The stuff they said about musicality was really helpful to me, because it just seems super easy now to take what I know about singing and then put that directly into character voices.

I've heard that Swedish people don't care much one way or the other about people trying to fake their accent.

I've heard that Swedish people don't care much one way or the other about people trying to fake their accent.

This person of Norwegian ancestry certainly doesn't mind folks faking a Swedish accent, lol. I think you are right, I've not heard of a Scandinavian Liberation Front fighting for the dignity of Scandihoovians everywhere. Certainly in your neck of the woods there is no shortage of folks with that ancestry. If folks were likely to object, you would have heard about it by now.

Indeed, people here just seem delighted anytime something Scandinavian, Norwegian, etc comes up. I'm also under the impression that everyone loves the Swedish Chef, no matter where they're from.

Fantastic thread! Great advice so far, guys. One more thing worth remembering is that a little alcohol really loosens your inhibitions and can help you overcome this initial hurdle until you become more familiar with your character's voice. Get a friend over, pop open some whisky and let it fly. Once you're both sufficiently 'warmed up', just leave the mic running. Get him/her to join in with your silly voices, impressions of celebrities, cartoon characters (the Azaria, Castellaneta and Shearer characters on The Simpsons are excellent places to start. Ones like Mr Burns and Chief Wiggum are some of the easier ones, and all come with a library of fantastic quotes and Youtube-clips for reference that are virtually guaranteed to make you laugh, which again is important to loosening up). As you go along in your session listen back to yourselves every now and then, you'll be amazed at what comes out. Hone in on the funny bits, the bits where you were really 'zinging' and then just continue to develop those lines, in those voices, soon it'll go off in its own direction through your puppet and it'll be talking and telling its own stories. Allow yourself to ad-lib complete nonsense. Your puppet can get 'drunk' too. He can say things you never would. Go with it.

I really don't like to be critical in the middle of an otherwise positive thread, but this comment really needs to be called out. I'm sure your advice is well intentioned, but this is a terrible idea. Please, no one use this approach.

I've never worked in a professional environment where it was acceptable to do this or known a talented performer who legitimately had to rely on alcohol to be creative or "warm up". I have met people who thought they did, but they were actually suffering from alcoholism, or had personal issues they weren't confronting, or both. Performing and voice work is a craft and the people who do it well rely on discipline, even when they're being silly or zany. While it's true alcohol lowers your inhibitions, it also impairs your judgement and interferes with your timing, reflexes and ability to concentrate. Trust me, you're never as funny as you think you are when you're drunk.

If someone wants to hang out with their friends, get loaded and make silly voices to have fun, by all means. However, if your goal is to be a serious entertainer and work professionally, learn to do it without alcohol.

On the subject of accents, I don't have a wide vocal range myself, but if you are going to learn to accents I think it's really helpful to learn to do them authentically. Chris mentioned above that people sometimes become offended by accents and I believe that's partially because the person doing the accent often butchers it and has little proper understanding of it. They're doing a caricature rather than a character and haven't taken the time to know or understand the difference.

For example, there isn't really such a thing as a standard English accent. When we talk about an English accent what we're usually referring to is received pronunciation, which is a non-regional British accent that's derived from London English that most of us know from movies and television. There are hundreds of accents and dialects in Britain like Cockney, Midlands, Southwest, Geordie, Welsh, Scottish, etc. Most people outside the UK have trouble distinguishing between these or don't even know that they exist because we don't encounter them on a regular basis.

German is another example. My father used to tell me about moving from Canada to Germany in the 1960s and being teased by Germans because he spoke High German (sometimes called Standard German), which is a very formal German dialect that is taught in schools and heard on television. Most Germans speak some form of Low German in their day-to-day life, so talking to my father on the street was a bit like meeting a person in New York who speaks in Shakespearean English. Another example is that supposedly when Star Trek was first brought to Germany no one watched it because someone - probably with a poor understanding of German - had it dubbed in High German. Eventually it became really popular after it was redubbed in Low German to make it more accessible and relatable to a German audience.

While I don't personally believe that an accent has to be authentic when you do a character, I do believe its authenticity should be a deliberate choice, rather than being done in ignorance just because a performer doesn't know any better.

This is one of my favourite YouTube videos about dialects:

Oh he is good! We found a catch phrase for our voice that would get our mouth and brain into the puppet voice mode. Like Bugs bunny saying Ehhh What's up doc? For Cary Grant Judy, Judy, Judy. For my favorite puppet voice I used Bill and Ted's excellent adventures "EXCELLENT!" several times before the show and then my voice would be up in back of my nose where it needed to be. I confess I talk like my puppet all thru the week when no one is looking, not for practice, I just miss him.

I confess I talk like my puppet all thru the week when no one is looking, not for practice, I just miss him.

Too funny!

I really don't like to be critical in the middle of an otherwise positive thread, but this comment really needs to be called out. I'm sure your advice is well intentioned, but this is a terrible idea. Please, no one use this approach.
...
If someone wants to hang out with their friends, get loaded and make silly voices to have fun, by all means. However, if your goal is to be a serious entertainer and work professionally, learn to do it without alcohol.

Ouch! That comment hurts twice as hard what with also having to deal with this throbbing Tuesday afternoon hangover...

There is a book called Entrenamiento del titiritero (Puppeteer training) ISBN968-7881-26-7, by the Mexican pupeteer Carlos Converso As far as I know, it is in Spanish, and there is no English version. I would say it is focussed in manipulation of glove and rod puppets, but it can be helpful

Too funny!

Sounds like a good practice! I find Cadaver Dave is a great puppet to talk to our cat with, so I do that sometimes. I also occasionally have sat and watched films with him, making commentary. It's fun and good practice. :D