Have you seen movies that use “God” as a character? Obviously, the first actor you have in mind is the Hollywood actor, Morgan Freeman, and his iconic deep voice. It really sounds authoritative and calming, and out of curiosity, you want to know how to make your voice deeper like his.
Why Would You Want to Make Your Voice Deeper?
Is it really a big deal for you to have a deep voice? For guys and perhaps some girls, the answer might be yes. The reasons for having a deep voice can boil down into 2 personal purposes:
• A Deeper Voice Gains a Manly Appeal
Boy band singers and pop icons such as Michael Jackson and Justin Bieber have such an overwhelming number of fans because of their singing voices that can hit any pleasing note. Guys want to be as popular as them while girls want to be with them. However, all that swagger and appeal can be overshadowed by a man with just a deep voice and great diction.
That deep voice sounds very attractive to most girls, maybe due to its calmness and being a symbol of manliness. However, do not set this as one of the triggers for toxic masculinity. In our society, there can be many things that attract women, and it just so happens that having a deep voice effortlessly made it to the top of the list.
• A Deeper Voice Can Be an Investment for a Career
If you are a natural, you can aim for being a broadcaster or a singer if you’re blessed with talent. If you are just a normal guy trying hard to change voices, then the best you can do is probably aim to be a voice actor. However, a deep voice is usually an asset in all careers involving interaction through voice like flight attendants, call center agents, salespersons, and even teachers.
How is a Deeper Voice Produced in the First Place?
When you are not gifted with such a “god-like” voice, you might be attempting to try deepening it by lengthening your cadences and speaking with more force. However, that’s not really a good idea. The reason is that you’re actually exerting stress by reconfiguring your natural voice. That can even end up damaging if being kept up.
So, how do you deepen your voice? Is it even possible when talking long-term? To answer that, let’s first understand how a human voice is produced.
The human voice is a sound generated by manipulating the air inside. The air is taken in by inhaling through the nostrils and mouth, and it will then stay in your lungs. To create sound, the air must flow outward again by exhaling.
The outgoing air will undergo the larynx, and inside it is a part responsible for giving you a distinct voice – your vocal cords, also called vocal folds. This organ vibrates and changes the frequency of the outgoing air. The higher the frequency, the higher pitch your voice has, and the lower the frequency, the deeper your voice will be.
Your vocal cords are entirely dependent on the muscles of your throat area. That is why, the louder your voice or the more air is being exerted outward to create a larger sound, the more work those throat muscles will do. But, there are techniques to solve that.
“Use your diaphragm when singing” – this sounds familiar, right? The diaphragm is a piece of muscle located at the bottom of the rib cage. It is capable of “pushing” and “pulling” air, and this will serve as a catapult for the said air in order to output a sound. With that process, the throat muscles’ workload is being reduced and will have less pressure.
The key to making your voice deeper lies in the capability of your vocal cords. But because this organ is unique in every human, forcefully deepening your natural voice without any training or valid assistance can add unnecessary stress. Deepening your voice permanently can’t be achieved without changing the nature of your vocal cords.
Factors Affecting the Depth of Your Voice
Deepening your voice permanently is not possible without doing something medically, but for certain moments, there can be methods to achieve that. Before we go to the methods, let’s first discuss how a distinct voice can be achieved.
Each one of us has a unique voice capability due to the following factors:
• Gender
Naturally, all males will develop a deep voice during puberty. This is due to testosterone affecting the changes of their bodies and thickening their vocal cords. If you can hit a falsetto after adolescence, maybe you should try to be a singer because that is such a gift not to be wasted.
• Heredity
Females can also have a deep voice, but that depends on their genes. If there are certain characteristics of having a deep voice being exhibited by the older females of the family, the chances of also having one are relatively high.
The vocal capacity is not directly inherited, but the aspects that influence it, like muscle development, the respiratory organs’ capability, and the mental strength to exert control, are all dependent on what is being inherited from the ancestry.
• Physical Structure
The physical structure is inherited and can also be manipulated to a certain degree. Your height and maximum muscle definition are at the mercy of the gene pool, but your lung capacity and mental state can be changed.
If ever you have come across a 7-foot tall man, his voice will sound deep and can even be unclear. A muscular strong man who gains muscles, injects nutrients to raise his testosterone levels, and has the ability to exert more power is definitely capable of having a deep voice despite being naturally unable to.
• Medical Condition
Have you experienced having the flu? Can you remember the feeling of having a runny nose? It is really frustrating to speak fluently and normally due to the effects of the illness on the nasal activity or lung capacity.
The amount and quality of air taken in and regulated are affected, so the voice changes temporarily. This is termed as “nasal voice” because the functions of the nose to gather air are limited and the dynamics of the outgoing air are compromised.
Another common unfortunate medical condition is a sore throat. This is usually present when you have the flu. Obviously, your throat muscles are under stress. Other infections where the functions of respiratory organs are being attacked can also affect the voice overall.
There are instances where people with sickness still doing bad habits can lead to a permanent inability to reset their voices back to normal even though they are totally healed. Smoking is one of such bad habits. Another good example is shouting.
Inborn anomalies such as a cleft palate and deviated septum as well as freak accidents that change the facial structures can also affect the natural production of voice. The only solution for these is a medical procedure.
Different Methods to Make Your Voice Deeper
So far, we have learned how a voice is produced and what factors can affect its quality. This time, let’s now tackle how to deepen your voice. You can either apply methods on your own, seek professional help, or have your voice permanently modified through medical procedures.
1. Become Your Own Vocal Trainer to train your voice to be deeper
You can train your own voice to sound deeper, though it can range from a moment to a few good hours. The process takes preparation, and failing to do so can result in unwanted results. Here are ways to aid your own vocal training:
• Personal Evaluation
The first thing you need to do in order to make adjustments is to find a starting point. In this case, it will be your current voice. The way you hear yourself speaking might not be what others hear from you. You can record your own voice, listen to the playback, and observe the aspects you need to work on.
You have to identify how you produce your sound, whether nasally or articulately. You also want to check if you are monotonous, if your cadences are elaborate, and if you exert power using your diaphragm. These details are only noticed when you observe yourself speaking, and they can be measured by how much effort you put into it.
• Humming
Humming is a form of warming up your vocal cords. It is similar to gargling water, except that you are gargling air. You let your throat muscles prepare for the amount of workload needed and condition the vocal cords’ vibration.
Hum at the start of your day. Take a deep breath, utilize the air for humming, and stay that way as long as possible. Exhale, then repeat humming. After that, try to speak in a low voice clearly. If there is no difficulty, then you’re good to go, but you still want to continue the exercise otherwise.
• Diaphragmatic Breathing
This is one of the basic exercises used by trained singers. The diaphragm is a muscle, and like all other muscles, it unleashes power when flexed. The power is then transmitted to the outgoing air, thus causing you to have a more profound sound.
To perform diaphragmatic breathing, establish a good posture, either standing or sitting. Maintain the position of your chest and shoulders while inhaling. They must not be raised and the area below your solar plexus must enlarge.
If you can notice it, the inhaled air flows all throughout the stomach area. Hold for a couple of seconds and exhale while still maintaining the form. The enlarged area must be deflated, and it will be the only thing inflated once you start inhaling.
Try to test your deep voice using the diaphragmatic breathing technique you just learned. For best results, practice it daily until it becomes second in nature.
• Airflow Exercise
Your voice also depends on the regulation of vibrated air. You can practice this “straw exercise” daily in order to develop a familiarity with your breathing.
Take a deep breath using the diaphragmatic technique. Put a straw in the mouth and exhale slowly as if you are maintaining a steady pace of the outgoing air. After exhaling, remove the straw, take a deep breath using the same technique, and exhale while trying to make a deep sound.
Repeat the step until you are satisfied. This exercise, if done daily, can give you more awareness of your pacing and enhances vocal control.
• Chest Voice Enhancement
The chest voice is defined as a type of voice production not totally reliant on the throat muscles. The air regulation is being controlled by the chest muscles. To exercise this, do the following steps:
• Breathe through your diaphragm.
• As you exhale, try to talk while you feel the inhaled air going out.
• Observe that there are small vibrations on the chest while you are speaking and exhaling.
• Inflection Choice
Inflection, modulation, cadence – whatever it is called, it means the sequence of how you speak. This can be robotic, sarcastic, or authoritative. How you pace the words you speak demonstrates an impression of speaking deeply.
You can choose the pace on how you talk using your recently acquired deep voice. Usually, the downward inflection is more preferable because you finish speaking on a lesser pitch.
2. Food Intake
One of the necessary things you have to take in to reinforce your newly achieved voice depth is water. With all that air manipulation, surely your throat needs some lubrication. Drink lukewarm water a bit more than the recommended normal volume as much as possible.
Water can definitely lubricate your throat muscles, but the choice of having it lukewarm is crucial. A glass of cold water after exerting work on your vocal cords by changing your voice depth can provide a shock. Moreover, the overworked muscles might shut down.
If you really want a cold one, rest your vocal cords by not speaking for a few minutes, depending on the amount of stress, before drinking.
As mentioned, hormones in males are responsible for bodily changes. One of the changes is the deepening of their voice. Therefore, food that enhances testosterone levels like beef, tuna, egg yolks, and milk can be very encouraging.
If you want instant results, hormonal injections and supplements are tempting. You may achieve a deep voice, but the side effects can be risky if the intake is left unchecked.
3. Good and Bad Habits to Make Your Voice Deeper
All of your preparation will be for naught if you fail to ditch the old habits and neglect to develop the good ones. Here are some of the habits encouraged and discouraged while you are on your quest to deepen your voice.
Good Habits
a. Do some stretching, especially on the neck, shoulder, chest, and abdominal areas. Once the tension is eased up on those muscle groups, exerting effort in deepening your voice might be less straining.
b. Perform exercises that strengthen the neck muscles for that throat activity and/or the core muscles. Also, perform cardiovascular exercises to increase your lung capacity.
c. Make sure to gargle your mouth with lukewarm water. You can either add lemon or honey in it every morning or after every meal. Good hygiene deflects any infection from the mouth and sinuses while protecting the organs inside such as the lungs.
Bad Habits
a. Ditch smoking and vaping if you are serious about maintaining your deep voice to prevent any future complications on your respiratory system.
b. Drink alcohol moderately since it impairs personal judgment and the toxicity might cause unwanted changes on your hard-earned, trained vocal cord.
c. As much as possible, avoid shouting irresponsibly. As you shout, the air taken in is unleashed in one go, and your vocal cords which are in the way can become a casualty in the process.
4. Outside Solutions to Make Your Voice Deeper
If you have doubts about yourself due to your inconsistencies and lack of better judgment, then it will be effective if you seek professional help. Try the services of a vocal coach rather than a singing coach.
What’s the difference? Well, your speaking voice will be more utilized rather than your singing capability. If you are going to hire a vocal coach, here are some of the things you must learn in the process:
• How consonants and vowels are shaped differently
• Isolating the many elements of speech
• How to project the mouth and lips upon speaking
• How to position your tongue when speaking
• Relaxing the jaw and neck muscles
• Proper posture to maximize speaking
• Developing breath control
• Proper breathing through the diaphragm
• How to articulate speech
• Proper awareness of pitch and vocal range
Looks like a heavy investment, right? However, if you are not looking for serious ways or not looking for any voice change on a long-term basis, then you can just use plenty of apps on your smartphone. This can be applied when there is no need for physical interaction.
For singing, there is a popular concept called “auto-tune”. It can manipulate the voice a lot that it even transforms a tone-deaf individual into a professional singer. If it can do that much, then it can definitely lower your voice.
5. Surgical Methods to Make Your Voice Deeper
If you want permanent results, then you can consider medical and surgical methods. Hormonal injection can increase testosterone count, and it will possibly lead to the deepening of your voice. This injection carries a risk of overdosing and might even develop complications slowly.
Several surgical methods for changing your voice already exist, but most of them focus on feminizing one’s voice. This is because most of these procedures find it easier to remove the lower pitch rather than removing the higher pitch. One popular surgery used to deepen one’s voice is called “pitch lowering surgery”.
The pitch lowering surgery lowers your pitch by having the vocal cords loosen up (called as thyroplasty) or by having the soft tissue rearranged to add a certain amount of mass on the vocal cords (called as microlaryngeal).
• Surgical Risks
There are risks involved in a removal such as bleeding or even an infection. It is such a crucial surgery that you might not even get the pitch you wanted.
• Procedures of the Surgery
Thyroplasty surgery is done under sedation or general anesthesia in an outpatient setting. When you are out cold, a 1 to 2 and a half inches of an incision will be placed near or parallel to your Adam’s apple. The cut, shaped like a diamond, is then centered on your vocal cords and loosen them internally. After the procedure, the incision is then closed.
The microlaryngeal surgery is also performed similarly to how thyroplasty surgery is done. A laser will be used to cut through the laryngeal tissue. The bulk remaining will be transferred to the area near the vocal cords to increase the mass.
• Rate Of Recovery
Regardless of which type of procedure you choose, there will be some sort of success early on. There can be swelling after the surgery, but it will definitely subside days after. The ideal period for recovery is 2 to 3 months.
In order to gain faster recovery right after surgery, you must stop talking for an entire week. Exercises will have to resume a month after.
Conclusion
Aside from medical procedures, there are no permanent solutions on how to make your voice deeper. You can do it temporarily by performing exercises and removing unwanted habits. For the following day, you can prepare to sound deeper again, until you become familiar with the routine as time goes by.
A deep voice is a symbol of masculinity. There is no denying the attractive value it has on women and how much it displays one’s dominance while maintaining a calm state. Choosing to enhance this is not a sign of toxicity but only adherence to the nature of men.
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