Voice Essay

Voice Essay

Maintaining a healthy voice is a significant part of an actor’s lifestyle, as the voice is the actor’s most important tool of their entire performance.

 The voice, like most of the body, needs to be taken care of in order to keep it in tact. Things that effect the voice can be due to something as small as the amount of dairy you intake, to something a bit bigger like smoking habits. In this essay I will be describing what these vices are, how to maintain a healthy voice, how to improve your voice, and include vocal exercises to achieve these goals.

Smoking is a vice. Smoking is something that will not help the health of the voice of an actor, as it can affect you in many different ways. One of them being it’s something that can seriously harm you in the long run, and the other being that it can cause many types of cancers, including lung, throat and mouth. These are just a few obvious ones that are on the subject of the voice, but smoking can increase the chances of a lot more cancers. ‘Smoking causes more than 4 out of 5 cases of lung cancer’. - Cancer Research.

Noticeable effects from smoking are the husky voice, we can here from some actors today. An example of this is Scarlett Johansson. Scarlett is known as one of the best on screen smokers, but in return she shows the effects of smoking on her voice, with the husky sound hoarse sound. This can also cause cancer on the throat or larynx which are vital instruments to the voice.

The professional thing to do would be to give up smoking in order to decrease risks of typical cancers and or other deceases related to the after effects of smoking. Not only does smoking cause incurable cancers but it also dries out the throat which leads to the unwanted cough and poor diction.

Another way to prevent unwanted huskiness and blocking of the airways is to avoid contact with aerosols, especially if someone is asthmatic. Aerosols produce a layer that coats the larynx causing us to cough and restrict our breathing. This is caused by breathing in toxic perfumes and chemicals used to make the toxic gases smell fresh.

 Sometimes when you feel you can’t breathe all the way in, or feel like you are unsatisfied with the fulfillment of breathe, this can be the cause. The voice wouldn't be a voice without breathing. Not only is it essential for humans to survive but it is an extremely important devise that all actors who are looking to become professional should learn how to breathe correctly and also master individual techniques.

 If we don’t allow ourselves to take deep breathes to relax the actor and their mind, it becomes easier to develop short breathe, this could then increase risks of panic attacks, anxiety and possibly put a strain on the heart. Breathing is something most people take for granted, and we forget that we are breathing all day every day.

To be able to breathe a fuller breathe, this exercise will help and determine the actor to do so. This exercise opens up the chest in a gentle way allowing the airways to open. This exercise helps open the rib cage and allows more room for the lungs allowing the actor to take a fuller breathe. Breathing also has an effect on how well an actor present their work.

Exercise: Follow these simply sequences in order to help develop relaxed breathe control. I would recommend using a relaxing piece of music, as it may help to make the exercise a little bit more interesting, especially if an actor repeats it, which an actor should really be doing to maintain the professional skill.

·         Begin by rolling head to chest, all the way down and dangling for about 5-6 seconds and slowly rolling back up, repeating 3 times.

·         Sitting on the floor raising the arms into a prayer position and pushing up through the air above your head and lowering the arms slowly outwards repeating three times.

·         Slowly lay back, taking your time stretch your whole body out and arms stretched out above your head, and stretching as far as you can and just yawn then bring your knees up and put your arms in a comfortable position.

·         Laying on your back with knees in the upwards position, and in a position comfortable to you, try and feel how your shoulders are relaxed and your belly’s are filling up with air.

·         Breathe control: Breathe in for 3 seconds and out for 6 and repeat 3 times

·         Now listen around you and try and join in the same breathing pattern as everyone else, breathing in through your nose and out through the mouth.

·         Now lie there silently breathing deep inhales and exhales, trying to clear your mind.

Being able to center your breathing and learning how to properly control it, helps to maintain a healthy voice. 

By monitoring what you eat, this can help point out whether what you are eating, or if you are eating too much of it, could lead to an unhealthy voice. It is said that eating dairy, decrease your vocal versatility. Things such as eating, cheese, chocolate, eggs and milk could be the downfall in a performance.

 It doesn't mean you have to change your lifestyle, but watching what you eat and or when you eat it could help you to achieve better diction and clarity.  If you do happen to eat dairy, or find it difficult to avoid it, gargling water after every meal is a good way to help the voice from being affected.

Drinking alcohol like smoking can also dry out your voice, excessive drinking and smoking can lead to sore throats and permanently damaged vocal chords. By drinking water instead your voice as well as your body will benefit from this a lot more, and will make you feel a lot better.

Warms ups before a performance is a great idea to loosen up the vocal chords before going out on stage. This helps to relax the muscles you work to produce the voice, to help decrease the risk of straining your voice, allowing you to open up the voice and to help you to prepare.

The amount of sleep you get also effects the voice. Too little and the voice could sound hoarse, so to keep your voice fresh, it is best to allow yourself enough sleep, and in the morning encourage yawning, as this is your voices way of waking up and warming up to be ready to be put to work. When you wake up don’t speak too much too quickly, drink plenty of water and if you feel like you want to make more effort, start to hum quietly to yourself whilst making breakfast.

Shouting or talking over loud music or even screaming, will put a strain on your voice if you do it for an excessive amount of time. Clearing the airways, for example coughing to clear your throat to much is like bashing your focal folds together aggressively, so doing this too much could make your voice become hoarse.

If you are suffering from a cold, or to avoid one, and to help maintain your voice, a few tips would be too:

• Drink plenty of water
• Get a good nights rest 
• Try lemon and honey with hot water to soothe throat
• wrap up warm 
• Take vitamins such as VA, VB, VC and Echinacea

‘You only get one voice look after it'-Beyonce