My voice is changing: do I need to see an E.N.T.?
Nick says: Hello! I have a few problems when it comes to my voice.
First of all, I hope you understand me ’cause I’m not a native speaker. (:
I’m 15 years old and I’ve been singing since I was 7. I used to have a high-pitched voice and at the age of 13 I began to take vocal lessons, which helped me a lot to improve on my singing. In fall 2007 my voice started to change and because I couldn’t even sing one song through, I decided to take a break from singing lessons. Of course, I sang though – but not as much as before because my voice always got raspy/hoarse and sometimes it started to hurt.
In the last couple of months, this problem has become better but I never had the impression that my vocal change ended – my head voice sounded like before, my chest voice didn’t really ‘mature’ even though it’s gotten deeper. Anyway I feel like I’m still in the puberty vocal change or maybe again because I’m no more able to control my voice the way that I used to. It’s raspy, high notes end in screaming and my head voice often ‘stays away’. Is it possible that my vocal change STILL hasn’t ended? Should I go to an ear, nose and throat specialist?
ANSWER: Dear Nick,
I empathize with your feelings of insecurity. Thank you for describing what you are going through with some detail. Do not fear. It is not only possible that your vocal change STILL has not ended, it is certain that that is the case. You don’t need to visit an Ear-Nose-Throat specialist.
The voice change in boys varies with the person. Some boys seem to change almost “overnight.” Other boys seem to go through alterations over a period of — dare I say it — years. The insecurity that you feel is very common. The inability to retain your high notes without a lot of strain – is also common. What you do need to allow is T I M E. Your voice is lowering as your larynx (voice box) and all the associated muscles and ligaments grow. “Control” is frequently something that is lost early, and regained late. So, if you are 18 before you begin to feel comfortable with your new range, don’t be surprised or concerned. You will eventually find that if you use the range you are comfortable singing in, it will grow strong and useful. One thing you need to allow yourself to do is to let go of the past. Your range is changing – don’t try and hang on to your boyhood range. Over the next months discover where your voice range lies, and where, within your range, you sing most comfortably. Accept these changes as the new you! You don’t need to be straining, screaming or anything else that causes you to become hoarse or raspy. You can damage your voice that way. Cease that. (By the way, your voice teacher should know these things. You might be wise to set aside voice lessons for a couple of years too!)
Let me recommend that you stay involved in music-making – even if the singing part takes a break while you play an instrument for a while. Find someone that knows a great deal about the voice, and ask him/her for a list of singers you should listen to over the next two years. Do a lot of listening. Feel free to browse through my other writings in this blog.
You do not need to worry, Nick. You do need to allow yourself time, and learn to accept what you are becoming, vocally speaking. You’re becoming a man. Congratulations.
Tags: changing voices, vocal insecurity, Voice development
This entry was posted
on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Adolescent vocal issues, Advice about Singing, Voice development.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.