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Vocal
Fatigue & Stamina
Vocal
fatigue, or impaired vocal stamina, is frequently experienced by individuals
with high vocal demands, such as teachers. It is characterized by a sense of
increased effort or strain when talking, accompanied by decreased vocal
capabilities, such as decreased loudness or quality. When there is a sense of
needing to work harder to speak, we say that the individual has impaired vocal
stamina, or is experiencing vocal fatigue.
Vocal fatigue occurs when the vocal
demands are greater than the individual’s ability to manage those demands.
That ability may be due to insufficient training in how to use the voice in
challenging conditions (loud voice production, or for prolonged periods of time)
for example. Or it may mean the ability of the vocal fold tissue to withstand
prolonged micro-trauma. Everyone experiences vocal fatigue on occasion; for
example, spending an evening at a noisy party talking with friends can cause
vocal fatigue.
When vocal fatigue occurs with increasing frequency, however, it
can cause an individual to begin to use muscle activity strategies that promote
unhealthy vocal fold tissues, leading to greater voice problems.
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Vocal
Performers
Extraordinary demands are placed upon the singing and acting voice,
well above those of routine voice use. The performer requires a high level of
vocal flexibility and agility, the ability to execute rapid maneuvers such as
arpeggios, the flexibility to produce a stage shout or whisper, coupled with a
clear and resonant tonal quality.
The vocal artist demands fine coordination of
considerable range of airflows and air pressures, sensitivity to small maneuvers
and considerable endurance. Just as an athlete is at greater risk for knee or
shoulder injury, so too the performer is at greater risk of vocal injury simply
because of those demands.
At
The Voice and Swallowing Institute, we are dedicated to helping performers attain success
in their career and joy from their art.
Our Well-Voice Program for Vocal
Artists is designed for baseline check-ups to help prevent vocal injury,
and to keep those inevitable small problems from turning into major,
career-threatening voice disorders. Bring your vocal coach or singing teacher
with you when you come visit us. Or if you prefer, we’ll give you some
suggestions of outstanding coaches and teachers in the metropolitan area.
Common
causes of vocal problems of performers:
- Testing the limits of your voice by requiring it to accommodate the
demands of performance as well as other strenuous voice use (perhaps a
part-time job, for example) and social voice use, perhaps together with less
than desirable health habits (smoking, drinking).
- Focusing upon the singing voice and ignoring the speaking voice
(including carrying over speech-based habitual excessive tension of the oral
articulators into the singing voice).
- Professional vocal demands; unstable sleeping and eating patterns,
dry air of airplanes and hotel rooms, dusty concert halls, smoke-filled
performance venues, risk of fatigue, and gastric reflux.
- Hypersensitivity to even the most minor ailments such as a head cold
or allergies.
- Trying to meet the vocal demands associated with a
specific role – perhaps one that is too vocally “heavy” for a voice --
combined with problems in technique.
- Technical weaknesses –
bad habits that need to be unlearned.
Good vocal management for
performers includes:
- Reducing the
quantity of singing; more use of instrumental arrangements, featuring
other members of the group.
- Using monitor
speakers facing the stage.
- Marking
rehearsals when feeling vocally fatigued.
- Discussing your
vocal needs with the sound technician.
- Avoiding use of
chest voice at high pitch levels, in general.
- Resting the
voice on performance days.
- Resting the
voice between sets or scenes.
- Arranging the
music to suit your voice; change keys if necessary.
- Pacing your
practicing.
- Warming up the
voice. (See our suggestions for Vocal Warm Ups
PDF)
- Studying with a
singing teacher.
And finally,
- Don’t
ignore persistent voice problems, even small ones. Discuss them with your
singing teacher or voice coach. Consider having your vocal folds assessed by
a
laryngologist who further specializes in performance voice.
See our page on Vocal
Performers' Frequently Asked Questions and Presentation
Skills (PDF) for more
suggestions about using your voice to lecture to groups of people.
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Teachers
Teaching is one of the most
vocally-demanding professions. It demands long periods of speaking. Often added
to that is environmental noise competing with your voice for the students’
attention, inadequate ventilation, few opportunities for resting the voice,
extra vocal burdens such as tutoring, lunchroom monitoring, parent-teacher
conferences, to say nothing of your own personal vocal demands if you yourself
have children, sing in religious services, or socialize in noisy environments on
the weekends.
For these reasons, teachers are among the
highest risk group for voice problems. To help you prevent minor vocal
irritation from becoming a major problem, take a look at our vocal
hygiene tips (PDF), where you’ll find information about the benefits of
drinking lots of water and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Here are some additional
suggestions for teachers:
-
Personal microphones
can help a lot. They aren’t very expensive and will help your voice carry
to the back of the classroom.
-
Your voice should be
warmed up before teaching. Just as a singer or actor warms up their voice
before a performance to maintain a healthy voice, the teacher should
similarly get his or her voice ready for the classroom “performance”
demands. Read about many types of exercises that you can perform from our Vocal Warm Ups(PDF)
page.
-
Balance the vocal
demands of teaching with vocal rest. You would not expect yourself to be
able to participate in a sport every day without some rest periods in
between. So too, your voice production system needs rest. If possible,
schedule one to two hours of complete voice rest after you finish teaching
for the day. Limit extraneous voice use on those days when your voice is
feeling particularly tired.
That means no singing to the
radio, limiting telephone calls, avoiding noisy social environments, and
generally concentrating more on listening than speaking during
conversations. (See our tips on voice
rest.)
-
Quiet the class
environment as much as possible. Speaking against background noise is quite
difficult, and puts a significant added strain on your voice production
system. We know, of course, that many aspects about the physical classroom
and location are beyond your control – noisy ventilation systems, street
noise, and the challenge of managing students, to name just a few of the
factors. Get together with other teachers in your school to brainstorm ideas
for managing environmental noise.
-
Enlist student
participation as much as possible. We recognize that class participation is
dependent upon the age of the students, among other factors. But it can help
to have a discussion with the class about your voice problem. Explain that
you cannot shout. Tell students that talking amongst themselves while you
are teaching is not only distracting to other students, it’s hard on your
voice.
-
Use non-vocal signals
to gain attention of the students, whenever possible. Flashing room lights,
clapping hands or ringing a bell are easy alternatives to yelling for
attention. Sometimes even standing quietly is enough to get a few of the
students’ attention and then those students will quiet the rest of the
class.
-
Move about the room to
avoid rigid posture. Standing in one place for the whole class encourages
stiffness, which is counter-productive to healthy voice production. Movement
helps keep the muscle of the throat and upper body relaxed, and helps engage
all of the students in the room.
For additional suggestions
about talking to groups of people in a vocally-healthy way, take a look at Presentation
Skills (PDF).
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Personal
Amplification Systems
Using a microphone can be very helpful for people with voice problems, especially those who must talk loud enough to be heard by groups of people, in large rooms, or within background noise.
For this reason, many teachers have found personal amplification systems a necessary tool. Using a microphone to amplify the voice may help prevent trauma to the vocal fold mucosa by reducing the need to speak loudly and forcefully. Therefore, microphones can be beneficial in both the prevention of voice disorders and as part of the treatment plan for patients with existing voice disorders.
There are many different types of personal amplification systems. They range in price, portability and level of amplification. Therefore, there is no overall “best” system. Listed below, in alphabetical order, are some of the more popular sources for personal amplification systems, along with phone numbers, where available, and website addresses.
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