
Acids backing up from the stomach into the throat can damage the vocal folds. Before you teach, give a speech or sing, do neck and shoulder stretches, hum for a while or glide from low to high tones using different vowel sounds. Use a little bit of loud voice, and then bring it back to a conversational level. Avoid screaming, cheering loudly and talking over very loud noise because they put unnecessary strain on the vocal folds, and at times can damage the voice. Drink one glass of water for each cup of coffee or alcoholic beverage you imbibe to avoid dehydration. Drink alcohol and caffeine in moderation, as their dehydrating effects can strain your vocal folds.

We often lose our voice after a bad cold that develops into laryngitis, which can be accompanied by severe coughing and hoarseness. Your voice plays a vital role in your everyday life, but it’s easy to take it for granted, says ear, nose and throat specialist Michael Benninger, MD.

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Hear that? This is what others hear when you talk or sing-and after you get over the initial embarrassment, you might even start liking it.Cleveland Clinic is a non-profit academic medical center. This makes the sound of your voice go out in front of you, instead of to the side, so it's affected by variables like temperature, humidity, the thickness of the carpet, and the number of people in the room.Ĭount from one to five. "In addition to that, we get some inner vibration in the ear and the head, and we judge that as being our sound, but it really isn't."Ĭurious to know what your own voice sounds like? If you don't own a vocal recorder, Barber recommends taking file folders (a couple of magazines or pieces of paper will do in a pinch) and placing them in front of your ears so they're sticking out from the sides of your head. Vocal coach Chris Beatty-a singer/songwriter who’s also the nephew of famed classical composer Samuel Barber-provides an answer in the video below: "We get a preview of sound that comes up the side of the face, right into the ears," Beatty explains. This raises the question: Why do we hear one thing while the rest of the world hears another? Even the most confident of crooners may cringe upon hearing a recording of their own voice: "Is that what I actually sound like?" Unfortunately, the answer is yes, according to Lifehacker.
