What does everyone know about vocal pain?

[Sybil]

I've been using my voice for a very long time now. It's passable and normal, and as a result, has become an afterthought. About three weeks ago, my voice began to hurt. It's a sore feeling that definitely pops up with the more that I speak, in either voice. It seems localized to the left side. This has never been an issue for me. I'm very worried, and very frustrated. It feels a bit better if I don't speak for a day or two, but I rarely get the opportunity to rest for many days. I don't experience voice loss. I have been trying to quit smoking and caffeine, thinking these might be contributing considerably or enabled the problem in the first place.

In this thread, for anyone kind enough to take the time, I'm looking for:

1. Anything you know about proper vocal technique. I won't list what I know; I don't want to create a bias in any responders.
2. What you think the problem might be and what possible solutions are.
3. Any experiences from anyone who has gone through something similar.
4. Please don't answer with "just go see a doctor." I know that and I will as soon as I can. I'm not looking to hear common sense; I'm capable of that on my own. I'm looking for perspectives particular to my problem.

[anjaq]

I experiences a vocal pain after speaking sevel years in my trained voice. I also experienced a loss in pitch and quality because I seem to have strained my voice. It was in the end bad enough that it did not matter what voice I used. What I felt was that I had a lump in my throat when speaking a lot, I had to cough or clear my throat a lot. No voice loss really but a  feeling like I was maybe getting a bit of a cold. Diagnosis with an ENT said I am having an hourglass shape in my vocal folds, so that they only tough in the middle, which was due to my efforts of speaking feminine. Therapy was suggested and I did seveal weeks of it. The main thing we did there was gliassandos with lip flutter to start with. this already helped a lot in relaxing the voice. The reason for the pain was overtensioning. We also did additional relaxation exercises but also some things to bring the right sort of tension into it - longitudinal tensioning. So we increased air flow (saying "fffffffoooooo" and such), improved breathing and standing upright and such. I had some success, the hourglass shape is gone for now, but my voice sadly dropped a bit. On the upside I can modulate my voice now better. I was getting problems with that before - starting to sound monotonous again and also I was not able to hold a tone for more than 10 seconds. Maybe this helps a bit?

[Ms Grace]

The only thing I can think of is vocal cord nodules - sure hope it isn't that though. Back when I did voice training I was told I had to be careful not to stress my cords with too high a pitch, or that kind of damage was a possibility.

[Ltl89]

I know this isn't too helpful, but whenever I sing up high for too long I tend to get pain.  Usually it goes away with some time and rest.  Sorry you are going through this and hope you feel better soon. 

[anjaq]

I was told that I was lucky not to have nodules but they were about to form due to my efforts to change my voice and that hourglass shape that resulted from that in the long run.

[Sybil]

I experiences a vocal pain after speaking sevel years in my trained voice. I also experienced a loss in pitch and quality because I seem to have strained my voice. It was in the end bad enough that it did not matter what voice I used. What I felt was that I had a lump in my throat when speaking a lot, I had to cough or clear my throat a lot. No voice loss really but a  feeling like I was maybe getting a bit of a cold. Diagnosis with an ENT said I am having an hourglass shape in my vocal folds, so that they only tough in the middle, which was due to my efforts of speaking feminine. Therapy was suggested and I did seveal weeks of it. The main thing we did there was gliassandos with lip flutter to start with. this already helped a lot in relaxing the voice. The reason for the pain was overtensioning. We also did additional relaxation exercises but also some things to bring the right sort of tension into it - longitudinal tensioning. So we increased air flow (saying "fffffffoooooo" and such), improved breathing and standing upright and such. I had some success, the hourglass shape is gone for now, but my voice sadly dropped a bit. On the upside I can modulate my voice now better. I was getting problems with that before - starting to sound monotonous again and also I was not able to hold a tone for more than 10 seconds. Maybe this helps a bit?

This does help, so much, thank you. I will spend quite a bit of time looking into these. I'm really trying to exercise proper vocal technique because not only am I unlikely to be able to afford a trainer, but transportation and scheduling is a massive issue for me. I will absolutely look into the methods you've described here. Too much tension and lack of breath are things I noticed I was doing, too, so what you've shared with me seems promising.

In the future, would you mind if I PM you to find out more vocal therapy you may have done?


To the rest of you: thank you for your replies. I really hope I don't have any vocal cord nodules, that has been a worry of mine. I'm trying to convince my boss to give me next week off so I can rest my voice and see if there is any improvement.

[anjaq]

Of course you can PM me. I doubt that you have nodules yet, AFAIK they develop if you talk for a long time in the wrong way and especially if you do not stop talking too much when you already feel it is hurting.