Why do we hate the sound of our own voice?!!!!

I've just finished doing something that I have never done before. Recording a voice over for a video. You would think that would be an easy job, after all, all I had to do was talk for 6 and a half minutes. OK, so it is reading a script and I did get told off for not following the script and also for not putting enough emphasis into my voice, but even so it should have been a doddle.

Which begs a couple of questions:

1   Why did it take 1 hour and 45 minutes? It is not as though I am recording an album. Our recording equipment is basic to say the least, but the microphone works fine, the sound is being recorded digitally, so no hiss or anything like that. The thing was, try as I might I just could not seem to get the words out properly.

2   Why did doing it make me nervous? I've done public speaking. I've got up and made speeches and not had so much as a hint of nervousness. Never a stumble, totally flawless. And yet sit down in a room with headphones on and no one else there, and as soon as the little red light comes on I feel like a condemned man being led from his cell to the gallows. It is the last place I want to be, the butterflies in my stomach have turned to frogs, very active frogs, and I cannot hold the script without shaking. As for getting my words wrong, well we won't even go there!!!!

The answer to these questions is, I think, very simple. I hate the sound of my own voice. And the fact that it is being recorded, with every stutter and mistake being saved for posterity, just makes matters worse. I am not alone. I know lots of people who hate the sound of their own voice. Which is a tad irrational if you think about it. After all, we spend hours talking to others without thinking about how our own voices sound. Never once when holding a conversation with someone have I thought "I hope my voice sounds OK". I've adjusted the volume, or maybe put a bit of emphasis into what I was saying, or even added an accent for effect, but the overall general sound of my voice has never been a consideration for me.

The answer, I'm told, is to relax, be natural, forget that the voice is being recorded and just be yourself. I was told by my wife, she who guides me in all things and is seldom wrong, to think about it rather like I might think about going on a date. Don't be nervous, be natural, be yourself. That's all well and good, but it is 37 years since I last went on a date, and then I was too frightened to speak. Not that I told her that. I think she just thought I was a bit shy, although she's long since discovered that is not the case.

So I tried today, I really tried, to do a good job. The result I find slightly comical. My voice has a slightly over the top edge to it. In fact it sounds a bit false, like one of those fifties travel programs. Anyway,  judge for yourself, because the video is now on You Tube, and I've embedded it below. And depending upon the reaction I'll decide whether to do any more with voiceover, or stick to putting captions on the bottom of the footage.