EntranceIs it possible to develop vocal cords after 50. Restores lost voice correctly
A beautiful voice, melodiously producing an amazing melody, and listeners holding their breath with delight - who hasn’t dreamed of this? But not everyone succeeds in making their dream come true, despite the fact that scientists say that every person has singing talent to one degree or another, it’s just that not everyone develops it. How to make your voice stronger and more melodic? Here, perhaps, the advice of vocal teachers will come in handy.
How to improve your singing voice? The simplest and most obvious solution is to study with a vocal teacher. Even if you plan to learn to sing on your own, one or two introductory lessons won’t hurt, at least the specialist will hear your voice, identify mistakes and weak sides, and you will already understand where you need to move.
But, as practice shows, there are a huge number of beautifully singing nuggets and self-taught people, therefore, you can learn to sing yourself.
What should you do for this? To improve your voice, you need to sing. It is obvious.
Start with the simplest thing: sing along to your favorite artist, play a recording - and go ahead! To begin with, choose from among your favorite performers, at least one of the same gender as you, and preferably with a similar voice timbre. Such “joint” singing, if practiced regularly, can significantly improve your voice.
The next stage will be karaoke - fortunately, this entertainment is now completely accessible: all the necessary equipment is inexpensive, and you can find a “minus” for almost any song. Start with those compositions that you love and know well, and do not take on too complex ones at first.
Having mastered singing to a soundtrack, you can move on to an even more difficult stage - singing a cappella (without musical accompaniment), this way you will hear all your mistakes and shortcomings and will be able to work on your sound. Do not overstrain your ligaments when you sing, you should be comfortable and easy to hit every note, and under no circumstances shout, such “exercises” will inevitably lead you to hoarseness and loss of voice. Sing as much as your voice allows - don’t rush, they will increase from time to time. Start each rehearsal by singing quietly, gradually increasing the volume and range.
- don't catch a cold;
- do not “give concerts” in the cold;
- do not shout (combining a vocal career and the lifestyle of a football fan is quite difficult);
- no smoking;
- don't talk a lot. The voice needs rest; you need to be in complete silence for at least an hour twice a day.
- seeds, chips and crackers;
- chocolate;
- cold ice cream;
- spicy and hot dishes (too high and low temperatures reduce the elasticity of the vocal cords);
- products with dyes;
- fatty and sweet foods (sugar and fat will settle on the ligaments).
Before you start singing, be sure to do breathing exercises. But when you sing, don’t think about breathing.
There is no need to pull or strain your neck while singing, the tension will be transferred to the larynx, and the sound will be compressed. Your shoulders should also be completely free - this is the only way to achieve deep and voluminous low notes.
To hear how you sing, record your voice and listen to the recording, so you can work on your mistakes.
Try doing exercises to improve your singing voice.
- Take a breath, and as you exhale, pronounce each of the sounds - as long as you can breathe “i”, “e”, “a”, “o”, “u” - in that order. The sequence is important - start with the highest frequency sound. It is enough to do the exercise three times - three deep exhalations for each sound.
- To activate the chest and abdomen area, pronounce the sound “m” three times (as long as possible). The first time - quite quietly, the second - louder, the third - as loud as possible.
Breath. The voice helps a person convey information, express his emotions and feelings. Thanks to it, you can assure or touch your interlocutor, so it can be called the main tool of persuasion. But not everyone has a pleasant melodic voice that others would like, but it can always be developed, since the vocal cords are ordinary muscles. In this case, breathing comes to the fore; it is with its help that you can develop your voice. When it is not correct, and there is also muscle tightness, it leads to distortion. To make your voice beautiful and give it velvety, you can use simple exercises. First you need to try to walk slowly and monitor your breathing. So, the inhalation-exhalation should last for 2 steps, but this interval will subsequently need to be increased to 10. In addition, the following exercise will help develop the vocal cords: you need to stand up correctly, spread your legs slightly, and raise your hands above your head and clasp them together. Then you will need to lean back a little, inhale more air through your nose and exhale slowly, leaning forward. During this exercise you need to repeat various sounds: “i”, “u”, “e”, “a”, “o”.
Powerful voice. A beautiful voice also needs to be made strong, so it should also be trained, and for this you can take note of simple exercises. They must be performed in the morning, as exercises, and best of all, in the bathroom directly in front of the mirror, they will add confidence in your own abilities and charge you with cheerfulness for the whole day. First you need to take a deep breath, then exhale until you have enough breath. It should be noted that with each inhalation you need to pronounce the vowels, exactly in the sequence in which they are given here: “eeee”, “eeee”, “aaa”, “ooo”, “uuu”. This set is not accidental; absolutely all singers use it when singing. This training allows them to hit high notes, since the ligaments always remain in good shape. Of course, such chanting in the morning may not please the household and neighbors, so you should think about this issue in advance; perhaps it makes sense to put good sound insulation in the bathroom so as not to disturb anyone.
Singing voice. To develop a singing voice, slightly different instructions are required, since you will need to learn how to control your chords in order to change intonation and tonality during the performance of a song. You will need to start every morning with breathing exercises: first you should take 7 full breaths through your nose and quickly exhale through your mouth. In addition, you also need to warm up your mouth by biting your tongue, cheeks, and lips. After a feeling of relaxation comes, you can begin to perform exercises for the vocal cords. First of all, you should pronounce syllables that have voiced and voiceless consonants, but diluted with one vowel. You should use these: pkto, pkti, pkta, pkte, pkty, (bdi, bde, bda, bdo, bdu) but if you don’t like them, then you can come up with your own, write them down on a piece of paper and read them during training.
As an exercise, vocal teachers advise reading tongue twisters, but at first this should be done slowly, clearly pronouncing all the letters; little by little you can speed up the pace, but at the same time the clarity of pronunciation should not be lost. As soon as you manage to cope with tongue twisters, you will be able to read your favorite literary works. To develop your voice, you will need to practice a lot, but there is no way to do this without difficulty, so you should be patient and not stop there.
Practice doesn't always make perfect, but it always improves your results! There are many practical ways improve the quality of your voice. To do this, you need to learn how to breathe correctly, avoid certain foods, and also perform special warm-up exercises before you start singing or giving a speech. You won't achieve success overnight, but with maximum effort and time spent on it, you can undoubtedly improve the quality of your voice.
Steps
Part 1
Correct breathing and body position- Use the muscles above your lower back (around your kidneys) in exactly the same way to control your inhalation and exhalation.
- While tensing your abdominal muscles, try not to lean forward.
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Learn to stand correctly. Monitor the position of your legs, knees, hips, abdomen, chest, shoulders, arms and head:
Relax. When you get into the correct position, make sure that you are no longer tense. You shouldn't feel any strain from sticking your chest out or keeping your back straight. Remember to relax the muscles of your face and neck.
Learn to breathe correctly. To have a strong voice, you simply must be able to breathe correctly. The key is to breathe deeply.
Use your abdominal muscles. When you breathe correctly, the lower muscles (diaphragm) above your belly should move forward, making room for even more air. When singing (speaking or just exhaling), use these muscles to push out air.
Part 4
Lifestyle changes- There is nothing wrong with taking things one step at a time. First, learn to breathe deeply and stand correctly. Once you've mastered this, work on your mouth position and do some warm-up exercises.
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Ask for help. If your voice quality has recently deteriorated, such as your voice becoming raspier, deeper, or more strained, this may indicate a health problem. Just in case, consult a doctor to rule out the possibility of illness.
Drink more water. Drink at least 8 glasses of water per day. This amount may be higher if you exercise or live in a hot climate (meaning you sweat a lot).
Eat healthy. Eating whole grains, fruits and vegetables helps keep the lining of your throat healthy, which means your voice will be healthy.
Relax. Stress affects everything negatively. Take time every day to do something that helps you relax. You can do yoga, meditation, go for a walk, watch your favorite TV series, read good book or play a musical instrument.
Try not to shout. This is especially important if you have a performance coming up. Screaming can harm your voice and reduce its quality for the next few days.
Be patient. It may take some time to improve the quality of your voice. You won't see significant improvement overnight, but after you warm up and learn how to breathe and maintain proper posture, you will immediately feel something change in you.
Part 5
Learn from others- Imitating a style is a great way to learn to sing because it forces you to do things you wouldn't normally do.
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Watch professional singers and announcers. Pay attention to how they breathe and hold notes with their breath. Look at their posture and body language. Watch how they use their lips to articulate the sounds and words they sing.
Don't ignore professionals you don't like. Think about why you don't like this or that singer or announcer. What do they do that's different from others? Are they doing something wrong, or is it just not your style?
Find a qualified teacher. A good teacher will be able to advise you on how to improve your voice. Find a classically trained teacher, as this type of teacher will be familiar with a variety of styles.
Listen to professional singers and announcers. Watch how they manage their breathing, volume, articulation, modulation, vocal habits and sonority. If you like their style, try imitating it.
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As you know, the power of the voice serves as an excellent help for people who earn their living by using their voice in their work. However, strength and confidence in the voice can serve well not only people, so to speak, creative, but also completely ordinary people engaged in ordinary mundane affairs, developing their own business, advancing in their career, and simply those who are used to and love interacting with other people .
It's no secret that through proper placement of accents in the voice, setting stress and other similar manipulations, you can achieve a truly amazing effect, for example, to provide what is necessary during negotiations, create a first-class impression of yourself, or influence a person so that he does what you need.
How to make your voice stronger?
Firstly, it should be said that the method of increasing voice strength consists of three important components:
- The first and most important thing is to train the parts of the body that take part in the process of voice formation: vocal cords, muscles of the larynx, chest, etc.
- The second component can be called the work of training competent and correct pronunciation of the most strong sounds, available in human speech
- And the third factor is adherence to a special diet, i.e. eating certain foods
Let's look at each of these points in more detail.
Muscle training to strengthen your voice
Exercise No. 1
You need to go to the mirror, open your mouth wide and try to see your larynx and tonsils. If you try to tense your throat or say something, you will see that the throat muscles go into a tense state and then relax again. Try to feel these muscles. This will not require a lot of time.
As soon as this result is achieved, begin to purposefully tense and relax the muscles of the larynx. Try to do this procedure without exerting much effort and controlling the pace of contraction.
After a certain amount of training, you will be able to perform these exercises without using a mirror, because you will already have acquired the skill of controlling the tension in your throat.
Exercise No. 2
In the same way, it is necessary to train other components of the voice-forming system. These include resonators that control the sounds you speak. These resonators are sources of sound and there are three types - chest, throat and nasal resonators.
Approach resonator training like this: stand in front of the mirror again and start making long sounds “i”, “e”, “a”, “o”, “u”, trying to change their sound. Try changing the tone from low to high and vice versa.
Keep in mind that the presented sequence of sounds was not chosen randomly, because each of them affects the body in a certain way: the sound “i” improves blood circulation, the sound “e” activates the muscles of the throat and neck, the sound “a” has a positive effect on the chest area, the sound “o” increases blood supply to the middle, and the sound “u” makes the voice deeper and lower.
We should not forget about several important components of the second exercise:
- When pronouncing the most powerful sounds, the facial muscles must be relaxed as much as possible, because this makes voice control much easier;
- Breathing must be correct, i.e. measured and even. Constricted and erratic breathing will prevent your voice from being strong and firm. In addition, when you inhale through your nose, you activate the nasal resonator;
- You need to control your posture - a straight and even position of the spine affects the timbre and quality of your voice. Strive to ensure that your spine is not tight and that you feel comfortable when you stand or walk - it will be much easier to develop the correct pronunciation.
In conclusion of this section, it can be noted that it is not only individual muscles that need to be trained, but the entire body in general. Only in this case can you achieve a good result in voice production.
Training the correct pronunciation of sounds
Training the correct pronunciation of sounds also involves performing a number of exercises.
Exercise No. 1
First, you should start mastering the sound “r”. To work on the sound “r”, it is recommended to do the exercise in three stages:
- At the first stage, we pronounce “r” very quietly
- At the second stage, we pronounce “r” with medium volume
- At the third stage, we pronounce “r” as loudly as possible
Try to make the sound you pronounce as correct, sonorous and clear as possible - this will allow you to make your voice stronger by adding a somewhat “metallic” sound to it.
But before practicing the sweeping pronunciation of the sound “r”, you need to prepare the muscles for work using the methods that we discussed above, as well as by pulling the tip of the tongue towards the upper palate in the area of the upper teeth. Having given your tongue this position, pronounce any words where the letter “r” is present, or make a loud growl, imagining yourself, for example, as a ferocious tiger.
Exercise No. 2
The second exercise is a rather original technique for increasing the power of your voice through unusual behavior. It sounds a little unusual, but you should start acting like Tarzan from the famous movie.
To do this, stand up straight, clench your hands tightly into fists and begin to pronounce in turn all those sounds that we talked about earlier, or some others.
But remember that you need to pronounce sounds as loudly as possible and while exhaling, and with your hands you should beat yourself in the chest from time to time, imitating the behavior of the above-mentioned hero. If you don’t associate Tarzan with this image, you can imagine yourself as a gorilla - then you’ll definitely succeed.
The "Tarzan" or "monkey" exercise will not only help you strengthen your voice, but will also clear out debris, mucus and moisture from your diaphragm. So, don't be surprised. And after you clear your throat, be “Tarzan” a little longer to consolidate the result.
It is also interesting that voice training experts advise doing this exercise in the morning, indicating that it will benefit the body as a whole. And given that, this can bring you double results.
Diet to strengthen your voice
In addition to what can be found today that has a beneficial effect on physical and even mental health, there is also a special diet that has a targeted effect on the strength of the voice. But if you thought that now you will need to radically change your diet, then we hasten to reassure you: you won’t have to change much.
Today it is known for certain that egg yolk, if consumed raw, has an excellent effect on the surface of the vocal cords and throat, making them softer and more elastic. For this reason, nutritionists for professional artists insist that you must eat one raw egg every morning.
Besides eggs, there are other foods that can help strengthen your voice. First of all, speaking about such products, we need to talk about milk - it, like eggs, makes the vocal cords elastic and soft. But milk should not be consumed cold, but not hot either. It should be warm, i.e. its temperature should be lower than the temperature of the milk that many of us drink for colds, otherwise you will simply burn your ligaments.
If you don’t like milk or, God forbid, you are allergic to it, you can replace this product with sweet warm tea. It is no coincidence that sugar is mentioned here, because it contains glucose, which also affects the elasticity of ligaments.
That's all, actually. Do the exercises we presented at least once a day, and within a week your voice will become stronger and more velvety. And having introduced these exercises into the system, after a while you will no longer remember that your voice was once weak, because... the body adapts and gets used to new stress.
In this article you will find exercises, after which you will begin.
To open your voice
Your voice may not actually be yours. The reason is due to tension or an incorrect way of speaking (for example, using only the ligaments). The exercises below will help you overcome these issues and discover your true natural voice.
Sound engineer
First, understand how others hear you. To do this, you can simulate a recording studio. Your left palm will be the earphone - press it with a “shell” to your left ear; the right one will be a microphone - hold it near your mouth at a distance of several centimeters. Start trying: count, say different words, play with the sound. Do this exercise for 5-10 minutes for nine days. During this time, you will understand how it really sounds and will be able to improve it.
Q-X
To open your voice, you need to free your throat and transfer the main work to your lips and diaphragm. To do this, pronounce the syllables “qu-ix”. On “Q”, round your lips, on “X”, stretch them into a wide smile. After 30 repetitions, try making a short speech. You will feel that the ligaments are less strained, and your lips follow your commands better.
Yawn
The easiest way to relax the muscles of the larynx is to yawn well. Do this simple exercise for 5 minutes a day and you will notice how blocks and tension in your voice disappear.
Exhale-groan
This exercise will help you discover the natural sound of your voice. Its essence comes down to voicing your exhalation.
Position: feet on the floor, jaw slightly open and relaxed. Start inhaling air, and as you exhale, make any sound. Do this without any effort - if everything is correct, you should get a groan.
When the exercise is performed correctly, the sound comes from the solar plexus. It is from there that you need to speak so that your voice is voluminous and expressive.
To make your voice pleasant
Three smiles
This exercise is performed in the same way as the previous one, but observing the rule of three smiles. Smile with your mouth, forehead and imagine a smile in the solar plexus area. After this, begin to exhale with sound. Just 5 minutes a day - and your voice will begin to sound more pleasant and trusting.
Yoga exercise
This training is practiced by Indian yogis to achieve a deep and beautiful voice.
Position: standing, feet shoulder-width apart. First, take a few calm inhalations and exhalations, then exhale sharply with the sound “ha-a.” The exhalation should be as full and loud as possible. In this case, the body can be slightly moved forward.
Long syllables
Take a deep breath, and as you exhale, say protractedly “bom-m”, “bim-m”, “bon-n”. Draw out the last sounds as long as possible. Ideally, vibration should occur in the area of the upper lip and nose.
A similar exercise can be done with the syllables “mo-mo”, “mi-mi”, “mu-mu”, “me-me”. But in this case, first pronounce them briefly, and only then protractedly.
Both exercises are best done every morning for 10 minutes. They will not only make your voice more pleasant, but will also help strengthen your vocal cords.
Long tongue
Stick out your tongue. First, point it down as far as possible, trying to reach your chin. Maintaining this position, tilt your head down. Then stretch your tongue upward, trying to reach the tip of your nose. At the same time, raise your head as high as possible.
To make your voice stronger
Sounds “i”, “e”, “a”, “o”, “u”
Exhale, then take a deep breath and on the second exhale say a long “i” sound. Do this freely as long as you have enough air. Do not force the air out of your lungs. Pronounce the remaining sounds in the same way: “e”, “a”, “o”, “u”. Perform three repetitions.
The sequence of these sounds is not random: they are distributed in height. Accordingly, “i” is the highest (activates the upper area of the head), “y” is the lowest (activates the lower abdomen). If you want to make your voice lower and deeper, practice the “u” sound more often.
Tarzan Exercise
Complete the previous task, only now beat yourself in the chest with your fists, like Tarzan. The exercise is designed to fill your voice and clear your bronchi, so if you feel like clearing your throat, don't stop yourself.
Moo
This exercise activates the chest and abdomen. Exhale and inhale. On the next exhalation, begin to pronounce the sound “m” with your mouth closed. Perform three approaches: first moo quietly, then at medium volume and finally at very loud volume.
Growl
Raise your relaxed tongue to the palate and begin to pronounce the sound “r”. It should turn out “r-r-r”, like a tractor. Repeat the exercise three times, then expressively read about a dozen words that contain the sound “r”. Be sure to accompany the reading with a rolling “r”.
Chaliapin's exercise for tuning your voice
The great Russian singer Fyodor Chaliapin also began every morning with a growl. But he did not perform it alone, but together with his bulldog. After training the sound “r”, Fyodor Ivanovich began to bark at his pet: “av-av-av”.
You can repeat Chaliapin’s exercise or, if you can’t relax your larynx, replace it with a villainous theatrical laugh. This is done simply. With your mouth open, as you exhale, you laugh evilly: “a-a-a-a-ha-ha-ha-ha-a-a-a-a.” The sound should come out easily and freely. At the same time, you can jump and beat yourself in the chest with your hands. This exercise will instantly clear your voice and prepare it for work.
Important to remember
When performing all exercises, you need to maintain the correct one. The stomach should be relaxed and the chest should protrude forward. However, if you keep your back straight, these areas of the body will automatically take the correct position.