Let's talk about different ways to make your voice louder
which method of increasing loudness can lead to a scratchy or itchy feeling in your throat and
which method doesn't put strain on your vocal folds keep on watching and i'll be right back
Hi I'm 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 if you think there is only one way of making your voice loud then you are in
for a surprise there are many different ways to project your voice some of these methods can put
strain or stress on your vocal folds so doing them for a long time can actually harm your voice the
most common way people increase their loudness is by increasing the breath pressure under the
vocal folds it's very instinctive and it's very effective for example where you when you are in
a loud environment the lombard reflex kicks in which is an involuntary tendency of speakers to
increase their vocal effort when speaking in loud noise to enhance the audibility of their voice
you may find yourself driving more breath through the vocal folds creating higher breath pressures
under the vocal folds and if you do it for a long time you leave a noisy restaurant or a loud party
with a sore throat or itchy feeling in your throat we increase loudness by
changing the breath pressure in many other situations for example while presenting on zoom or
talking on the phone or addressing a group of people without an amplification system
or singing with a band without a good audio setup and nothing wrong with this
method if you are mindful of the length of voice use and the vocal effort levels
you are using if you do this frequently and regularly it can actually lead to vocal injury or
to development of vocal behaviors that can lead to vocal strain and tension or put your voice
at the risk 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 so what are
other ways of increasing the loudness of your voice before i share the exact exercise that can
help you find a louder voice let me give you some background there is a difference between vocal
loudness and intensity and i know this sounds like another lesson in acoustics it is but bear with me
it's important to know this to protect your voice loudness refers to how loud or soft we perceive
a sound so it's a subjective subjective quality intensity is an objective measure of the amount
of energy in sound waves and we measure it with decibels why do we care because
we can make sounds that appear to be louder but without taxing the vocal folds how do we do that
by changing the shape of the vocal tract to boost the parts of the voice that will make them loud
and more specifically we want to change the shape of the vocal tract to boost the higher frequencies
in our voice because a human ear perceives higher frequencies as loud an extreme example
of perceiving high frequency sounds as loud is janice and her voice in a successful tv series
friends if you don't know who janice is no worries if you know who janice is don't panic oh my
god i'm not suggesting that in order to project your voice you have to sound annoying like her
her voice is an extreme example let's just compare it to the real voice of the actress
maggie wheeler i can't quite remember when it became clear that friends was such a hit
i had no idea going in what would happen beyond shooting one episode of a show that had never
aired yet so how did maggie create this distinct and loud type of voice she changed the shape of
the vocal track to boost the high frequencies in her voice she did it by creating a small space
because small spaces resonate high frequencies better and if this sounds complicated don't worry
we'll use a simple sound to find that shape the sound of a determined or a nasty sheep
can you make that sound it's not the sound of a nice little lamb
it's a sound of a sheep that wants to be heard
what would you call this sound let me know in the comments below for some of you this sound may be
very easy to make for others it may be challenging it will depend on many factors one being
where you currently live and the language or dialect you speak
some english dialects have naturally more of this sheep sound in them just compare american english
with british english if you are already using some of this sound in your speech can you dial it up or
down and if you notice this is not a nasal sound if i pinch my nose the sound does not change
which means that the air is going only through the mouth it's an oral sound
and it's loud if you can make this sound notice how much little breath you need
for the sound there is very little breath pressure underneath the vocal folds and the truth is that
if you try to push too much air for the sound you can actually feel tension and constriction so if
that's you blow out most of the air from your lungs and try it with little breath pressure
because you are creating really small spaces in
the vocal tract you don't need a lot of air for this sound so try it again
now once you have that angry or determined sheep sound notice how it feels in the throat
what did you have to do in your throat to make this sound notice and maintain that sensation
and now you can try to count from 1 to 10 with the same setup of the vocal tract
one two three four five six seven eight nine ten so this sounds very different from my usual voice
one two three four five six seven eight nine ten again if i engage that small space one 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10. that sounds pretty intense right if you don't want to sound like janice or an angry sheep
then you can decrease the effort and make a sound that still has an element of it but is not as
intense and annoying can you find that sound that is less annoying but still loud enough to be heard
three four five six seven eight nine ten one one one two three four five six seven 8
9 10. good job this is an advanced technique that takes time to develop and control so keep
exploring it and practicing it this is a wonderful technique for a long zoom calls stage presence
speeches and presentations for voices that are weak and hypofunctional bonus if you are wondering
which part of your vocal tract is engaged when making the sound it is your epi layerings that's
the space that is above your vocal folds close to the epiglottis area epiglottic folds and arytenoid
cartilages there are other ways of increasing the loudness of your voice without putting too
much stress on them and i will be talking about them in my future videos so stay connected by
clicking the subscribe button if you found this video helpful click the like button and share
it with your friends and check out my other videos right here below i hope to see you soon
bye.