That is, an attractive female voice is breathy, with a short vocal tract (though not too short) and high pitch (again, not too high), and all of them serve to project a small body size.
As we age our voices change. There is a specific change in a male teenager's voice as the cartilage of the larynx (voice box) gets thicker around puberty. However, often a high pitched voice is due to the vocal cords being stretched too tightly by the failure to develop a thickening of the voice box with puberty.
A voice change is one of the secondary sexual characteristics adolescents develop. In boys, this happens between ages 12 and 16; in girls, between ages 10 and 14. The first sign of puberty in girls is breast development, while in boys it's an increase in the size of the testicles.
Why Do We Dislike Our Own Voices? To ourselves, our voices sound 'normal'. This is because we are listening to our own voices through bone conduction, which makes our own voices sound richer and lower than they actually are. To others, they only hear what exits our throat and mouth.
Voice training exercises
- Yawn. Yawning will help stretch and open the mouth and throat, as well as relieve tension from the neck and diaphragm.
- Cough slightly.
- Make slight lip vibration.
- Tighten all your muscles to teach your body to relax while singing.
- Singing with a closed mouth is another way to warm up your voice.
The deepness of a voice is primarily determined by the length and thickness of the vocal cords. Longer and thicker vocal cords produce lower, James Earl Jones-like pitches. So, if you want a deeper voice, you just need to thicken and lengthen your vocal cords.
Starting to Sing: Learn to sing even if you have a bad voice or can't sing in tune. Just 3% of people are tone deaf, meaning 97% of people can learn to sing in tune. There is an astonishing lack of resources for people who pass the test and want to start singing.
Usually when your voice gets a little raspy, you can blame an upper respiratory tract infection — a cold or a throat infection, for example — and count on having your regular voice back in a few days. Rarely, however, a hoarse, shaky, or weak voice can be a sign of a more serious illness.
There are many factors to being able to sing well, but if you feel (or have been told) you "can't sing", it's probably about being in tune. You cannot sing in tune if you are tone deaf, but if you are not tone deaf you may still need practice to learn to sing in tune.
Home Remedies: Helping a hoarse voice
- Breathe moist air.
- Rest your voice as much as possible.
- Drink plenty of fluids to prevent dehydration (avoid alcohol and caffeine).
- Moisten your throat.
- Stop drinking alcohol and smoking, and avoid exposure to smoke.
- Avoid clearing your throat.
- Avoid decongestants.
- Avoid whispering.
Make delicious tea with fresh ginger, honey and lemon*Honey: Is high in nutrients and soothes your sore throat. It also helps to form the protective coat on your vocal cords and improves cough symptoms. Ginger: Warms you right up and helps to clear those sinuses and nasal passages.
“Everyone who can speak can learn to use a singing voice,” says Joanne Rutkowski, professor of music education. “The quality of the voice is dependent on many factors; however, barring a physical vocal disability, everyone can learn to sing well enough to sing basic songs.”
Get in a quiet place so there is no background noise. Use a headset or keep the phone close to your mouth (not on speaker) so the audio is clear. Don't hold your breath right before you speak (so your vocal chords relax and your voice is nice and low). Smile while you record it to bring some warmth into your tone.
Humming allows you to warm up your voice so you can control it. This will stretch your vocal cords — and stretched vocal cords always make a voice sound significantly deeper. After you've done that, take another deep breath but point your chin down toward your chest. Start humming and slowly raise your chin.
Here are a few ways experts say you can inflect your voice and sound more relaxed and confident — in any situation.
- Speak From Your Diaphragm. Andrew Zaeh for Bustle.
- Smile While You Talk.
- Yawn First.
- Massage Your Jaw.
- Stand Up Straight.
- Make Sure You Enunciate.
- Take Time To Pause.
- Slow Down Your Breathing.
When you hear your voice on a recording, you're only hearing sounds transmitted via air conduction. Since you're missing the part of the sound that comes from bone conduction within the head, your voice sounds different to you on a recording.
Men prefer high-pitched voices that indicate a small body size, while women prefer low-pitched voices because they indicate a larger body size, though women don't care for voices that indicate aggression, according to a study published today in the journal PLOS One.
The opinion of a pleasant or nice voice will vary between listeners. What some people will find pleasant, others may find dull or grating. However, in general a voice that is pleasant or nice will be one that has quality of tone and pitch, is delivered easily and without strain and conveys emotion well.
Warm/Dark – A warm voice has lower overtones. In practice, that means adding a brighter tone quality to the voice. Swallowed/Woofy – When someone is overly warm, the voice tends to sound stuck in the throat or swallowed and lacks the ping of the higher overtones.
Studies show that women tend to prefer men with deep voices, which are linked to higher testosterone levels and general reproductive prowess. Men, meanwhile, are drawn to women with high-pitched voices, which are associated with high estrogen levels, perhaps serving as a cue to a woman's health and fertility.
Previous studies showed that men tend to prefer women with high-pitched voices, which are associated with high levels of estrogen. But new research suggests that we're also attracted to voices that are similar to our own — because the similarity makes us feel that we're part of a certain social group.
