Troubleshooting Vocal Straw Exercises When Dealing with Vocal Tension and Strain

Do you love or hate straw exercises? Here are five tips on how to make straw phonation work for you so that you can release more tension and strain from your voice. 

If you know me a little bit, you know that I love straw exercises. I have been using straws in my practice for a long time and therefore, I know that people either love straws or hate them. 

People who love them find a lot of benefits from doing vocal straw exercises on a regular basis. And it does not matter if their goal is to release tension or strengthen the voice. People who hate straw phonation exercises have not figured them out yet and when they use straws, they either cause them more tension or they don’t feel any benefits and they are quick to dismiss them as not working. 

Tip #1 Size matters

This is the most important principle you should consider when doing straw exercises. Straws of different lengths and widths will have different levels of resistance. You need to find the right fit of resistance for you based on your goals, your skill level and your voice. Straw exercises can serve a lot of goals. The two main goals that I address with straws are releasing tension and strengthening the voice.

Low and High Resistance

Generally, when you want to release vocal tension with straw exercises, you want low resistance, which means that you should opt for a shorter and wider straw. For example, you can use these types of exercises at the end of the day full of talking, or after a vigorous singing practice. When you use a straw with a low resistance, you are using minimal effort but your vocal folds can still reap the benefits of equalized pressures above and below the vocal folds, a gentle vocal fold closure and an improved shape of the vocal folds.

If your goal is to strengthen the vocal fold closure, choose a straw that has a high resistance. That would be a straw that is long and thin. High resistance in the straw will require more vocal effort but the straw exercises will still help you optimize the sound production due to equalized pressures, better vocal folds posturing and vocal fold closure. These types of exercises are good for people who can already produce sounds without tension or pain and for people whose goal is vocal endurance and strength.  

Watch the video below to see examples of different straws.

Tip #2 Easy on the vocal folds

If you are experiencing vocal strain or even pain, the most important part when doing straw exercises is to pay attention to ease of phonation. Always ask yourself: how does it feel at the level of the vocal folds?

For many people who struggle with vocal tension, the default motor patterns are so strong that constriction and tension is present even with straw exercises. So here are a few tips on how to decrease the amount of discomfort.

As I said before, try a different straw size.

If that does not help, try just blowing through the straw without making a sound. Some people find it relaxing for their voice.

If you are making sounds, make the softest and gentlest sound you can. That will take pressure off of your vocal folds. Or before you blow into the straw, blow out most of the air from your lungs so that you work with low lung volumes and low breath pressures under the vocal folds.

Also move your head from side to side or rotate your head to release tension from the neck muscles that can be adding muscle tension when making sounds.

One last tip to troubleshoot this problem is to think of something funny while doing the straw exercises. Laughter is a natural way to widen your throat so when you think of something funny, your throat gets bigger which goes against the constriction you may be experiencing when producing sounds. Just try that.

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

Tip #3 Take a baseline

Many people abandon straw exercises because they don’t feel the benefits. So how do you know if the exercise is doing you any good or not? The answer is: take a baseline. Taking a baseline means making a short informal assessment of your voice before you do straw exercises and then comparing it to your voice after you do the exercises. It’s a quick way to know if there is any change in your voice. 

How do you assess your voice? Simply count from 1 to 10, say the days of the week or read a short passage from a book. If you are a singer, sing a short cut from your song. Notice how your voice feels and how easy it is to use your voice in that moment on a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 means that it is really hard to make a sound and 10 is the easiest voice you can have.

Then, do your straw exercises for a few minutes and once you are done, assess your voice in the same way. Count from 1 to 10 or say the days of the week or read the same short passage from a book. If you are a singer, sing the same cut from your song. And compare your voice. Is there a change in the ease of production? Is there anything else that changes in your voice? Sometimes, your voice can be stronger, clearer, more stable or resonant. Sometimes, the change will be very small – just one number towards an easier voice. But that is ok. If you take a baseline, you will know if the exercises are working.

On the other hand, if your voice feels more tired or harder to produce after you’ve done your exercise, you will know that you need to change something. Do you need a different straw size? Do you need to take off some pressure or blow less air through the straw? Taking a baseline will help you become aware of what is going on at the level of the vocal folds.

Tip #4 Don’t overcomplicate things

Some people give up straw exercises because they think they have to be musical. You can use straw exercises in the simplest way possible. You can just blow air through the straw into a cup of water to release tension or to practice steady airflow. You can just sustain simple sounds in your comfortable range. You can use a straw to hum a melody of a song you know. Or you can make sirens with a straw. 

It does not matter how easy or complicated your exercise is. The most important part is that you pay attention to the sensations that come with this exercise. Is the sound easy? Where do I feel vibrations? Do I feel the back pressure? Is the flow continuous and steady? Am I pushing too much air through the straw? These are the questions you should be asking.

Tip #5 Consider you

I often get asked how often and how long you should be doing straw exercises. And there is no one answer. The answer is: it depends.

So my last tip is to consider you, your needs and your voice. If the exercise feels really good, do it as often and for as long as it feels good. If you enjoy straw exercise with water, do those. If your voice can handle a long and thin straw, go for it.

If just blowing through the straw releases more tension, then do that every day at the end of the day. You have my permission to be playful and do what feels good to you. You don’t need to follow strict rules just because someone told you so. The only thing that I ask from you, is to pay attention to your voice and how it feels when you do the straw exercises. Don’t do them just for the sake of doing them.  

Link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQjoOWngz0I