“My voice gets tired and hoarse when speaking for long periods of time and/or to a large audience.”
This is probably the most common vocal issue public speakers who have untrained voices run into. Why?
It takes real vocal endurance to speak to large groups of people for extended periods of time. Think about what athletes go through in order to develop physical strength and endurance. They learn correct technique and train for increasingly long periods of time every day. They follow a strict diet, take high quality supplements, and get plenty of rest. Their whole life revolves around maintaining peak physical condition. They don’t mind the sacrifice because not only is it their passion, their livelihood depends on it.
Almost every speaker and teacher I know spends a lot of time perfecting the content of their talks or classes, making it engaging, compelling, and fun. What very few realize, though, is that the first thing listeners are aware of when you start speaking, is the sound of your voice. If you find yourself straining in order to speak more loudly, or pushing your voice down in pitch to give it more authority, or if your voice gets hoarse and tired after prolonged talking, you are most certainly not using it properly.
So far we only talked about vocal endurance and the physical issues that can develop when the voice is used improperly, but there are other, more subtle repercussions as well.
When you strain your voice in order to speak loudly, or force it lower in pitch to sound more authoritative, the resulting tension will come through in the sound of your voice, subtly conveying a feeling of stress and lack of confidence. Your listeners may feel slightly uncomfortable without really understanding why, since on a more conscious level they might be enjoying the content of what you have to say. What has happened is simply that your voice image doesn’t match the quality and energy of your message.
Coming back to the physical aspect of the voice: if you have still more speaking to do later that same day–or even the next, you’ll have to strain and force your already tired voice even more, and so the vicious cycle continues.
Over time this can be fatal to your voice, leading to injuries such as nodules, polyps, or contact ulcers, which are caused by vocal abuse. It’s well worth the time and effort to learn to use your voice properly, so you can speak without tension and with increased resonance–a natural voice amplifier that increases not just volume, but also overtones, making the sound richer and more beautiful. The end result is that you sound louder without having to “push” your voice.
