well one of the many) and the same would be said if they where born in England or another country. I used England simply because it is common for folks to try and imitate a British accent.   Young, old or male or female helps to determine the voice. So you see making up a history can help! Start with the basics that are easy and you can build on that.

Thanks Shawn will try the mirror and also hooking up my video camera to monitor so I can play it back.

It might also depend on the use of the puppet. If there is a desire for the puppet to be at all comedic, you might look to see how to voice the puppet in a very different direction than what might be expected. I have a flower puppet that has a deep, Texas drawl, because I would expect a flower to have a high pitched voice (which I can't do.) His self-introduction is usually, "Howdy, my name is Pillsbury. Pillsbury Flower. My folks were a mite confused when I sprouted." (To our members of nations outside the U.S., Pillsbury is a company that sells flour for baking, here in the U.s.)

A bizarre, alien-looking type character might have a richly cultured British accent, just for the unexpectedness of it.

"Howdy, my name is Pillsbury. Pillsbury Flower. My folks were a mite confused when I sprouted."

That is funny!

I suggest playing around with a whole range of voices for the puppet; high, low and all sorts of accents to see what fits. At some point the puppet will let you know what their voice should be.  Another tip is to work out a little bit of the character's background, this sometimes leads to a hint about what their voice should be.   For instance,  I'm working on a hyena puppet named 'Crunch', I already know he's from Brooklyn NY so the voice was not a problem to figure out.

Shunaka

Thanks for all the advice I really enjoy this site...I had two puppet shows the 24 and the 25 of oct. they were pretty good the kids were laughing and so were the adults but I think I still need to work on the voices.

You know you are good when the adults laugh. I am a copy cat, I try to copy voices I know like movie characters.  I use Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and I have to say "Excellent" a few times before a show to get into that voice again.  My best characters evolved with time and suggestions from other people, they each have a favorite catch phrase and a little back story that grows as they do. Children like repetition and things that are familiar to them with a few surprises thrown in, save your best for the big finish.

Snail, Glad you mentioned catch phrases.  They are a great way of getting into a characters voice. Often helps to find the right tone, pitch and inflection.