In this video, I am sharing 5 tips on how to improve your strained speaking voice and
find more vocal freedom.
Let’s start.
Hi!
I am Katarina, speech language pathologist and here on this channel, I share practical
tips about using your voice in a healthy way.
So, if this is a topic that interests you, consider subscribing to this channel and hitting
that bell notification icon so that you don’t miss any of my future videos.
There are several methods to improve your strained voice.
I’ve worked with many clients from all over the world and I know that different approaches
work for different people.
In this video, I am going to share 5 tips and hopefully you can find one tip that works
for you.
Tip #1 Listen to your body
If your voice feels strained or tired after you use it, your voice is telling you that
something is not quite right.
Your voice is telling you that you need to stop and change the way you use your voice
to avoid vocal fatigue, tension or even pain.
And the first step to changing “something” is awareness.
Ask yourself: What am I doing that causes my voice to get tired easily or hoarse or
strained?
I found that many people can improve their voice just by being more aware of what their
voice is doing.
In our coaching program where we work towards finding more vocal freedom, I often hear the
members say: I am just more aware of my posture, or I am just more aware of how loud I talk,
or I am more aware of my tongue.
Yes, there are a lot of parts that can contribute to vocal strain, it’s not just the vocal
folds.
For example, if your habitual posture is poor, your voice will suffer.
If your breathing is shallow, your voice will be weak.
If you hold tension in your jaw, that will affect your articulation and the vocal function.
So, when you feel strain in your voice, stop and think.
Where do I feel the tension - is it in my neck, throat, shoulders, chest, tongue, jaw
or somewhere else?
If you find that place, ask another question: what can I change to release that tension
or even better, what can I do to prevent that tension?
Maybe a little bit of massage, maybe some kind of movement, maybe a vocal exercise that
releases tension.
Maybe you need to be more aware of how you align your body throughout the day or maybe
you need to become aware of the environment - is it loud so that you have to raise your
voice constantly to be heard, which causes strain?
Become aware of the signals that the body is sending you and start changing the way
you use your voice.
If you are experiencing vocal strain, tension or even pain when speaking, and you are ready
to work towards a free, strong and confident voice, you can apply to our Vocal Freedom
System coaching program.
Check out the links in the description below this video.
Tip #2 Warm up your voice
All athletes warm up their muscles before they practice or compete.
All athletes, including amateurs and professionals.
Unfortunately, only professional voice users like singers warm up their voices.
And not all professional singers always do that.
But in a sense, anyone who uses their voice for a job or even a hobby, is a professional
voice user.
Do you talk on the phone all day long?
Do you teach over Zoom for several hours?
Do you give presentations?
Then, you are using your voice like a professional athlete and you need to treat your voice that
way.
You can warm up your voice in the morning or several times throughout the day just before
your demanding vocal task.
And your warm ups don’t need to be fancy.
You don’t need a piano or a set of audio tracks to effectively warm up your voice.
You can use simple humming or sirens on NG, or straw exercises or lip trills to wake up
the resonance in your face and the muscles that bring the vocal folds together, muscles
that stretch them out and shorten them.
And warm up exercises don’t need to be vocal, they can include physical exercises, like
stretches or alignment exercises, to increase blood flow into the big body muscles that
support your voice.
It can be a breathing exercise that jumpstarts coordination of breathing muscles for efficient
inhalation and exhalation.
It can even be a mindfulness exercise to get you grounded, bring your attention to the
present moment, and calm your nerves.
If you warm up your voice, you can prevent tension and your voice will last longer.
Tip #3 Release tension from your voice
If your voice feels already tensed and strained before you start speaking, then tension reduction
techniques are in place.
You can use vocal exercises to release tension from your voice or you can apply manual tension
reduction techniques.
You’ve probably heard me talking about SOVT, or semi-occluded vocal tract exercises before.
These are vocal exercises that use sounds with a partial narrowing or occlusion in the
vocal tract.
This narrowing creates a back pressure that helps the vocal folds work more efficiently.
Examples are lip trills, tongue trills, straw exercises, humming, sounds like fricatives,
nasals and many other sounds.
You can find more videos about using SOVT exercises here on my channel.
I also made several videos on how to manually release tension from your neck and other areas
of your vocal instrument.
My video about circumlaryngeal massage is a popular one for a very good reason - this
type of massage is very effective.
Just read through the comments under that video.
If these kinds of exercises, either vocal or manual, work for you, then create a regular
daily routine and release tension from your voice even before you start talking.
In the comments below, let me know if you’ve tried laryngeal massage, and whether you liked
it or not.
I’d like to hear from you.
Here is Tip #4 Improve vocal technique
Sometimes, strain in your speaking voice comes from inefficient vocal technique.
Maybe you bring your vocal folds together in an abrupt manner, maybe you press them
together too hard when speaking.
Maybe you tend to use high breath pressures under the vocal folds.
And maybe you push your tongue root down, which inhibits the laryngeal movement.
And maybe you move your jaw forward when speaking or slide it to the side, which creates tension
that is spread out.
All these examples put a lot of strain on your vocal folds, which then leads to a strained
voice.
The only solution to this problem is to work on improving your vocal technique.
If this is you, I highly recommend that you speak to a voice professional and ask for
help.
Sometimes small adjustments in your technique can lead to big changes.
Finally, Tip #5 Re-evaluate your breath
Inefficient breath management is often a cause of vocal issues.
And you have probably heard people saying - you need to breathe from your diaphragm
to support your voice or you need to take a deep breath to avoid straining.
I see many people focusing on inhalation.
But in my experience, the problem is often in exhalation and in the amount of breath
you push through the vocal folds.
Straining is often caused by too high breath pressures under the vocal folds.
Here is a simple exercise to see how much breath you need for talking.
Inhale as you would normally do and then exhale and then start counting from 1 to 10. Like this.
I can still speak even if I exhaled most of the air from my lungs.
Very often, it’s not about how much breath you inhale but how you use the breath that you
have in your lungs.
So, these were 5 tips to improve your strained voice.
But there are more things to be considered if you are experiencing vocal strain, discomfort
or even pain when you speak.
I made a video, in which I walk you through 7 steps that lead to a strong voice without
tension.
If you want to know what voice, body and mind considerations you need to take to truly free
your voice, click the link in the description below this video.
If you found this video helpful, click the like button and share it with your friends.
Check out my other videos on this topic right here below.
I hope to see you in my next video.
Bye.