VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

Deirdre

I read this article today on Study Hacks—

Flow is the Opiate of the Mediocre: Advice on Getting Better from an Accomplished Piano Player
(He's got "mediocre" spelled wrong in the title on his page, let's give it a pass.)

Strategy #1: Avoid Flow. Do What Does Not Come Easy.

Strategy #2: To Master a Skill, Master Something Harder.

Strategy #3: Systematically Eliminate Weakness.

Strategy #4: Create Beauty, Don’t Avoid Ugliness.

Even though these strategies are written from the standpoint of becoming a better musician, performance is PERFORMANCE— and that's what we do.

Happy New Year to all.
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bobsouer · Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 12:45 pm Post subject:

Deirdre,

Fascinating, and the original article on which that one was based, is equally interesting.

Applying these ideas to our world of voiceover, it's little surprise that our mutual friend Mr. Banks leads such a relaxed life much of the time; which many of us who only dream of his success put in far more hours of stress and effort with much less effect.
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Chuck Davis · Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 2:30 pm Post subject:

That feels a little like my mantra for the past year. "Stray from your comfort zone....often".

Seem's to be working.
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Philip Banks · Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 3:45 pm Post subject:

If one follows the mediocre then at best the level of mediocrity will be equalled. The alternative is to set impossibly high standards which one consistently fails to reach yet the path to failure takes (in our case) the VO higher and higher.

I don't want to be the next Don La Fontaine I want to be the first Philip Banks. It's easier but harder and a work in progress.

Mike Harrison · Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 5:53 pm Post subject:

Deirdre · Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 6:26 pm Post subject:

Once you settle for less than you deserve, you end up with less than you settled for.

(credited to Maureen Dowd)
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Jen Gosnell · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 1:56 am Post subject:

I like this from the first article linked:

ccpetersen · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 9:44 am Post subject:

That "strong pianists" visualizing the performance is actually good on many levels.

melissa eX · Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 1:20 pm Post subject:

voicy1stef · Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 4:18 am Post subject:

Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's true, visualisation works both ways. Thanks for helping us to keep it positive, and press on to move out of the comfort zone and keep training, learning and improving.
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Larissa Gallagher · Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:39 am Post subject:

Just read a great book Moonwalking with Einstein that has a chapter called "The OK Plateau" that addresses this.

There are apparently 3 stages of learning.
First: the 'cognitive stage' - intellectualizing the task and discovering new strategies to accomplish it more proficiently
Second: the 'associative stage" - concentrating less, making fewer major errors and generally becoming more efficient
Third: the 'autonomous stage' - where you lose conscious control over what you are doing.
Most of the time this is a good thing (e.g. getting dressed in the morning!) - the less you focus on the repetitive tasks, the more you can concentrate on the stuff that matters, the stuff you haven't seen before.

HOWEVER, with specialized endeavors "what separates experts form the rest of us is that ... They develop strategies for consciously keeping out of the 'autonomous stage' while they practice doing three things: focusing on their technique, staying goal-oriented and getting constant and immediate feedback on their performance. In other words, they force themselves to stay in the 'cognitive phase'."

What I also loved about this, is that while a lot of us know the importance of pushing ourselves and practicing out of our comfort zone, most of us do it in private in the safety of our practice/rehearsal time. Find a coach/mentor and be prepared to fail in front of them.

As a voice teacher of mine once said, "Get out there and do it - if you're going to F*** it up ... F*** it up gloriously!!" ... she wasn't a delicate lady Wink

Philip Banks · Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 8:55 am Post subject:

Having the confidence to do something which may leave us looking complete eejits in the eyes of others is an A-Lister character trait. Master that and the world is your pink knitted toilet roll holder.