Tired of talking? Three tips to reduce vocal fatigue.
Do you come home from meetings or events with a raspy voice? Or hit a limit on how much you can sing or speak before you have to rest?
When voices get tired it’s tempting to blame your vocal cords. There could be an issue there, of course, and seek medical advice if you have concerns, but there are likely other contributing factors.
This topic came up recently in a newsletter from writer and speaker Seth Godin. As a professional speaker, Godin has a toolbox full of strategies–including Alexander Technique–to support vocal health and performance.
As Godin notes, "One cause of persistent vocal issues could be posture."
Posture – how you move efficiently in cooperation with your beautifully curved design – is often part of it, for sure.
How you move affects the quality of your voice, whether you are singing or speaking. Your thinking, which also affects movement, can sometimes be the root of the issue.
We are very literal. We will do what we tell ourselves to do.
For instance, someone might want very badly to be understood and at the same time have some history that tells them to hold their tongue.
In this case, trying to do two incompatible things at the same time causes a conflict. This kind of internal conflict, made stronger by elevated circumstances like public speaking, can send the system into disarray.
Following are three other mind-body-communication ideas that commonly get in the way of full expression.
Three obstacles to vocal expression and what to try instead
#1 Are you trying to ground?
Do you think you need to ground, or plant your feet firmly, in order to give the impression of confidence?
Over and over I’ve seen this idea create problems with people’s voices.
Picture an executive, a compelling speaker, really, walking confidently across a stage with the audience hanging on every word. Then, he plants himself in a confident stance to deliver his closing remarks, and what happens? His voice starts to get raspy and we can’t focus on the message because we start to worry about him.
Here's what might be happening:
When he walks, no problem, because he’s moving. When he stands, he’s limiting his movement too much.
When speakers are “grounding” it can set off an unintentional chain of events that actually reduce speaking finesse.
The idea of grounding can translate into adding extra muscular work in the legs and torso that keeps the breathing muscles and their neighbors busy doing something other than breathing.
This is a distraction for our nervous system, reduces the amount of air we can bring in, and adds tension throughout the torso and head. When there is unnecessary tension in our face and skull, the bones that resonate to allow for volume and tone are less able to vibrate. And, that tension in our face makes it hard to move the muscles of the mouth, which will reduce enunciation.
All in all, there is less air, resonance, and clarity.
As a speaker or singer, you probably don't want those results.
You may be paying a price by using grounding as an approach to appearing confident.
Rather than ground, try this instead:
Notice the surface that you are standing or sitting on.
Notice your feet on the ground, or in your socks, in shoes. Notice the rest of you – your feet and lower legs and upper legs, torso, arms, head, all supporting you where you are, and able to move you in any direction at any time.
Let go of the ground. You will not float away.
Gravity is doing a great job without your help.
#2 Are you trying to project?
The idea of projection, while useful for some, doesn’t work for everyone. Sometimes people think projection means that our voice is something we can throw across the room, like a football.
Again, we are very obedient to our thoughts. If you are throwing a part of you across the room, you no longer have control.
That voice? It's you, fully connected, breathing, thinking of a sound, and making shapes with your body and face and mouth. Once that air leaves your mouth, you’ve set off the sound waves that bounce around the room and eventually reach the mic or someone’s ear.
Rather than project, try this instead:
Include the whole room and audience in your thinking.
Rather than trying to hit the back wall with your voice, try thinking of inviting the space and your audience to be with you while you share your message.
You may be surprised by how much easier it is.
#3 Do you know how to breathe?
Trick question. You definitely do!
Getting back to the basics of breathing–nothing fancy–can remind your whole system that there is enough air for you to do the job.
First, the movement of breathing.
Your ribs gently swing and diaphragm contracts and releases as air moves up from your lungs (beautifully housed within your rib basket) through your vocal folds to your mouth where it bounces around before it moves out –
Check out Jessica Wolf - Art of Breathing to see a beautiful animation of this movement.
The upper ribs have a special job in emergencies
Try this: Lay your hands gently on your chest, one high and one low, and go ahead and do a little on-purpose gasp, and see which ribs move.
It’s likely the upper ribs.
When upper ribs work alone, you get that shallow or gasping breath. That's by design, to get you a quick burst of air should you need it in an emergency. Conversely, that kind of breathing can tell your system that there is an emergency.
Instead, remind all of your ribs they can move.
Try this: Put the backs of your hands on your lower ribs, waist-ish, like you’re doing the funky chicken.
Breathe.
Are your hands moving in and out? If that is happening, good news!
If it’s not happening, can you invite more movement into that area?
When lower ribs move with breathing, you and more likely to have all the air you need to do the job, are less likely to be in that gasping mode.
You might also notice your belly moving and out.
People sometimes call this belly or diaphragmatic breathing, but really it’s just regular breathing.
For the record, there is no lung tissue in our belly, and our diaphragm is always involved in breathing.
The belly movement comes when all of our ribs are able to move, so our diaphragm is also able to move more, and our lungs fill with more air, creating a squish of all the soft tissue in our lower abdomen.
Conclusion:
Vocal fatigue often comes from a mismatch of movement, ideas, and desire to communicate.
If you experience vocal fatigue, or only in certain circumstances, or want to prevent it in the future, zoom out and wonder about your mind, body, and communication:
Can I move or am I somehow stuck?
What am I actually telling myself to do? Am I giving myself mixed messages?
How do I want to communicate? Do I want to force people to listen or invite people in?
Unifying the mind-body-communication triad is the foundation of my coaching in Integrative Alexander Technique (IAT), and is a well-known solution to vocal fatigue.
In fact, F.M. Alexander invented the work that IAT is based on because he himself was losing his voice, a real problem since he was a professional orator. One of the remedies he explored was vocal rest, which after some time improved his regular speaking voice.
But when he went back to perform – when the stakes were higher – the old problems came back. He then took some time to investigate what he was doing differently when he performed, and made a series of discoveries about how he was moving and what he was thinking that were foiling his performance plans.
That was over 100 years ago, and the core principles of that work remain relevant.
How you move affects the quality of everything you do, and how you think affects how you move. Learning to find moments of choice in movement, thinking, and communication is the key.
If you would like to reduce or avoid vocal fatigue, or want to make better connections with your audience, clients, or team, please reach out. I can help!
