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Wow. Now I get it.
You might remember that I overworked my voice some time ago, because of too much teaching. Yesterday I went to a speech-language therapist, and my god, it was like a revelation. See, I've done a lot of singing, and also taken singing lessons, so I know it's important to use your stomach when you sing/talk, but no one ever explained to me in physiological terms what exactly you're supposed to do with it.
This seems totally obvious now that I know it, but here's how it works: your stomach (and not your throat) is supposed to do all the work with keeping air flowing past your vocal cords. When there's too little air left and you keep talking anyway, you have to force what little air there is past your vocal cords, and they and the muscles around them have to work a lot harder. That's when your voice gets strained.
I find this incredibly helpful compared to stuff like "you have to feel centered in your stomach" or "try to feel like your butt is really big" (yes, this is advice I've been given by song teachers).
Of course, knowing what I'm doing wrong doesn't mean I can automatically do it right, but I got a program of simple exercises, where I first warm up and relax the muscles in my face, neck and shoulders (since you can't relax your vocal cords by willpower), and then say simple sounds like "ssssss" or "ssshhhhh" in which the vocal cords aren't actually involved at all. There was a moment where I suddenly got it: at first, I had tension in my throat even though I didn't need it, and was kind of forcing the air through. Now I'm learning to do all the work with my stomach and none with my throat. Next week we're moving on to voiced sounds.
Also, I'm sure this will make a lot of difference in my podficcing!
This seems totally obvious now that I know it, but here's how it works: your stomach (and not your throat) is supposed to do all the work with keeping air flowing past your vocal cords. When there's too little air left and you keep talking anyway, you have to force what little air there is past your vocal cords, and they and the muscles around them have to work a lot harder. That's when your voice gets strained.
I find this incredibly helpful compared to stuff like "you have to feel centered in your stomach" or "try to feel like your butt is really big" (yes, this is advice I've been given by song teachers).
Of course, knowing what I'm doing wrong doesn't mean I can automatically do it right, but I got a program of simple exercises, where I first warm up and relax the muscles in my face, neck and shoulders (since you can't relax your vocal cords by willpower), and then say simple sounds like "ssssss" or "ssshhhhh" in which the vocal cords aren't actually involved at all. There was a moment where I suddenly got it: at first, I had tension in my throat even though I didn't need it, and was kind of forcing the air through. Now I'm learning to do all the work with my stomach and none with my throat. Next week we're moving on to voiced sounds.
Also, I'm sure this will make a lot of difference in my podficcing!