Being Yourself
According to countless elderly women, I’ve got a voice for radio. Something about a deep voice that drones on like a congested furnace just makes people want to listen to it. Unfortunately, the target audience for my videos isn’t exactly composed of old folks or radio listeners, but I’ll take what I can get. I’ve also been told I sound like some YouTuber no one seems to remember, and I guess that’s a compliment.
With this video, I’ve begun experimenting with what I can do with this low voice of mine. Mainly, I try to sound just like I do in everyday conversation. In my day-to-day life pretending to be human, I rarely stick to my low octave and bop between different tones and lilts and other synonyms for vocal things. My current “YouTube voice” is most like how I sound when I’m teaching something to others. It carries that pedantic air to it that’s trying desperately to not sound pedantic.
I don’t quite sound like myself yet, but I’m getting there. My sarcasm, self-deprecation, and pessimism have done well to ease me into being myself, yet so far, these traits have also shown that I’m little more than piss and vinegar. Part of my struggle comes from talking to myself and only myself. When I’m with others, I become more animated. I mimic people; I can play off of their comments; and I can shut up when I’m not funny. In the desolating silence that is a YouTube video, I have no one to work with but me. I have my partner who occasionally grimaces and shudders when I make bad jokes, but she doesn’t like me referencing her, so I’ll have to stop using her as a crutch eventually.
At the very least, this video came out without audio or video issues. Be it a fluke or some magic I happened to make, I’ll just appreciate that I got a solid video out of it all. The audio overall is quiet, so I can certainly bump that up in the future as long as don’t scream into the microphone. I don’t quite trust my impulses to make any promises yet.
Anyway, screw the introspection. If you have any thoughts, hit me.