A friend recently messaged me saying her voice was changing, and had become raspy. She wanted to know if that was normal for someone in their mid-50s.
Nope.
continue readingYou are working too hard: The Zen of great voice
It’s an old saw: Less is more. As with many clichés this one can sometimes be true, especially when it comes to how we use our voice.
Did you know it takes about 100 muscles to utter a phrase of speech? Given that many of these muscles are tiny and impossible to isolate, it’s shockingly easy to be using them with more tension than is necessary.
continue readingYou have the tools, so use them!
Y’all. I have had a lot of clients recently who seem to feel at the mercy of their voice. If they wake up hoarse, that’s it they are hoarse for the whole day. If they start to notice their throat is starting to get tired, they leave the event. If they are asked to repeat themselves, they decide they are unintelligible. If they are sick or hoarse for a day, they sink into it for the week.
These people did not understand they have the power to change these things.
continue readingHelp! I lost my voice!
Everyone gets some form of laryngitis every now and then. Whether it is from illness or from voice use, the cause of the voice loss/hoarseness is pretty much always the same: swollen and irritated vocal cords. Here are some strategies to help.
continue readingHack your posture to strengthen your voice
Over the years a number of clients have come to me because their voice was tired, strained, scratchy, unreliable, or generally thin-sounding. For some of these people, the only thing we needed to address was their posture.
continue readingIs laughter really the best medicine? (Yes. Yes it is.)
As cliché as it may sound, laughter is legit medicine. Stress affects the voice in a ton of ways, and laughter truly helps.
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