Hoarse Voice Exercises
When it comes to having a hoarse voice, there are several different ways you can exercise with your vocal chords. Some of these exercises are more specific for certain types of voices, while others work for all people’s voices!
The most basic is just practicing speaking as quickly and as loudly as possible. This will help your throat get some much needed relaxation and space to breathe. Your lungs will also need less time to fully expand which helps ease any tension or pressure in the chest.
Practicing our favorite song 5 times within a row is an excellent way to do this!
Another helpful tip is to make sure your mouth is slightly open when you speak so that your tongue does not clench up. If your lips are closed, then your jaw has to work harder to keep them pressed together which adds stress on the muscles!
And if at anytime your voice becomes too soft, try rubbing your hands over your neck area or taking short breaks to give yourself time to re-focus.
Speak with a soft voice
When you speak clearly, your hoarseness can sometimes be heard in your tone of voice. This is why it is important to practice speaking with a soft voice so that if your voice does get slightly dry, people will not notice!
General tips: Try breathing more slowly and evenly. You can also try using a softer volume than usual.
Practice talking at a normal speed for a few minutes before lowering down the intensity. This way your throat won’t overwork itself too much! Finally, make sure to drink enough water to keep your vocal cords hydrated.
Speak as naturally as possible, without overly emphasizing certain parts of the sentence or using complicated vocabulary.
Practice singing in your bedroom
While practicing your hoarseness exercises in the privacy of your own home is great, you do not need to limit yourself to only doing this!
If you are ever feeling tired or too stressed out, you can simply turn off voice mode and start listening to music.
By adding music into the mix, it becomes much easier to track down the source of your stress and work through it by playing the song directly opposite the part of your body that was causing tension.
This article has discussed some helpful tips for developing your throat muscles, but there’s one thing left for me to mention!
Never force air out of your mouth when you practice your hoarseness exercises!
For example, if you want to test your ability to produce a whisper, close your lips as tightly as possible without actually making a sound, then open your mouth wide and see how many whispers you have been able to make.
Use a humidifier
After you have finished the exercises for your hoarseness, try to use your voice as normally as possible for a few minutes. Then add an additional challenge by trying to speak with a whisper!
Why would you want to do this? Because most people enjoy whispering, and it can help reduce symptoms of vocal cord inflammation. By practicing whispers, your larynx will get more used to speaking at a lower volume, which may help treat your hoarseness.
To make sure your throat is all right, ask yourself if you are able to talk loudly without experiencing any pain or discomfort in your neck, chest, or mouth. If not, stop the exercise and re-evaluate why you were using your voice more heavily than normal.
Another good way to test out whether your voice has healed is to listen to yourself speak. Are there slight differences in how you sound? If so, that’s okay! Your healthy voice might be a little deeper or heavier in tone, but that’s what makes your voice unique.
This article about hoarse voice exercises was written by our trained health professionals and medically reviewed by a third party. It may contain statements or descriptions that suggest treatment or advice that we keep our product or service free or that these products or services cannot harm you. For actual medical recommendations, see a doctor. For more information, read our terms and conditions page or contact us here.
Get a cold or sore throat treatment
While trying to determine what is causing your hoarseness, you can also look into getting some sort of cough medicine or throat lozenges. If nothing has helped within the first 24 hours, try another brand name of the same product or go up the dosage slightly.
If symptoms do not improve after using these remedies for one week, see your doctor so that they can run proper tests to determine if your voice box needs medical attention!
It may be helpful to keep a journal about your symptoms and how each remedy helps or does not help you.
Avoid smoking
After your voice has fully recovered, you can start to work on developing your speaking style. While not everyone’s natural speaking voice is warm, there are things you can do to improve it!
One of the most important factors in improving your speech tone is avoiding any kind of oral pollution- like cigarette or alcohol smoke, or simply talking too much.
If you need to have a quick chat, put some effort into keeping it brief. An hour long conversation should be reduced to 30 minutes at the very least.
And if possible, try to give up cigarettes completely as well as drinking. Both will hurt your vocal chords irrevocably.
Another way to avoid dry mouth is by eating foods that help keep it that way; these are called alkaline foods. These include fruits and vegetables such as spinach, cucumber, and cherry tomatoes.
By practicing these hoarse voice exercises, even if only for a few minutes every day, you will see major changes in the sound of your own voice.
Speak with an expert
There is no one way to exercise your voice, but there are several tools you can use to learn how to improve yours. One of these is speaking with a trained professional or vocalist.
You will need their consent first before meeting them, however as the owner of your voice they should not have any issues letting people hear it!
Some of the most experienced professionals in the field are singing teachers, this is a great option if you already know some songs. You could also choose to take lessons in music theory or performance skills such as song writing.
Any of these areas can help by teaching you about the structure of speech, music fundamentals and strategies for improving speed and quality of tone and volume.
Tone your tongue
When speaking, you will want to make sure that your tone is steady and strong. If you find yourself with a hoarse voice, then it is time to work on toning your tongue.
You can do this by simply thinking about moving your mouth as if you were talking or singing. Once you have this down, you can practice slowly saying simple phrases until you get the hang of it.
Once you feel more comfortable, you can start adding some ingredients to your speech to see how much effect it has on your vocal quality. These include: recipes, stories, comments, etc.
Switch your TV or video game on
A great way to develop your voice is by listening to it! You can do this through headphones, earbuds, a device you already have (like a computer or phone), or through using a program like YouTube that has an app or microphone feature.
You can choose any genre, length, and intensity of music and learn how to improve your pitch, modulation, and volume with these settings.
Your hoarseness will quickly go away if you are aware of what tools help dry up your vocal cords. By experimenting with your own voice, you’ll also find out which types of sounds hurt your tone and should be avoided.
Music is a powerful tool for your speech as well as yours alone.