What if your profession includes behavior that damages your voice? Whether you’re a speaker, or an actor, or work in noisy conditions where you have to shout over people, this may help:
Question: “I’ve been offered a part that requires me to use my voice in a “croaky” style. Will this hurt my voice?”
My take, should you want to hear it, is this:
- If you have good basic vocal (even just speaking) technique, you should be fine, if it’s only sometimes that you employ the croaky voice.
- It’s good to know that what your vocal folds enjoy most is touching and vibrating together. So, anything that disallows this most natural behavior puts some stress on them. Which is why so many pop singers who push their voice, and put undue pressure on their vocal cords, burn out early, or get a huge, annoying vibrato. Which is also why it’s not good to whisper or whistle – the vocal folds don’t touch, and only air is pushed through them, which is drying, and doesn’t allow them to vibrate together.
- If you do choose to allow your voice the luxury of croaking every now and then, for the sake of the role (sounds fun, btw.), then do this:
- Support your voice well, low down in your body, with good breath control.
- Keep your throat open, like at the beginning of a yawn (ONLY if your breath support is good, so your throat can relax).
- Do a lot of the opposite of croaking when you don’t need to croak, – and I don’t mean dying, clearly, bahhaha. So sing-song, sirens, humming low and high in your voice, anything that feels like balm to your cords, is good for you.
Hope this helps! Enjoy, have fun, and sing yourself well, before and after croaking. 😉
For more vital tips how to free your voice, and change your life, please refer to the Sing Yourself Well manual below.
