How To Correct Vocal Strain

If you have ever sung a song and felt your throat becoming tired or fatigued, you may be straining.

Understanding what vocal strain feels like is the first step to negating it.

Breathing and air placement has a lot to with how it feels.

Muscle placement is a method that will help your notes become easier to reach; if not help you match the correct tone quality.

What Is Vocal Strain

Vocal strain is the feeling when you stretch your vocal chords uncomfortably.

This can develop from shouting, talking or singing for long periods of time.

The causes can even extend to breathing control and muscle placement.

Straining generally happens if you haven’t given your voice time to rest or are attempting to sing notes just out of your range.

The voice can feel tight, scratchy, uncomfortable and sometimes even painful.

The most important thing to do when your voice feels like this is to take a break.

Get some room temperature water to make sure you are not dehydrated and let your voice cool down.

If you continue to sing despite the discomfort you can develop vocal nodules.

These are like calluses that develop on the vocal cords and require surgery or elongated vocal recovery.

Air placement has to do with how you use your air to sing different notices.

Your understanding of where you are in your range can help you to know where you may be pushing too much.

Belting is something that for some can exist in the throat. When singing you want to make sure you’re engaging your diaphragm.

Realistically you are always using your diaphragm so it’s more so how you position your air when taking a breath to sing.

If you are singing from your throat you will feel a sensation that catches up with you about 40-80 sec after you have started.

Using your soft palate to breathe or belt is the easier alternative. You can reach the same volume without feeling the strain.

Some of our most important tools for removing strain remain hidden within your muscles.

Your muscles like your cheeks, nose, jaw, tongue and soft palate help you.

Understanding how you interchangeably use these muscles can improve your singing to help you with strain.

The muscles are used to help you create space so the air has a place to move.

Without the use of these muscles, some of your air will come out, and some of it will go back down the throat.

This continued exchange of air up and down the throat is what leads to strain as this creates heat and friction along the cords.

Creating more space reduces the friction thus lessening your strain.