Voice Therapy

If you rely on your voice for your profession, you are a professional voice user. This can include singers, actors, teachers, salesmen, clergymen, air traffic controllers, lawyers, doctors, or anyone else who uses his or her voice in the work setting. No matter whether you rely on your voice for work, or just in social settings, having proper vocal technique is essential to communicating. Some people’s vocal quality does not reflect their personality or their intended messages. They may come across as whiny or aggressive without intending to. They may be excessively nasal, breathy, or hoarse. Their voices can become easily fatigued and strained. They may not be able to project their voices to a group when giving a speech.

      Improve voice projection and endurance.

      Eliminate vocal strain, fatigue, hoarseness, and nasality.

      Make your voice reflect your personality.

      Learn correct voice production technique.

Breath Support
Proper breathing with support is necessary for vocal projection and endurance. Learn how to expand the ribs upon inhalation and maintain muscular support upon exhalation.

Laryngeal Posture
Learn about position of the larynx (the voice box) – to keep it in a low position as you lift the velum (soft palate) and lower the tongue.

Resonance
Learn to use the resonators with an open mouth posture. In this way, you will avoid excessive or insufficient nasality.

Intonation
Learn to use intonational variety when you speak. Many people have a rather flat, monotonous sound. They need to use more “ups and downs” in their tones.

Rate and Rhythm
Learn how to control the rate and rhythm of your speech. Speech that is too fast is difficult to understand. Speech that is too slow can be tedious. Also, it is important to attend to the smoothness of the flow, not to be overly choppy and disconnected.

Volume
Learn to project your voice with adequate loudness without straining. Change vocal loudness according to your environment and social setting.

Pitch
Learn to vary the pitch of your voice according the meaning of the message. Some people do not vary their pitch with enough intonational differences and come across as monotonous, which can be boring to listen to.

Singers
Being a trained singer (lyric soprano), as well as a speech-language pathologist, I have worked with singers who have had some difficulty with their vocal performance. A trained singer may have good technique when singing, but may not necessarily when speaking. For example, he or she may be excessively nasal. Some singers who have not had adequate training may have vocal problems such as strain and breathiness even when speaking because of poor singing technique. For example, they may have been singing with a larynx in high position instead of low, and not have been using sufficient support.