***Troubled by Hoarseness or a Persistent Sore Throat?

You have been to a specialist and been told that there is nothing medically wrong but you still suffer from hoarseness and/or a persistent sore throat. You may even lose your voice by the end of the day. Yet the doctor sees nothing wrong with your throat or vocal cords aside from some redness. What is causing the redness, the hoarseness, or the pain and how can you put an end to it?

If you are not ill nor taking certain prescribed medications or drugs, then you have misuse, misplaced or overused your speaking voice. It is called vocal abuse and it can affect both the speaking voice and the singing voice.

The vocal cords are folds of tissue, a very delicate organ. Screaming, shouting, talking for great lengths of time, and/or singing without proper breath support, can lead to permanent damage to your voice. If there are no nodules on your vocal folds, then the good news is that the damage you are doing is not irreversible. However, if you continue in the same manner, at some point in your future it will become permanent.

While some people can talk, yell, or sing all day long with no difficulty, the majority of the population cannot. What is happening if you are experiencing vocal abuse is that you are pushing your voice excessively from your throat and voice box. This overuse is also the result of misplacement of your voice as well. Most people use their throat and voice box to power their sound. What they don't realize is that they have another resonator which can alleviate the vocal abuse, almost instantaneously, once they make a change in their phonation -- the production of voiced sound -- whether it is from speaking or from singing.

That resonator is the chest cavity and once you allow it to become your sounding board, you will not only eliminate the abuse, but you will also discover a deeper, richer, warmer sound. So, by ending your hoarseness or persistent sore throat, you will also have a more mature-sounding voice - not too old, not too young - ageless.

Do not think you can allow your abuse to continue and that it will get better on its own. Unless you stop talking and/or singing for many, many months, the pain will only continue. Let your chest do you talking and your trouble with chronic hoarseness or sore throats will end. Just like that!