How to deepen your voice quickly and permanently at home

Rough voice - what is it like?

When we talk about a rough voice, we mean low in pitch. Even those who are far from skilled at playing musical instruments can imagine guitar strings: the thickest string sounds lower than the rest, the thinnest one sounds higher.

Voice pitch is usually classified according to singing voices. Men's are divided into:

bass – the lowest;
baritone – medium;
tenor is the highest.

Women's have their own classification:

contralto – the lowest;
mezzo-soprano – average;
soprano - high.

During childhood, both girls and boys speak in almost the same high-pitched voice, and their singing or speech is difficult to distinguish. During the process of hormonal changes, the teenager’s voice changes, and at this time the first differences appear. In boys, this period is called voice brittleness or age-related mutation. The chords become thicker, and the voice becomes rougher, i.e. lower. Sometimes there may be jumps in sound from rough to shrill.

By about the age of 18, the timbre in young men is fixed. With age, it becomes a little lower, but these changes are not so noticeable. In girls, the timbre also decreases over time. This difference is especially noticeable in older people.

Voice types

The tone of speech can reveal a person's true mood and psychological state. Being in a calm mood, there is no need to monitor the manner of conversation and the interlocutor has no doubts about the emotional stability of the opponent. However, not everyone is able to hide internal problems. In addition to the voice, facial expressions and body movements can reveal anxiety and anxiety. Types of timbre are divided depending on the age and gender of a person:

male - baritone, bass, tenor;
female - mezzo-soprano, soprano, contralto;
children's - viola and treble.

The listed definitions are used primarily for professional purposes. In a simpler classification, sounds are divided into: soft, cold, hard, hard, weak, strong, etc. Moreover, one person can master several types of tones, and real professionals can reproduce absolutely everything. This is facilitated by special exercises.

Who needs to correct their voice?

In general, the voice, like everything else, is a matter of taste. Some people like more brutal notes, others are attracted to ringing, high-pitched voices.

As a rule, those whose professional or other activities involve influencing the public have to work on their timbre: presenters, teachers, journalists, trainers, managers, businessmen.

There are also those who by nature have a timbre that, it would seem, does not quite correspond to their appearance. For example, imagine a broad-shouldered, two-meter man with a thick beard and an unnaturally thin, shrill voice. Most likely, he has heard from others more than once about this dissonance and experienced discomfort.

It is believed that a low, deep timbre gives the impression of confidence, calm, restraint, and firmness. Some scientists explain this from an evolutionary point of view: a rough voice was associated with strength and large size of its owner, and therefore aroused respect and some fear.

If you work with a microphone and you are not satisfied with your own sound, if your voice causes discomfort to others or you are unable to control it well, if you simply want to improve the functioning of the vocal apparatus, below you will find many techniques and recommendations that will help make the timbre lower and more pleasant for hearing.

Attention! If you are a teenager whose voice is currently going through a period of mutation, you need to do the exercises in a gentle manner. Don't overstrain your ligaments! Allow your body to adjust itself at a pace that is comfortable for it. Give preference to breathing exercises, work with articulation and diction.

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Teflon bonds

Among those who do not like long, painstaking work with their voice, another method of rejuvenation is in great demand - plastic surgery. Just yesterday I was croaking like a frog, and today I was croaking like a bell - who wouldn’t be inspired by this to perform a feat?

Ligament surgery is performed according to two scenarios. The first option is to introduce various fillers into them: a special gel, collagen, adipose tissue, Botox, Teflon. This helps relieve ligament failure, a common cause of hoarseness. At the same time, the ligaments become more massive, the timbre becomes lower. So this method is suitable for men who dream of a masculine voice, but not for women - except perhaps in conjunction with gender reassignment surgery.

Plastic surgery in the second scenario just makes the voice higher: with the help of a series of manipulations, the ligaments are “tightened”, and the timbre becomes higher, thinner and younger. Sounds tempting, right? In practice, however, everything is more complicated.

Methods and exercises for low sound

Here I will give three main areas in which you should begin to act. This is training the vocal folds, working with breathing and articulation. First things first.

Vocal fold training

The vocal fold is a mucous membrane made up of vocal cords and muscles. These muscles, like regular muscles in the body, can be trained and pumped up. And the thicker the muscles become, the lower the voice.

What you can do for this:

Talk a lot. It doesn’t matter who is in front of you: an attentively listening colleague or an indoor cactus. Talk about how your day went, read poems, news aloud, repeat phrases after TV show hosts, etc. You can turn on the “nonsense generator” and for 10 minutes say everything that comes to mind about some subject. Even if the words are incoherent, illogical, stupid, allow yourself to say them.
Think out loud. You need to talk silently, to yourself, but straining your vocal folds in the same way as would happen during a normal conversation. In this way, you can read books or simply think about something, saying words in your mind.
Sing and shout. This helps warm up the ligaments and makes them more elastic and pliable. You can find audio recordings of vocalists with a low timbre and try to sing along as close to the original as possible. As for screaming, in order not to embarrass your neighbors, you can use a pillow and scream into it.
Growl. Start growling at extremely low tones, gradually increasing the pitch to a safe, comfortable limit. Then lower your voice again and raise it again.

Breath work

I suggest several exercises:

Stand with a straight back, take a slow breath and at the same time raise your arms, first to the sides and then up. Hold your hands and breath for a few seconds, and then sharply lean forward with a noisy exhalation, lowering your hands. Perform 2-3 approaches daily.
The starting position is the same: standing with a straight back, hands at your sides. Lean forward, bending your back and taking a sharp, short, noisy breath. Now straighten up smoothly, allowing the air to slowly escape from your lungs. Take 10 breaths, then take a 5-minute break and return to the starting position. The number of approaches can be gradually increased.
Take a deep yawn and try to say something as you exhale.

Breathing exercises by A. N. Strelnikova are very popular. Today it is taught by Alexandra Nikolaevna’s student, Dr. Mikhail Shchetinin. I recommend watching his video tutorial.

Here are some more tips:

Breathe with diaphragmatic breathing. That is, with the stomach, so that the shoulders and chest remain in their places, and only the stomach moves.
Speak English. This language is much more gentle on the vocal apparatus than Russian, so it will be easier to get used to proper breathing during a conversation.
Speak more slowly. During fast speech, the ligaments become tense and the tone automatically becomes higher.
Watch your posture. It is necessary that the head and back are straight. The sound directly depends on the position of the larynx.

Articulation gymnastics

This type of exercise is aimed at those organs that are involved in the formation of sounds: tongue, lips, cheeks, lower jaw.

Here are some examples of such exercises:

Press your chin to your chest and make the “ee-and-i” sound low, gradually raising your head, but without stopping the sound.
Close your lips tightly, pull them forward, and then stretch them into a wide smile.
Alternately raise and lower your upper and lower lips, exposing your teeth.
Stick out your tongue and try to “draw” different numbers or letters with it.
Move your lower jaw back and forth, and then open your mouth as wide as possible.
Regularly pronounce the following sounds loudly and clearly: G, K, HA, O, U, M, N. They help open the back of the throat and lower the larynx best.

You can find even more articulation exercises in a separate article.

Moan instead of song

If you don’t have enough time for regular phoniatric training, some tricks will help you make your voice younger and more beautiful.

In the morning, try not to strain your ligaments too much. You shouldn’t shout or even just talk loudly: you need to give your voice time to “wake up.” Start your day with a warm-up - yawn heartily and hum tunes with your mouth closed.
Monotonous speech does not have a very good effect on the timbre of the voice. The ligaments wear out less if there are various modulations in the voice. Do this exercise every day: stand in front of the mirror, exhale, then inhale and say the sounds: “and, uh, a, oh, u.” Each sound must be pulled out until you have enough breath.

Advice from a phoniatrist

Experts who study voice pathologies, as well as methods of correction, prevention and treatment of various voice disorders, claim that there are many people who produce sounds incorrectly. Moreover, the person himself, due to habit, cannot always realize that he speaks in a voice that is unnatural for his physiology.

How to fix it? Doctors give several recommendations:

Some diseases affect the voice. These are not only the obvious sore throats and colds, but also chronic diseases of the nervous and cardiac systems, spine, lungs, mental disorders, and sexual ailments. Before training the vocal muscles, you need to make sure that the body is ready for such loads.
Monitor your hormonal levels. The condition of the ligaments is affected by the amount of testosterone: if the level of this hormone is below normal, the voice becomes thinner.
The larynx is located at the level of 4–6 cervical vertebrae. Considering that there are only 7 of them, it is not difficult to guess what impact they have on voice quality. Watch the position of your neck: during a conversation, it should be relaxed and straight.
If you smoke, quit the habit for at least a couple of days. Due to the fact that cigarette smoke causes aseptic inflammation of the folds, the voice actually becomes lower, but the result is hoarseness, not a velvety timbre.
To determine your real voice, you can use this test. Close your teeth and lips, take a deep breath and begin to exhale slowly and evenly with the sound “mmmm”, then lowering and then raising the pitch. At the same time, clasp your throat with your palm as high as possible towards the chin. You should feel at what pitch of the voice your palm will vibrate the most. This sound is your real voice.
Sometimes high notes in the voice are observed in moments of great excitement and tension. To feel more confident when communicating, you can enroll in public speaking courses.
Another option is to contact a vocal teacher who will help correct defects and develop an even voice.

I recommend reading the tips for improving your diction. In the article you will even find a ready-made lesson program for the week.

Call of Hormones

If suddenly your voice timbre changes, go to an endocrinologist and make sure everything is okay with your hormonal levels. Voice changes may be associated with thyroid disease, as well as taking hormonal medications and oral contraceptives. In this case, anti-aging operations will be of no use.

Moaning improves the sound of the voice quite well. Relax, keep your head straight. Try to make a slight moan using the letter "m". In this case, the sound should pass freely through the throat. Then switch to a stretchy one (your lips should feel a little ticklish). Connect the vowel sounds “a, o, u, e, i, s” to the consonant “m”. Pronounce the vowels softly, without shock, with your mouth slightly open.
What we eat matters for the timbre of our voice. Include in your menu foods containing vitamins B and C (especially sprouted wheat grains, bran, liver, veal, rice, eggs, sweet peppers, rose hips, cauliflower and white cabbage, oranges, spinach, potatoes).
The stories about professional singers drinking raw eggs have a basis in reality. If eggs don't excite your appetite, replace them with a milkshake with freshly squeezed carrot juice.

Radical measures

Those who are completely desperate and are ready for the most drastic changes may consider the possibility of surgical intervention.

An operation to change the timbre of the voice is called glottoplasty. It is performed under anesthesia. Biogel is injected into the patient's vocal folds. After the procedure, a voice rest regimen is prescribed for 7–10 days.

Men with high-pitched voices and women with rough, low-pitched timbres turn to glottoplasty.

Despite the fact that this method will help to quickly and permanently correct timbre distortions, we should not forget that this is a surgical intervention that can have consequences. Weigh the pros and cons before deciding to take such a radical step.

Is it possible to achieve results quickly and forever?

Fast?! From 2 weeks to 3 months! Forever: yes, mostly. It is important to understand that a low voice timbre in men depends not only on efforts to change it, but also on heredity.

All of the tips listed really work and help correct cacophonous squeaking, but it is not always possible to achieve the desired brutality in speech at home.

If exercises and techniques are not 100% effective in a particular case, you can use medications or the achievements of plastic surgery to change your voice permanently.

Drink more water

To function well, the vocal cords need timely hydration. In a few hours, water reaches the cellular level, so you need to quench your thirst in advance. It is advisable that the water is neither cold nor hot, but at room temperature. But it is not recommended to drink before the performance itself. Liquid stimulates excessive saliva production, which can become sticky and create an unnecessary slurping effect. You can gargle. To avoid drying out your throat, it is best to avoid areas with dry air, where the heater or air conditioner is running, or where you have just cleaned with chemicals.

Pay attention to habits

On the morning of an important presentation, it is better to avoid using mouthwash. It contains alcohol, fluoride and other substances that will dry the throat and irritate the mucous membranes. When talking on the phone, it is better not to hold the device between your shoulder and ear. This puts unnecessary tension on the neck muscles and puts pressure on the vocal cords.

Olga Polovinkina, announcer, speech technique teacher

Working with diction heals sounds, and proper nutrition affects the voice. It is important what and how we eat. An unbalanced and irrational diet, starvation diets, avoidance of fats - all this can weaken the strength of the voice, making it dull and inexpressive.

What you should give up to make your voice sound more beautiful:

Salty, sour and spicy foods increase gastric secretion, which can lead to irritation of the mucous membrane of the pharynx and larynx.
Seeds, nuts, chocolate, carbonated drinks, candies, and toffees cause irritation, soreness and cough.
Too hot and too cold food and drinks make the elastic ligaments “wooden”. The throat feels sore and sputum production increases.
Alcoholic drinks are detrimental to ligaments. They provoke dryness and swelling of the larynx. At first, the ligaments soften, but then the voice shrinks, as the reverse process occurs, and the vessels in the ligaments narrow. A glass of cognac will help you relax psychologically, but your voice will sound worse.
Oranges, apples, cherries, plums, pomegranates, canned juices, which contain a lot of citric acid, greatly irritate the throat, sometimes even burn the mucous membrane and have a detrimental effect on the elasticity of the ligaments.
Coffee and sweet tea contain tannin, a substance that dries out the vocal folds. The result is a “chomping” sound effect, which is quite unpleasant to the ear. Mucous membranes and dairy products are also knitted. They provoke the formation of mucus in the larynx, which interferes with sound and serves as a favorable environment for the development of bacteria. The recipe for “milk and honey” for a sore throat is hopelessly outdated.

It is important to get enough sleep before the performance itself. The main thing here is not to overdo it, otherwise your voice will sound sluggish, and if you lack sleep, on the contrary, it will strain too much. Sleep is important for voice and sound. You should also eat two to three hours before your performance. If this is done later, the food will put pressure on the diaphragm.

Protein in the diet is necessary, because it is the muscles that take the most active part in the work when producing sounds. Raisins and dried apricots have a beneficial effect on folds. You just need to chew them thoroughly.

It is important to follow a healthy diet that will keep you in good shape. Boiled meat, fish, eggs (in moderation), buckwheat and rice are suitable; vegetables and fruits will be an important part of a healthy lifestyle and will protect the ligaments from irritation.