Best Creative Muscle Studios Podcasts (2023)

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0814 – Ten Tell-Tale Signs of Tension 1:17

32m ago1:17

1:17

2023.03.25 – 0814 – Ten Tell-Tale Signs of Tension Some physical tension creeps up on us. We don’t notice small changes to the body until it’s ‘too late’. So here are Ten Tell-Tale Signs of Tension: 1. Your voice sounds crackly and raspy 2. It sounds thin or strained 3. Your voice sounds weak 4. You find yourself short of breath while speaking 5. Y…

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0813 – Your Studio Desk Set Up 2:30

13m ago2:30

2:30

2023.03.24 – 0813 – Your Studio Desk Set Up Your Studio Desk Set Up Are the screens in your studio laid out so you can see them without twisting and turning, actions which will causes spinal stresses and strains? If you talk with a twisted neck, you are pulling the larynx out of alignment causing other muscles to compensate, which will affect your …

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0812 – Nine Lines On the Spine (7-9) 1:47

39m ago1:47

1:47

2023.03.23 – 0812 – Nine Lines On the Spine (7-9) 7. Similarly wearing high heels can also throw your body out of alignment, you may have to stick your bum out to counterbalance your weight, causing other stresses on the ‘wrong’ part of the skeleton and muscle groups, and the resulting tension causing a less effective and free voice. 8. The ribs ar…

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0811 – Nine Lines On the Spine (4-6) 2:25

1h ago2:25

2:25

2023.03.22 – 0811 – Nine Lines On the Spine (4-6) 4. The larynx is at the top of the trachea which runs along the same line as your spine. What you do with your head and neck alignment has a knock-on effect on your larynx, and therefore your voice. 5. The average human head weighs around 5kg or 11lbs, that's more than most new-born babies, and is b…

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0810 – Nine Lines On the Spine (1-3) 4:01

28m ago4:01

4:01

2023.03.21 – 0810 – Nine Lines On the Spine (1-3) Nine Lines On the Spine 1. Why is this important? Well, your voice is affected by your postural alignment, and you will have better breathing and resonance if your ‘spine is fine’. That means using minimal effort for maximum effect: an efficient, effective and effortlessly good voice without the wor…

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0809 – Vocal Tension From Sitting and Standing 2:57

1h ago2:57

2:57

2023.03.20 – 0809 – Vocal Tension From Sitting and Standing Physical tension can come from sitting down and standing up It is very easy to stay still in a studio and only at the end of a programme realise that you have been in the same seat for three or four hours. Sitting still has your body relaxed into a sedentary position, your breathing slows …

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0808 – The Causes of Vocal Tension 2:48

36m ago2:48

2:48

2023.03.19 – 0808 – The Causes of Vocal Tension What Causes Tension Nerves. Overwhelm. Anxiety. Excitement. The unknown. Panic. Being underprepared. Being worried about how you sound. Concerns about your message and the audience’s reception to it. Any physical niggle can affect your voice. That’s anything from a paper cut to menstrual cramps, disco…

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0807 – Tension and Relaxation 3:03

1h ago3:03

3:03

2023.03.18 – 0807 – Tension and Relaxation We looked at releasing tension in the mouth, jaw, tongue and lips in the previous chapter, but as the Voice Box above shows, physical tension that can affect your voice can be in many other places. “Tension murders vibration (and) vibrations thrive in relaxation” Kristin Linklater, “Freeing the Natural Voi…

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0806 – Stretching and Strengthening Your Laryngeal Muscle 2:30

1h ago2:30

2:30

2023.03.17 – 0806 – Stretching and Strengthening Your Laryngeal Muscle There are around 27 muscles in and around the larynx, 15 of these are outside the larynx and hold it in position in the neck, 12 are essential, with a direct action on the vocal folds in their lengthening and shortening, tension and relaxation, thinning and thickening. These lar…

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0805 – Your Physical Health 2:04

2h ago2:04

2:04

2023.03.16 – 0805 – Your Physical Health In the previous chapter we looked at your vocal zones and how looking after them affects the way you sound. Earlier in the course we discussed the ‘art of breathing’ and how sitting and standing ‘properly’, affects how you sound. Now, we’ll take a look at the wider body and its effect on your voice, includin…

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0804 – The Cool-Down Low-Down 5:11

5h ago5:11

5:11

2023.03.15 – 0804 – The Cool-Down Low-Down % The cool down low-down There is a need to ease yourself back to normality after extensive vocalising, resetting to ‘neutral’ rather than just stopping suddenly. You have used your voice lots, perhaps been a bit stressed and had adrenaline, you might have projected a bit more, put on a character voice (pe…

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0803 – Green Kings Singing 4:00

8d ago4:00

4:00

2023.03.14 – 0803 – Green Kings Singing Green Kings Singing · Slowly and carefully say the phrase “green kings sing-ging” . Note how I’ve written the last word, split in two, that’s because I want you to say it that way, “sing” and then “ging” stressing the ‘ng’ and hard ‘g’ sounds, so you can be conscious of where the sounds are being made. Hosted…

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0802 – The ‘siNG soNG’ Vocal Warm Up 6:40

9d ago6:40

6:40

2023.03.13 – 0802 – The ‘siNG soNG’ Vocal Warm Up Nasal It’s important to be comfortable in diverting sounded air from your nasal cavity to the mouth and vice-versa. The Nasal Siren · Say the word “song” and take that ‘ng’ sound that is sent through your nasal cavity and keep it going. Then carefully glide up the register (sometimes called ‘tonal s…

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0801 – The ‘This & That’ Vocal Warm Up 2:18

1d ago2:18

2:18

2023.03.12 – 0801 – The ‘This & That’ Vocal Warm Up This & That Say the word “this” and “that” and you’ll notice that to make the “th” you put the tip of your tongue between your teeth. · Say ‘th’ again and make it a long, buzzing sound ‘ththththththth’, feel your larynx vibrate by resting a couple of fingers on it · Stick your tongue out a bit fur…

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0800 – The ‘Puh-Tuh-Kuh Puh-Tuh-Kuh’ Vocal Warm Up 2:25

41m ago2:25

2:25

2023.03.11 – 0800 – The ‘Puh-Tuh-Kuh Puh-Tuh-Kuh’ Vocal Warm Up The Puh-Tuh-Kuh exercise · Without pushing or forcing, sound “puh-tuh-kuh” individually, slowly at first, noticing how the different words are created in different places in your mouth and with different tongue movements, over enunciate with exaggerated lip, jaw, and tongue movements ·…

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0799 – A Trill-iantly Easy Lip Warm-Up 3:22

40m ago3:22

3:22

2023.03.10 – 0799 – A Trill-iantly Easy Lip Warm-Up Lip trills These encourage you to relax your mouth and lips, easing the muscles associated with enunciating, warming them up and encourage a consistent air flow · Close your mouth and teeth and relax your lips and cheeks · Exhale to vibrate your lips until you use up all your breath (if this is tr…

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0798 – Giving Your Lips A Work-Pout 3:22

11d ago3:22

3:22

2023.03.09 – 0798 – Giving Your Lips A Work-Pout Lips Give your lips a work-pout with these great exercises. Lip pouts · Make an exaggerated extended lip-purse as though moving in for a big kiss. Open and close the lips while in this position, like a fish (a ‘trout pout’?!) · Then tuck them in, folding them against each other inside your mouth · Ad…

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0797 – The ‘Pucker Muscle’ and the ‘Smile Muscle’ 1:49

1d ago1:49

1:49

2023.03.08 – 0797 – The ‘Pucker Muscle’ and the ‘Smile Muscle’ The ‘Pucker Muscle’ and the ‘Smile Muscle’ The ‘pucker muscle’ that controls lip movement to shape sounds is the ‘orbicularis oris’ muscle. The’ zygomaticus major’ runs from your cheekbone to the corners of your mouth to help create smiles and other facial expressions, as well as sounds…

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0796 – Bits About Lips 6:03

3d ago6:03

6:03

2023.03.07 – 0796 – Bits About Lips Bits About Lips Lips are more than just the ‘lipstick bit’, their muscles extend into the cheeks and so affect (and are affected by) the whole of the face and expression. Holding tension in yur lips, or barely using them when speaking (some people rely on their tongue to do a lot of the hard articulatory work), c…

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0795 - The ‘Mouth’s Mystery Muscle’ 1:48

4d ago1:48

1:48

2023.03.06 – 0795 - The ‘Mouth’s Mystery Muscle’ Tongue Root Tension and the ‘Mouth’s Mystery Muscle’ We all know about the tongue yeah? We can see it in our mouth, we know it is very sensitive to temperature, taste and texture (babies instinctively feel things with their tongue), and its complex fibres and nerves makes an extraordinary range of pr…

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0794 – Blowing Raspberries 1:29

17d ago1:29

1:29

2023.03.05 – 0794 – Blowing Raspberries Blowing Raspberries · Relax your mouth, lips and cheeks and slightly stick out your tongue, resting it on your lower lip. · Slowly exhale as you blow a raspberry, vibrating your tongue, lips and cheeks. (Beware of spittle!) · Now gently vocalise that airflow creating a slow deep vibration · Next, keeping a co…

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0793 – The Right Way To Use Tongue Twisters As An Articulation Exercise 6:34

6d ago6:34

6:34

2023.03.04 – 0793 – The Right Way To Use Tongue Twisters As An Articulation Exercise Tongue Twisters Once you have warmed up the tongue, you can try some tongue twisters to put it through its paces (if you try a tongue twister before you’ve warmed up the tongue and you’ll just end up tongue-tied and demoralised…) What do I like about a tongue-twist…

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0792 – The ‘Tongue Curl’ Vocal Exercise 4:26

19d ago4:26

4:26

2023.03.03 – 0792 – The ‘Tongue Curl’ Vocal Exercise Curled Tongue · Put the tip of your tongue behind your lower front teeth, and arch the middle of your tongue so it touches the roof of your mouth. Repeat five times, like press-ups for the tongue! · Now open your mouth and, with a relaxed jaw and the tip of your tongue still behind your lower fro…

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0791 – A Drumroll For The Tongue 2:00

8d ago2:00

2:00

2023.03.02 – 0791 – A Drumroll For The Tongue Tongue Trills · Relax your mouth and tongue and have your lips slightly apart. Purr like a cat (or like a drumroll), relaxing your tongue and letting its tip vibrate on the roof of your mouth just behind the upper teeth, as you breathe out. · Try this gently at first before you make the vibration faster…

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0790 – The ‘Toothpaste Tongue’ Vocal Exercise 1:45

9d ago1:45

1:45

2023.03.01 – 0790 – The ‘Toothpaste Tongue’ Vocal Exercise Toothpaste Tongue · Imagine there’s a blob of toothpaste on the tip of your tongue and give each tooth and individual clean with the tip of the tongue. · Keep the jaw as relaxed as possible as you run your tongue all around your mouth to ‘clean’ it: between lips and gums, behind teeth, alon…

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0789 – Getting a ‘Slug Tongue’ 1:08

22d ago1:08

1:08

2023.02.28 – 0789 – Getting a ‘Slug Tongue’ Slug Tongue Relax the jaw, drop the tongue out of the mouth and count slowly out loud to 10. Then recite the ‘Happy Birthday’ song or something similar, keeping your tongue relaxed and floppy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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0788 – Tongue Stretches 6:54

23d ago6:54

6:54

2023.02.27 – 0788 – Tongue Stretches Tongue Stretches · Open and relax your mouth with your lips apart, then stick out your tongue as far as it will stretch. Hold it there for 30 seconds while breathing. Check you are not tightening your neck muscles (use a mirror or put a hand on your neck to feel for tension) · Stick your tongue out and slowly dr…

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0787 – Tongue Fun 3:23

24d ago3:23

3:23

2023.02.26 – 0787 – Tongue Fun The Tongue Your tongue is a major articulator helping form sounds into recognisable words (as well as being used in swallowing and eating). It moves courtesy of eight muscles: four intrinsic muscles run along its length and change and the shape of the tongue (lengthening and shortening it, curling and uncurling its ti…

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0786 – The Exaggeration Vocal Exercise 3:18

13d ago3:18

3:18

2023.02.25 – 0786 – The Exaggeration Vocal Exercise Over Enunciation Silently say a phrase (“Get A Better Broadcast, Podcast and Voice Over Voice”) with really exaggerated mouth, lip and jaw movements. Repeat it, with really big, animated and exaggerated articulation. Now put the sound in and keep the performance. Finally, relax and speak the phras…

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0785 – Jaw Massage 4:14

26d ago4:14

4:14

2023.02.24 – 0785 – Jaw Massage Jaw Massage Let your jaw drop slightly and put the balls of your hands just under your cheekbones. Rub firmly into the hollows of your cheeks as you let the lower jaw drop into a more open position. Temple Massage With the tips of your fingers, massage your temples as you open and close the jaw, circular movements in…

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0784 – The Toffee and Chipmunk Jaw Exercises 8:39

27d ago8:39

8:39

2023.02.23 – 0784 – The Toffee and Chipmunk Jaw Exercises The Jaw If you experience a popping or clicking in their jaw, it’s a possible sign that you are tensing or clenching it too much. But of course, you need to be able to drop the jaw when you speak, to allow the tongue to move freely and the sound to come out. Some of the muscles that close th…

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0783 – The ‘Silent Laugh’ Vocal Exercise 1:19

29d ago1:19

1:19

2023.02.22 – 0783 – The ‘Silent Laugh’ Vocal Exercise The Silent Laugh Imagine you’ve just been told a joke but you’re not allowed to laugh out loud, instead do so silently and gently inside your throat with no sound. If you find this tricky at first, laugh vocally, and sense what is happening inside your mouth and throat and replicate this, silent…

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0782 – The ‘Yawn Sigh’ Vocal Exercise 7:02

17d ago7:02

7:02

2023.02.21 – 0782 – The ‘Yawn Sigh’ Vocal Exercise Throat The Yawn Sigh Yawning opens and stretches muscles at the back of your throat. · Stand up and inhale as you yawn, a full-bodied one, wide and deep. Get your whole body involved: open your mouth, keep your tongue relaxed and gently touching your lower teeth, soft palate raised, stretching and …

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0781 – The Ubiquitous Panting Exercise 4:23

18d ago4:23

4:23

2023.02.20 – 0781 – The Ubiquitous Panting Exercise Panting Your vocal folds make a tense and strained sound if they are closing too tightly over the airflow, but a pleasant and easy sound is made when the folds meet and vibrate, stimulated by air passing over them. In this exercise we’ll first work on ‘aspirant consonants’ which are produced with …

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0780 – Tarzan and The Wake-Up Hum 9:23

19d ago9:23

9:23

2023.02.19 – 0780 – Tarzan and The Wake-Up Hum Let’s start with the larynx. Larynx Your voice needs to start slow, so we’ll start by awakening the cords with humming, a great go-to for easing-in your instrument. The Wake-up Hum Be sure that your jaw is loose and your teeth are separated to create more room for resonance. Humm from your throat and c…

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0779 – Why Warm Up Your Voice? 2:59

20d ago2:59

2:59

2023.02.18 – 0779 – Why Warm Up Your Voice? Warming up The intensity, speed and duration of any voice-over work can cause vocal fatigue. Not warming up will lead to a longer recovery time and possible ongoing injury. These exercises will improve your vocal flexibility and eliminate unnecessary levels of tension in your body and voice. The Exercises…

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0778 – Vocal Exercise Advise 4:22

21d ago4:22

4:22

2023.02.17 – 0778 – Vocal Exercise Advise A quick health warning: · Like at the gym, always do a warm-up before you do a work-out · The first part of the warm-up (see below) should also include physical and mental work, which in this book you will find in separate chapters · Pace yourself. Vocal exercises should be challenging in a similar way to g…

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0777 – Vocal Work-Outs, Warm-Ups and Winding Down 5:01

22d ago5:01

5:01

2023.02.16 – 0777 – Vocal Work-Outs, Warm-Ups and Winding Down %VOCAL WORK-OUTS, WARM-UPS AND WINDING DOWN A dance or sports person wouldn’t dream of performing without a warm-up, or suddenly stop at the end of a race without a cool-down regime. To do otherwise would risk temporary or permanent injury to their muscles and ligaments, and they would …

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0776 – Help! I’m Getting A Cold! 5:22

23d ago5:22

5:22

2023.02.15 – 0776 – Help! I’m Getting A Cold! Help! I’m getting a cold! (Or blocked nose, sneezes and sniffles, itchy mouth, catarrh, sore throat, dry cough, headache, hoarseness and general feeling of being unwell… it’s all literally a pain in the neck.) During this period your voice will sound deeper, rougher and may almost disappear, because swo…

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0775 – Vocal Fold Haemorrhage 2:05

24d ago2:05

2:05

2023.02.14 – 0775 – Vocal Fold Haemorrhage Continued talking may lead to ‘vocal nodules’ on your folds, which are common with loud, tense, constant talkers. (Polyps are similar but usually occur after a single cough or shout, rather than long-term abuse, and happen when the folds haemorrhage.) Know your body. If your body is hurting (even a sore th…

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0774 – Voice Advice From Justin Timberlake and Larry Hagman 2:07

25d ago2:07

2:07

2023.02.13 – 0774 – Voice Advice From Justin Timberlake and Larry Hagman ‘Resting’ actors Larry Hagman was best known for playing ruthless oil baron J. R. Ewing in the 1978–1991 primetime television soap opera ‘Dallas’ and the befuddled astronaut Major Anthony Nelson in the 1965–1970 sitcom ‘I Dream of Jeannie’. For 20 years he undertook “silent Su…

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0773 – Polyps, Nodules and Phonal Trauma 2:21

26d ago2:21

2:21

2023.02.12 – 0773 – Polyps, Nodules and Phonal Trauma Treating your voice badly, shouting[1], smoking or straining it, is not showing it the respect it deserves. These actions can lead to ‘phonal trauma’ such as nodules or polyps (small growths) on your vocal folds. These can be painful and if they heal at all can take a long time. At an extreme, t…

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0772 – The Greatest Vocal Athletes 2:21

27d ago2:21

2:21

2023.02.11 – 0772 – The Greatest Vocal Athletes The voice-overs with perhaps the most vocal stamina have to be the audiobook narrators. Recording day after day for a total of 70 hours is not unheard of, and on top of that (for fiction books at least) creating and remembering different voices and accents for different characters, and reading with di…

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0771 – Vocal Conditioning Through Proper Pacing 1:44

28d ago1:44

1:44

2023.02.10 – 0771 – Vocal Conditioning Through Proper Pacing If your body is tired, your voice sounds tired: it’s one of the first areas where your lack of zeds shows itself. Before a recording session, get plenty of sleep so your voice doesn’t sound too husky or in a lower register than the producer was expecting when they booked you from your dem…

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0770 – Why Having A Secret May Be Hurting Your Voice 1:14

29d ago1:14

1:14

2023.02.09 – 0770 – Why Having A Secret May Be Hurting Your Voice Whispering – Normal speaking is with a regular airflow and closure. With whispering you get no closure and you need more effort to make a lesser sound. Try it right now and feel the strain your vocal cords are under. What you are doing is pushing them into an unusual shape and then p…

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0769 – Why African Elephants In Underpants May Be Hurting Your Voice 3:55

30d ago3:55

3:55

2023.02.08 – 0769 – Why African Elephants In Underpants May Be Hurting Your Voice Vowels Say the following phrase aloud, word by word: “African. Elephants. In. Our. Underpants”. Each word begins with a vowel, A, E, I, O and U. And as we saw before, it’s these sounds that are made with a lot of potential pressure on the larynx. Say “African” again a…

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0768 – What To Say To An Anaesthetist 1:49

1M ago1:49

1:49

2023.02.07 – 0768 – What To Say To An Anaesthetist Surgery – Intubation is when a tube is fed into your mouth (‘endotracheal intubation’) or nose (‘nasogastric intubation’) and then into the airway to help you with breathing, deliver anaesthesia or medications, and bypass a blockage. Be aware of the potential damage to your vocal folds during intub…

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0767 – How A Kettle Can Help Your Voice 2:15

1M ago2:15

2:15

2023.02.06 – 0767 – How A Kettle Can Help Your Voice Steam inhaling - can help the health of the vocal folds and the mucous membranes that line the nasal and mouth cavities. Steaming once or twice a day for 10-15 minutes will: · allow the water vapour to get into places that no lozenge, gargle or linctus can ever reach, soothing and moisturising an…

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0766 –Voice Problems Caused By Shouting and Smoking 3:21

2M ago3:21

3:21

2023.02.05 – 0766 –Voice Problems Caused By Shouting and Smoking Shouting – causes the folds are slammed together harshly. Consider why you are shouting – perhaps it’s because of a loud and busy newsroom, or maybe you are going slightly deaf…? If you are tempted to pick up some part time work say behind a bar where you have to raise your voice to b…

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0765 – How Snoring May Be Causing Voice Problems 2:03

2M ago2:03

2:03

2023.02.04 – 0765 – How Snoring May Be Causing Voice Problems Mouth breathing and snoring - can dry your vocal folds (as we saw previously, part of the job the nostrils have is to humidify the air as it enters your body). Although it’s OK to take gasps of air through your mouth as you speak, try to otherwise inhale through your nose. That’s especia…

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