Why does my singing voice crack

What causes this? Am I singing too much? Does my excess mucus problem add onto this? How can I prevent this from happening, or lower the amount of times it happens? The voice box essentially has two major stable configurations, chest voice and falsetto. One controls pitch by tensing the muscles ending in the vocal folds themselves: that's chest voice. One controls pitch by drawing the vocal folds taut from their ends using some sort of hinge mechanism.

As chest voice gets higher, the hinge mechanism gets closer to accidental engaging, like a trap door getting blown open by wind.

The solution is control. This is particularly done by practising your falsetto and extending it downwards, by practising singing across the break so that your vocal control is able to immediately adapt and ultimately reaching the skill and strength where this trap door opens in a controlled manner by engaging the falsetto mechanism not as a response to the configuration change of the larynx but in preparation of it, the way you can stealthily close a door with a sticky latch by pushing with one hand and pulling with the other.

Doing this with not more than the required amount of counteracting forces is the key to sustainable singing. Damages your vocal cords in the long run. Can get as worse as producing strains of blood in the mucus. You may already know this, but when you hear a tuning note A of Hz, your brain is telling you that you only hear that one pitch — Hz, when in the reality, if you were to decompose the pitch, you would find that it is actually the following infinite arithmetic series of pitches, overlaid on top of one another, called the overtone series:.

When you sing or play on a wind instrument a note without proper air support, rather than producing the note you wanted to hear, your voice inadvertently overemphasizes one of the higher overtones in the series.

That's why boys' voices crack during puberty; they're not used to controlling their larger vocal cords, and this improper air-flow causes voice cracks. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.

But puberty also affects the voice box in the following ways:. Because the changes in shape, thickness, and overall size happen so suddenly, the movements made by the vocal cords are destabilized whenever you talk or sing. Because of this, the muscles are much more likely to tighten or lose control suddenly, which results in a voice crack. Whenever you talk, sing, or raise your voice for long periods of time, your vocal cords can become irritated and the tissues themselves can become damaged.

Of course, you can also get lesions due to allergies, sinus infections, and even acid reflux. Regardless of how you get them, lesions and nodules directly affect the size and flexibility of your vocal cords, which often leads to cracks and squeaks since the cords now have a hard time producing sounds that are normal.

It is just a natural reaction, in other words, to damaged vocal cords. Dehydration is bad for everyone, but especially for singers and public speakers. Simply put, your vocal cords have to be moist to move properly and do their job.

Dehydration also occurs when you drink too much alcohol and caffeine. Both of these are diuretics, which means they make you urinate more frequently.

As a result, your voice can crack, become raspy, or suffer with hoarseness. The best recourse, naturally, is to drink a lot of water throughout the day. Once you feel thirsty, your body is already starting to dehydrate, so never feeling thirsty should be your goal. The cricothyroid CT muscle is directly affected by the pitch of your voice. In other words, you cannot aggressively increase or decrease the pitch of your voice unless you perform some warmup exercises first.

In these instances, the muscles in and around the larynx can loosen or tighten, shrink or expand far too quickly, resulting in voice cracks. To avoid these types of voice cracks, simply warm up the vocal cords before you change the sound of your voice. When you get nervous or anxious , all of the muscles in your body can tense up, and this includes the ones in and around your larynx. Being nervous or anxious causes muscles throughout your body to tense up.

This can include your laryngeal muscles. This restricts the movement of your vocal folds. This can result in strains or cracks when you speak as the folds struggle to move as pitch and volume changes. Preventing voice cracks from happening may require some lifestyle changes. Here are some approaches you can try to minimize voice cracks:. If your voice cracks constantly, even if you take preventive measures to keep your vocal cords healthy and hydrated, see your doctor to diagnose any underlying issues that may be affecting your vocal cords.

Issues like nodules or neurological disorders like vocal dysphonia can keep you from speaking or singing properly. In some cases, nodules can become so large that they block your airways, making it hard to breathe.

Your voice can crack for a variety of reasons. They can diagnose the cause, if necessary, and provide you with treatment options. Laryngitis happens when your vocal cords become inflamed from overuse, irritation, or infection.

This inflammation causes distortion in your voice…. Vocal nodules can happen to anyone. We take a look at how vocal nodules might…. Learn what determines the sound and texture of your voice, and what you can do to change it. Laryngitis is when your voice box or vocal cords become inflamed from overuse, irritation, or infection. It comes in both acute and chronic forms. A narrow palate often leads to dental concerns like crowded or impacted teeth.

It can also lead to speech variances and trouble breathing. Otolaryngologists are doctors that specialize in conditions of the ears, nose, and throat. Learn about what they treat, and when to see one. There are several different forms of laryngitis and some are more contagious than others.