How to Correct Common Voice Problems with a Voice Teacher

Voice teachers are there not only to teach you how to sing; they can improve your speaking voice, too. There are a number of common voice problems: your voice may have a crackly sound, called "glottal fry", which sounds like something is frying in your vocal cords; you may have a breathy voice, an immature-sounding voice, or a nasal voice. Any of these conditions can affect your career or your health. All of these problems can be easily corrected by a voice teacher. Here's what your voice teacher should be telling you.

If you have any of these conditions, you should see a voice teacher to correct your problems. Long-term misuse of your vocal cords can lead to edema, nodes, or polyps on your vocal cords, sometimes requiring painful and expensive surgery!

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Voice teacher
• This article

1. Nasality is caused most often by a lowered soft palate. To correct this, see the article "How to Breathe for Singing and Speaking" listed in the resources section below. Discuss that article with your voice teacher.

2. A tight, choked-up sound is caused by tension in the muscles surrounding the larynx. Your teacher should work with you to help you relax these muscles as they are being used. You can also find a massage therapist who specializes in laryngeal muscles.

3. A breathy voice is caused by the vocal cords not meeting properly. There are a number of exercises your voice teacher will give you to correct this problem, but this depends largely on the individual and the right exercises for you cannot be explained over the internet. Find a voice teacher that deals with correcting speaking problems.

4. An immature voice, or a voice that is too deep, is caused by an imbalance of laryngeal muscles. The high-pitched voice is caused by overusing the muscles at the top of the larynx; the too-deep voice is caused by overusing the muscles at the bottom of the larynx. You need your voice teacher to help you bring these into balance so that both sets of muscles work together in a coordinated way.

5. Glottal fry (the "creaky" voice") is caused by the muscles compressing the larynx in the wrong way, which does not allow the vocal cords to vibrate properly. This is a specialized condition which can be corrected by your voice teacher.

Tips & Warnings

• You can find a qualified voice teacher by asking questions as in the article in the "Resource" section.
• Your voice teacher may work with both your singing and speaking voice. Since you use the same process to produce both speech and song, your teacher may use either or both to retrain your muscles.
• Be wary of anyone who professes to give specific advice on singing or specific vocal exercises over the internet or by CD or DVD. Such one-way instruction never works because the teacher is not there to listen to you and make any corrections if you should make a mistake.
• Practicing the wrong exercises, or the right exercises in the wrong way, will damage your vocal cords, not help them. Do not attempt to change anything about the way you produce sound without the help of a qualified teacher--otherwise you may cause a lot of damage to your vocal cords.

Resources

• How to Breathe for Singing or Speaking
• How to Select Your Child's Music Teacher

[HairCrazy]

on 1/27/2009 Wonderful tips! Thank you!

[blondehound]

on 1/27/2009 very helpful, thanks, 5

[LisaBud]

on 1/27/2009 Great information! A lot of actors I know would get a lot more parts if they took this advice and worked with a voice coach. Thanks!

[AllFYB]

on 1/27/2009 Great tips for correcting voice issues. Thanks

[georgelarson]

on 1/27/2009 Good information on how you can teach your voice to be different with a voice coach. Thanks.