The Warm Up

1. Take the first two to three minutes stretching your upper body (or if you have time the
whole body). Reach up with your arms; try to bring your elbows together in the back. Shake
your hands down by your side.
2. Roll your shoulders. Begin first with the left shoulder. Roll it eight to 10 times. Allow the
rotations to become larger as it is comfortable to do so. Repeat with the right shoulder.
Make the movements slow and easy.
3. Roll your neck with eight to 10 rotations to the right and left. Make these motions slow and
sweeping. Start with your chin straight down against your sternum. Think about your chin
as a pendulum. Roll your chin over to the right shoulder. Hold this position for a slow count
to five. Move your chin back to the middle. Repeat on the left side. Each time you roll, stop
in the middle. Hold these positions for a slow count of five. When you do this activity, let
your mouth open slightly.
4. Now, take 10 deep breaths into the lower abdomen. Feel your stomach expand; feel your
lower back fill with air. Pay careful attention to your chest and neck which should both
remain still and flat. Lay a hand on your stomach and one on your chest to feel their
movements.
As you breathe in, the stomach should move outward. As you breathe out, the stomach
should flatten. Remember that breathing is a matter of moving the muscles of the stomach,
without tensing the muscles of the chest and shoulders.
After the 10 breaths, inhale through the nose or pursed lips then exhale with five easy “S”
sounds. After producing “S”, switch to “Z”. Concentrate on the vibration of your tongue and
roof of your mouth. Make sure your shoulders remain still.
5. Try some easy, exaggerated chewing, like you have a few pieces of bubble gum in your
mouth. If necessary, use your hands to massage your cheeks. Chew for two to three
minutes without making sound, then chant or hum while you are chewing. Let your voice
come out easily and softly.
6. Once you feel relaxed and warmed up, try counting in sequence, one (inhale); one, two
(inhale); one, two, three (inhale); one, two, three, four (inhale); one, two, three, four, five
(inhale); one, two, three, four, five, six (inhale), etc. Open your mouth as you count and
support your breath with your abdomen. Remember to use short inhales and longer exhales
as you increase each sequence. Count slowly and continuously—making all the numbers
connect together. As soon as you feel tension or are out of breath, stop. Set a goal for how
long you can comfortably count (10, 15, 20?).
Laryngeal and Vocal Cord Exercises
These exercises should be completed slowly and with attention to your voice quality. They
should be done at as low a volume as you can sustain. Anyone can belt out sounds, but the
exercise is in maintaining improved voice quality in your softest register. Have some water
close by so you can take sips during these exercises.
1. The Yawn-Sigh: Begin by attempting the most authentic yawn you can imagine. Lift your
chin slightly; open the mouth wide so that you feel a stretch in the jaw. Feel your voice box
in your throat with your flat hand on your neck. It should go down when you yawn. Pull
your tongue back along the floor of the mouth, and breathe in deeply. You may yawn better
by stretching your arms and shoulders as one might do in the morning.
As you exhale, sigh ‘ah’ and hold it out for three to five seconds. The voice quality should be
soft and cottony as it comes from deep in your throat. Don’t allow the voice to turn off mid-
way through your sigh. The exercise is in the soft cottony sigh. You should feel really open
in your throat. Repeat these yawn-sighs eight to 10 times slowly with attention to the
quality of the voice, the accuracy of your form, and the feeling of openness you get.
2. The Fog Horn: Begin with a deep lower abdominal breath (see step one of the warm up on
page 1). Purse your lips into a narrow ‘O’ shape. Make an ‘oo’ vowel sound (like ‘oops’) on a
low comfortable note and hold for six to eight seconds. Your voice quality should be very
quiet and breathy. Relax the cheeks and allow the breath to puff them out. There should be
some air flow through your lips (like you would do to make a candle light flicker). If you are
doing this exercise properly, you will feel a vibration in your lips or nose. If you don’t feel
this, try using a lower pitch and more air. Repeat 10 times.
3. The Lip or Tongue Trill: This exercise is similar to the fog horn above. Begin by taking a
deep lower abdominal breath. Bring the lips together and jut them out slightly. Make sure
your lips and cheeks are relaxed. Begin breathing out as you produce the sound “Brrrr.” The
lips should trill consistently. If they stop moving or stop trilling, take another breath and
begin again. If you have trouble trilling with your lips, try your tongue. Repeat 10 times.
4. The Pitch Slide: Your goal is to slide softly from your lowest pitch to your highest pitch as
you say the word “Whoop.” Make sure the sound is soft, with lots of breath support and with
an extra ‘puh’ sound at the end of the word. Imagine saying “Whoop-puh.” Repeat eight to
10 times, then reverse and slide your pitch from high to low. This time, say the word
“boom.” Repeat eight to 10 times. In both cases, focus on the sound and vibration at your
lips. The goal is to perform the slides without voice breaks.
 Saving the Most Valuable Teaching Tool — Teachers’
Voices

By Michael J. Pitman, M.D.

Millions of teachers across the country are preparing lesson plans and
stocking up on classroom supplies. Another thing teachers should be focusing
on, but often neglect, is their most valuable teaching tool — their voice.

Teachers have the highest vocal demands of any profession. They are
required to talk for many hours a day, often in poor acoustic environments.
There are now more students per classroom than ever before. This and
increased amounts of misbehavior mean more general stress and more
background noise in the classroom, all of which leads to increased vocal
strain for the teachers.

As a result, teachers are at great risk for occupational-related voice disorders.

In fact, about 58 percent of teachers will develop a voice disorder in their
lifetime, compared to 20 percent of people in the general population — and
the prevalence of voice issues among teachers has been increasing over the
years.

To make matters worse, it’s not just the teachers themselves who are
significantly impacted by vocal disorders. A 2004 study suggests that students
don’t learn as well when their teacher has a raspy voice.

So how can teachers continue to teach at a highly effective level without

straining their voices and without developing temporary or permanent voice
disorders?

Teachers should think of themselves as vocal athletes, and should give their
voices the same care and attention that athletes give their bodies. As with
many disorders, prevention is the key to staying healthy. Teachers, you can
protect and preserve your voices by:

 Keeping the vocal cords hydrated by drinking six to eight glasses of water a day.
 Resting the voice when it’s not necessary to use it.
 Spreading out the vocal demands throughout the day by using quiet work time or group
assignments.
 Using nonvocal cues to gain students’ attention, whether that’s raising a hand, clapping or
ringing a bell.
 Knowing your voice and paying attention to changes — when you feel like you’re getting hoarse,
curtail the use of your voice and share speaking responsibilities with a student or teaching
assistant.
 Performing warm-up and warm-down exercises at the start and end of the day. See here for
some suggestions.
 Steering clear of menthol, eucalyptus and mint lozenges — they might provide relief in the short
term, but are actually damaging to the voice.
 Using a personal microphone and speaker.
 Getting examined once a year by an ear, nose and throat physician or a laryngologist to ensure
that your vocal folds are healthy — and to discuss and identify risk factors before real problems
develop.
At The Voice and Swallowing Institute at The New York Eye and Ear
Infirmary, we specialize in the care of professional voice users — and
teachers are one of our most frequently seen professionals. Our laryngologist
and voice therapists work with teachers to uncover the root of their voice
problems. Did they have a cold and keep teaching? Have they developed
allergies? Has their teaching environment changed or have their vocal
demands increased? Has their diet changed and caused acid reflux or do they
have a polyp, nodule or growth on their vocal folds?

These are just a few of the factors that can cause vocal changes, and there’s
usually more than one factor involved. Consulting with a voice expert will help
to identify which factors, from the many possibilities, are causing the
symptoms. They will then develop a comprehensive, often multifaceted
treatment plan to restore and protect the voice.

Some teachers might consider voice problems an unavoidable occupational

hazard, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Unless you have a cold or
laryngitis, it’s not normal to have a hoarse voice. Hoarseness that lasts longer
than two weeks is never normal and should prompt a visit to a voice specialist
before a more serious problem develops. As a teacher, your voice is one of
your most important assets, so care for it and don’t lose it.