There isn’t much awareness about how our voice works because they don’t teach you this at school. No one knows to warm up their voice to talk like you need to warm up when you are running.
The majority of us are lucky to have a voice. However, not many of us know how our voices work. When we lose our voices we are frustrated and we want our voices to come back as soon as possible especially when we rely on our voices for our jobs. So how do our voices work?
When we speak, there are two strips of muscular membranes, like 2 pieces of wet tissue, called the true vocal folds, that come together and vibrate. They are very small, the size of your nail on your little finger, or even smaller! When we are breathing, the vocal folds are abducted so the air is able to flow through. Due to the vocal folds not having any nerves, just like when we pinch ourselves, we know it hurts; the vocal folds don’t have this function. So never know when we are overusing or abusing our voices until we lose our voice.
Overusing our voices could simply mean using our voices most of the time, pretty much every day. For example, being a teacher. Abusing our voices includes smoking, drinking alcohol, shouting, and screaming. When you are screaming, the vocal folds are forced together at high velocity, creating friction. But you don’t feel the impact because the vocal folds are just a membrane without any nerves. If you need screaming, there are safe ways to scream, but best to avoid it on a daily basis. It could lead to a vocal dysfunction like vocal nodules or polyps.
Always stay hydrated and use belly breathing. That’s how you solve a tired voice! So many of us have a habit of breathing from our chest instead of our bellies, which means the vocal folds are working extra hard to keep all the extra air under control.
We can use our voices but we don’t know how to manage them. All it requires is a quick warm up in the morning to get it ready for the rest of the day.
I explain more about how your voice works in my Youtube video!