How To Make Your Voice Louder Without Hurting It?

Are you wondering how to make your voice louder without hurting it? Good. Let’s talk about different ways to make your voices louder. Which method of increasing loudness can lead to a scratchy or itchy feeling in your throat and which method does not put strain on your vocal folds?

If you think there is only one way of making your voice loud, then you are in for a surprise. There are many different ways to “project” your voice. Some of these methods can put strain and stress on your vocal folds so doing them for a long time can actually harm your voice.

The most common way people increase their loudness is by increasing the breath pressure under the vocal folds. It’s very instinctive, and it is effective. For example, when you are in a loud environment, the Lombard reflex kicks in, which is an involuntary tendency of speakers to increase their vocal effort when speaking in loud noise to enhance the audibility of their voice. You may find yourself driving more breath through the vocal folds, creating higher breath pressures under the vocal folds and if you do it for a long time, you leave a noisy restaurant or a loud party with a sore throat or itchy feeling in your throat.

We increase loudness by changing the breath pressure in many other situations, for example while presenting on Zoom, talking on the phone, addressing a group of people without an amplification system, or singing with a band without a good audio setup. Nothing wrong with this method if you are mindful of the length of voice use and the vocal effort levels you are using. If you do this frequently and regularly, it can lead to vocal injury or to the development of vocal behaviours that can lead to vocal strain and tension or put your voice at risk.

If you are experiencing vocal strain, tension or even pain when speaking, and you are ready to work towards a free, strong and confident voice, you can apply to our Vocal Freedom System coaching program. Click here to apply.

 So, what are other ways of increasing the loudness of your voice? Before, I share the exact exercise that can help you find a louder voice, let me give you some background. There is a difference between vocal loudness and intensity. I know this sounds like another lesson in acoustics but bear with me. It’s important to know this to protect your voice. Loudness refers to how loud or soft we perceive a sound so it is a subjective quality. Intensity is an objective measure of the amount of energy in sound waves and we measure it with decibels.

Why do we care? Because we can make sounds that appear to be louder but without taxing the vocal folds. How do we do that? By changing the shape of the vocal tract to boost the parts of the voice that will make them loud. And more specifically, we want to change the shape of the vocal tract to boost the higher frequencies in our voice because a human ear perceives higher frequencies as loud. 

 An extreme example of perceiving high frequency sounds as loud is Janice and her voice in a successful Tv series Friends. If you don’t know who Janice is, no worries. If you know who Janice is, don’t panic. I am not suggesting that in order to project your voice, you have to sound annoying like her. Her voice is an extreme example. 

So how did Maggie Wheeler, the actress playing Janice, create this distinct and loud type of voice? She changed the shape of the vocal tract to boost the high frequencies in her voice. He did it by creating a small space because small spaces resonate high frequencies better. And if this sounds complicated, don’t worry. We’ll use a simple sound to find that shape.

The sound of a determined sheep. Watch the video below for demonstrations and further explanation. 

 Link to the video: https://youtu.be/5tBLOG80t5A