I was rehearsing a client who had a keynote speech to deliver at a conference. It had been a long day of meetings, and his speech was the next morning. We had just grabbed a bite to eat backstage, and were about to do a final run-through at 10PM. The problem was that his voice was just about gone from so much talking. What to do? He needed the time on stage and running through the talk because he had not had a minute to think about it all day. The stakes were high for this to be a great presentation. I looked at our drinks and suddenly remembered a great way to get his voice feeling much better so that he could still do the run-through and have a better chance of being ok in the morning. All I needed was a straw.
This is an exercise that I saw on YouTube. It was created by Ingo Titze, a prominent vocal scientist, and Executive Director of the National Center for Voice and Speech at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He’s the one you see on the video.
More techniques to revive a tired voice when you must keep talking:
Hydrate your voice., when you are tired, drinking water may revive you in general. Drink water.
Drink warm liquids. They will soothe your throat and promote blood flow to the larynx, while also hydrating you.
Keep the weight out of your voice. To do this, you will need to work with the pitch of your voice. You may need to speak a little higher than you are used to speaking. Raise the pitch of your voice a little until you feel that it “takes the pressure” off your voice; it will feel just a little easier to talk. And put some energy into your voice by using more air.
Of course, the best thing you can do for your voice is to rest when it feels tired. Take a break. Speak to no one. Drink some tea. Contemplate your intention for awhile.
Years ago, I was performing a role in a show when I came down with a bad case of laryngitis. I did not have a cold, and it wasn’t clear to me how I had contracted laryngitis, but there was no doubt that my voice was gone. Since the show needed to go on and I didn’t have an understudy, I did what any good singer would; I went to see a laryngologist who gave me steroids (obviously we don’t have the same restrictions on our credibility as athletes!) The steroids cleared up most of the symptoms and I finished the run that weekend as if there had been no problem with my voice…mostly!
On the Monday following the show’s closing, I woke up to find that the laryngitis was back, and worse than before. I absolutely had no voice for days. Subsequently, I learned that this can happen with the use of steroids because they don’t actually cure the problem. They mask it, and use of your voice can damage already strained tissue and muscles even further. I wasn’t too upset however because I needed the rest, but when two weeks went by without any significant improvement, it was time to return to the laryngologist. After looking at my vocal folds with a laryngoscope he told me that it looked like I had been singing in a smoke-filled bar for hours each night! I needed extreme vocal rest. Since I had NOT been singing in a bar at all, or anywhere else for two weeks, he suggested that it must be allergies and prescribed an antihistamine along with the rest. Eventually, the laryngitis went away, but it was still another few weeks before I was completely healed.
Looking back, it is clear to me that allergies were probably a part of the picture, though I never found the culprit, but I also know that I was going through a difficult personal time as well. If I lost my voice today, I might ask different questions of the situation than I did at the time. Instead of running straight to the doctor, I might stop a moment to ask myself first what I needed to say that I was having difficulty saying. I might ask myself something like “If you could find your voice, how and where would you find it? And if you could say anything you wanted to say without being worried about what someone else would think, what would you say?”
The part of ourselves we call our “voice” is more than muscles and sound. It is how we express ourself in the world. My definition of voice, in fact, is the intellectual and emotional impact our expression has on the world. Your “voice” is a representation of the unique person you are. It is a metaphor for your personality and ideas. In writing a blog or a book, your opinion is still your “voice.” You can still “speak” in an e-mail. You have a “voice” even when it is inaudible. Therefore, when you can’t speak physically, it might be useful to look at the deeper issue of blocks to your personal expression for the underlying answer to the issue.
I was rehearsing a client who had a keynote speech to deliver at a conference. It had been a long day of meetings, and his speech was the next morning. We had just grabbed a bite to eat backstage, and were about to do a final run-through at 10PM. The problem was that his voice was just about gone from so much talking. What to do? He needed the time on stage and running through the talk because he had not had a minute to think about it all day. The stakes were high for this to be a great presentation. I looked at our drinks and suddenly remembered a great way to get his voice feeling much better so that he could still do the run-through and have a better chance of being ok in the morning. All I needed was a straw.
