How to Do an Old Woman Voice

pitch

Slightly lower than a younger adult female voice, with lifts on surprise or delight.

pace

Unhurried, with thoughtful pauses and the occasional quick, chatty burst.

resonance

Either warm and rounded (kindly) or thin and nasal (fussy or stern).

texture

A touch of breath and a light quaver on sustained vowels.

signature

Soft consonants, an affectionate or pointed tone and small breathy laughs between phrases.

1. Choose warm or sharp. Decide whether she is kindly, stern, mischievous or fussy. Kindly characters use rounded lips and a soft smile; sharp ones tighten the lips and add a little nasal twang.
2. Settle the pitch. Women's speaking pitch tends to drop slightly with age. Try a note or two below your usual speaking pitch. If you already speak low, keep your pitch and remove some of the chest weight instead.
3. Loosen the articulation. Let the jaw and lips relax so consonants soften. Don't mumble; just take the hard edges off.
4. Add breath and a light wobble. Let a little air into the tone and pulse your breath gently on held vowels: 'Oh, my dear, that's lovely.' Keep the quaver small and occasional.
5. Use little sounds. Tuts, small sighs, a soft 'mm' of agreement or a breathy chuckle make the character feel lived-in. They also give you natural places to breathe.
6. Vary the energy. Older characters can be quick and lively. Let her speed up when she's gossiping or excited, then slow down for advice and memories.

Read these with the voice, then record yourself and listen back. The teleprompter below scrolls through all of them.

• Oh, look at you, all grown up. Come here and let me see that face.
• I've been making this soup for sixty years. Don't you dare add salt.
• Mm-hm. And who taught you to fold a towel like that? Not me, I hope.
• Your grandfather proposed on that bench. He dropped the ring in the pond first.
• Don't tell me I'm too old for a motorbike. I'll tell you when I'm too old.
• Tsk. That garden won't weed itself, and my back retired years ago.
• Sit, dear. The kettle's on, and you look like you need a biscuit and a good cry.
• I may be slow, but I always know exactly where the remote is.
• In the dance halls, they used to call me Quickstep Mary. Ask me why.
• Now, I won't say I told you so. I'll just think it very loudly.

• Using a high, shrill falsetto. Most older women's voices drift lower, not higher.
• Adding wobble to every word, which turns the character into a caricature.
• Forgetting personality. 'Old' isn't a character; a grandmother who cheats at cards is.
• Mumbling so much that the lines are hard to follow. Soften consonants without losing them.

Breathy, wobbly tones dry the voice, so sip water often and rest between takes. Make the quaver with gentle pulses of breath rather than throat tension, and keep any nasal twang light. If you feel squeezing in the throat or the voice turns scratchy, go back to your natural voice for a minute and reset.

Try the voice in a dubbing scene, roll a random prompt, or warm up first with the vocal warm-up.