The Glottis. It’s actually the name of the space between the vocal folds; it’s almost more of a placeholder, like the number 0. Take a deep breath and hold it. You feel that? You’re closing your glottis to do that, bringing your vocal folds together in order to hold the air in your lungs. [You can release the breath now.] If you close your glottis as you create suction, almost like you’re trying to create a cartoony “gulp” sound, you are clearing mucus from your vocal fold

When you’re experiencing pain, what’s the first thing you do? Pop a few Advil? The practice is intuitive and many of us do it without thinking. In fact, 78% of you report taking some form of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) (translation, acetaminophen or ibuprofen) to help ease voice symptoms, or almost 4 out of 5 singers. But NSAIDs are dangerous for two reasons: They increase the likelihood that you will oversing because you aren’t getting pain feedback from

When I was performing consistently, I felt like the theatre finding out I was have voice problems was the end of the world. I remember hearing whispers of how you won’t get hired again if They find out because They want singers who can sing strong 8 shows a week; once They know you’ve been injured, They’ll just expect it to happen again and so won’t hire you. This only added to the stress of having voice challenges, which only fed the voice challenges… Ninety two percent of

A recent study on singers demonstrated that a diagnosis of a voice disorder can lead to depression and anxiety. One third of the singers in this study became depressed and anxious because of the damage done to their voices and the resulting threat to their livelihoods. Stress, depression, and anxiety certainly impact our ability to sleep and yet we also know that rest, that SLEEP, helps to heal the voice. Brian Ogilvie was an operatically-trained classmate of mine at Northwe

Gender affirmation is more than your Hz. While it’s general knowledge that cisgender men usually speak at an average pitch of around 125 Hz, cisgender women at 220, and 150-185 Hz is a gender neutral range, there’s other homework you can do before you meet with your speech pathologist. Where is your physicality now?- How often do you use your hands when you talk? Pay attention to the size of your gestures. Do your hands go above your shoulders? Do your gestures extend bey