Your favorite music can help you to handle the stress of a long day at work. A musical evening that has you humming the lyrics as you listen to the music looks heavenly. Artists perform by using their voices to create music. A great song that makes you want to record your voice and hear it over and over. Once you record your voice for the first time and hear the voice, it seems strange and not like yours. You tend to hear it over and over again to make sure it is you.

It's you! The way you hear your voice differs from how others hear it. You don't need to worry about your voice sounding funny in a recording. This happens to everyone. It does not mean that other people feel the same way about it because it sounds funny to you. The way you hear it is actually how they hear it all the time! To understand this difference, read on.

How is Voice Produced?

Everyday life revolves around the voice since it is our primary means of communication. As well as conveying information about the social status, personality traits, or emotional state of the speaker, the voice also conveys personal information. Voice production is controlled by the laryngeal muscle through the interaction between fluid and structure within the glottis.

Within the larynx, the vocal folds (vocal cords) are attached to the largest of the laryngeal cartilages, called the thyroid cartilage or Adam's apple. Vibrations occur when air passes through the vocal folds when the vocal cords come together during the exhalation of air from the lungs. Your voice is created as a result of these vibrations.

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How do we Hear our Voice?

Hearing mechanisms are found deep within the inner ear. There are a couple of ways sound reaches the inner ear. Air conduction accounts for the majority of what we hear. Objects that make sounds emit sound waves that travel through the air.

You hear sound waves reaching your outer ear as they pass through your eardrum and middle ear. These waves are translated to your brain by the cochlea, the fluid-filled spiral organ in the inner ear. Though sounds can reach the inner ear through the air, it's not the only way. In addition, the bones and tissues within your head can carry sound directly to your cochlea.

Sound waves are created by the vocal cords and travel through the air to reach your inner ear when you speak. Additionally, the bones and tissues in your head transmit sound waves directly to your cochlea, so when you speak, you hear both methods of transmission.

On a recording, you hear only the sounds transmitted via air conduction. As a result of missing the part of the sound that comes from bone conduction within the head, your voice sounds different on a recording.

As you speak and hear your own voice inside your head, your bones and tissues amplify the lower-frequency vibrations. You usually perceive your voice as fuller and deeper than it actually is. Therefore, when you listen to your voice recorded, it usually sounds higher and weaker than it should.

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When you have a Cold or Cough, how does your Voice Change?

As was already mentioned, voice is produced by the vibration of vocal cords. The vocal folds must vibrate together symmetrically and regularly to produce a clear sound. The pitch of the voice is governed by the rate of vibration. Vocal folds may not close completely or may not vibrate symmetrically when the voice is hoarse.

Is there a Difference Between the Voices of Men and Women?

Yes, definitely! Men and women have different voices. Male and female adults typically have different sized vocal folds based on their laryngeal size differences. Male voices are typically lower-pitched and have larger vocal folds. Male vocal folds measure between 17 mm and 25 mm in length whereas female vocal folds measure between 12.5 mm and 17.5 mm in length. Therefore, they can produce different sounds.

Vocal Loading

13% of the working population has a profession where their voice is their primary tool. For instance, teachers, salespeople, actors and singers, and TV and radio reporters fall into that category. Most of them, particularly teachers, have voice-related disorders.

Speech has a fundamental frequency of 110 Hz for a male and around 220 Hz for a female. Accordingly, the vocal folds hit each other 110 or 220 times a second for voiced sounds, respectively.

Imagine a woman talking continuously for an hour. Five minutes of this time might be spent speaking. This would cause her folds to hit each other more than 30 thousand times per hour. Due to this large number of hits, it is intuitively clear that the vocal fold tissue will be fatigued.

In addition to vocal loading, other kinds of strain are also experienced by the speech organs. In addition, there is a muscular strain on the speech organs, just as any other muscle will be strained after extended use. This causes voice loading.

The Best Way to Reduce Voice Loading

Frequently, the question of how to use one's voice to minimize vocal exhaustion arises. The study of vocology, the science and practice of voice habilitation, incorporates this. For both singing and speech, a normal, relaxed way of speaking is the best method. Speaking too forcefully will result in tiredness. It is recommended that the speaker drink enough water and the air humidity level should be normal or higher.

Written By - Dr. Nayana Shree Suresh