As a singer, you know that it is important to partake in vocal health routines. Maybe it’s drinking warm tea with honey. Perhaps, you always turn to a specific warm up arrangement. All of these practices are incredibly important to keep your vocal chords happy and healthy, but have you ever considered their health when you are not singing?
From the day I began singing, I did not realize that I had fallen victim to nodes on my vocal chords. Finally, while singing almost eight hours a day in a music conservatory, I started to suffer from the inflammation. Every doctor I visited had a different prognosis and some even wanted to take my tonsils out, thinking that it was a quick fix (even if this had not proven to be the problem). It wasn’t until I was referred to a speech language pathologist, that I realized my problems were not caused by sickness, but by poor speaking techniques that fried my vocal chords before even warming up to sing!
There are several poor speaking habits that can trickle into your vocal wellness, but they all lead back to one important concept: breath control. When we are tired or indecisive as human beings, we tend to create vocal fry. Vocal fry (also referred to as glottal fry) is an infraction in which one speaks with little breath through a tightened larynx and compressed vocal folds. This causes irregular vibrations, therefore emitting a hoarse and rattled sound. Do you have this experience when you are tired? Some languages are more susceptible to vocal fry due to their pronunciations, such as: Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian.
Another way to correct your speaking voice is to recognize harsh attacks. These are found most prevalently on words that begin with a vowel. For instance, try saying the word “at” or “intelligent”. If there is a slight click before the actual word, you need more breath! One way to practice saying these words correctly is by adding a silent “h” to the beginning. Now the word “at” should almost be “h-at”. Doesn’t that feel different? It seems like an instant fix but practice is the only way to make it part of your vocabulary.
Now that your vocal vocabulary refrains from vocal fry and harsh attacks, let’s see if you are placing your voice correctly. Yes- Placement is not only important during your lesson or performance! Vocal placement can enhance your speaking voice immensely. Try humming a consistent tone and feel where the vibration lays. Is it in your throat? Maybe it’s in your cheeks? We want it to be in the center of your face around your nose. A good way to check this is to flick your lip open with your finger while humming. If the tone remains the same, you need to replace your voice. If it changes tone and your face is vibrating, congratulations! With this awareness, it is possible to heal and develop great speaking habits. Here are some exercises that can be done three times per day. Once in the morning, another before a vocal session or mid day, and the last before bed.
Muscle Exercise 1: Tongue
● Loosen your tongue by rolling it to the left, right, around your mouth, and towards the back of your throat.
Muscle Exercise 2: Head, Neck, Shoulders
● While taking deep breaths: Roll your head from side to side
● Look Left and right
● Massage your shoulder with the opposite hand
Muscle Exercise 3: Jaw
● Breathe in and open your mouth (almost like going to yawn)
● On the exhale, lift the heels of your hand (below your thumbs) to the top of your jaw (below your cheekbones)
● Press and follow the hollow dip towards your mouth ● Repeat several times until your jaw feels open
Breathing Exercise 1: Timed Lip Trill
● Pull out that stopwatch and see how long you can hold one lip trill.
● Write it down
● Now try beating that time on a vocalized note
Breathing Exercise 2: With each note individually up the octave
● Lip trill the note
● Turn that lip trill into a vocalization within one breath
● Sing the note
Breathing Exercise 3: With the three notes in a Major chord up the octave
● Hum the notes (making sure to check your placement as discussed earlier)
● Lip trill the notes
● Sing the notes with each of these words: Hall, All, Hat, At, Hit, It (making sure that the words not beginning in “h” are smooth and free of harsh attacks)
These exercises are meant to serve at a starting place for your new vocal vocabulary. We are all built differently, so if you feel that your are a victim of any of these bad habits, it may be time to target it with a speech language pathologist who has a specialty in voice.