Why does my voice alter pitch?

All my adult life, my voice has had an identity crisis. It can't make up its mind if it's high or low.

Most of the time it's just kind of normal. Neither especially high or low.

Occasionally, for no obvious reason, it's a deep, booming, sonorous tone, and the walls shake.

At other times, again mysteriously, I sound like a castrated smurf. A bit like the former footballer Emlyn Hughes, if anyone remembers him.

Doesn't seem to be any pattern to it, any way I can predict it.

I've been to interviews thinking, "This is a good deep tone, knock em dead, kid." But when I get there, I sound like I've inhaled helium.

Any ideas, you armchair medics?

Puberty ?


(Jk)

originally posted by: Fallingdown
Puberty ?


(Jk)

Dang , that was my guess.
Happens to the best of us.

originally posted by: CJCrawley
All my adult life, my voice has had an identity crisis. It can't make up its mind if it's high or low.

Most of the time it's just kind of normal. Neither especially high or low.

Occasionally, for no obvious reason, it's a deep, booming, sonorous tone, and the walls shake.

At other times, again mysteriously, I sound like a castrated smurf. A bit like the former footballer Emlyn Hughes, if anyone remembers him.

Doesn't seem to be any pattern to it, any way I can predict it.

I've been to interviews thinking, "This is a good deep tone, knock em dead, kid." But when I get there, I sound like I've inhaled helium.

Any ideas, you armchair medics?

Your larnyx and throat-voicebox...is subject to losening and tighening due to humidity, medicines, allergy, heat, cold, what you drank-hot-cold...etc.

I have the same issue.Try to carry lozenges or lemon drops to liquify your mucousa in the throat.

from- no armchair medic..but a real one.

MS
EMT/Advanced Life Support

originally posted by: CJCrawley
All my adult life, my voice has had an identity crisis. It can't make up its mind if it's high or low.

Most of the time it's just kind of normal. Neither especially high or low.

Occasionally, for no obvious reason, it's a deep, booming, sonorous tone, and the walls shake.

At other times, again mysteriously, I sound like a castrated smurf. A bit like the former footballer Emlyn Hughes, if anyone remembers him.

Doesn't seem to be any pattern to it, any way I can predict it.

I've been to interviews thinking, "This is a good deep tone, knock em dead, kid." But when I get there, I sound like I've inhaled helium.

Any ideas, you armchair medics?

*dbl post

A shot of whiskey and a good cigar.
Smooth those pipes right out.

Are there any personal mood changes between them? Like say, anxiety, discomfort, happy, sad, etc..?


Maybe chalk it up to having a really good range

Natural born Freddie Mercury

a reply to: skunkape23

I drank whiskey for years and still smoke cigars.

"smooth" is not exactly how I'd describe my voice.
More like Barry White after gargling rocks.

a reply to: Fallingdown

"All my adult life" was a clue that I'm not in puberty. I'm actually 58.

So this has been a peculiarity of mine (hardly call it a problem) for 40 or so years.

a reply to: StallionDuck

Are there any personal mood changes between them? Like say, anxiety, discomfort, happy, sad, etc..?

Yes, I get stressed a lot at work and that usually does it. Occasionally I take a CNS stimulant to keep vigilant on night duty, and that ALWAYS produces the helium voice.

So I know that stress, anxiety, vigilance raises the pitch. I know that my pitch tends to be lower when I'm relaxed. But there are other, mysterious factors which alter the pitch and which I can't prepare for.

I need to learn how to relax the muscles in my throat, but how does one do that?

a reply to: CJCrawley

I think the root of the problem and it's cure is to relax the soul

I can relate. When I'm stressed of feel like I'm in a corner, my voice will go a few octaves higher. When I'm around my gal pal, it goes higher yet softer.

When I'm around friends, my voice gets deeper or midrange.

When I'm serious, my voice goes very deep.

I think it's natural for everyone but I'm willing to bet that moods play a big role, just basing on my own experience. I'm no expert by any means.

a reply to: CJCrawley

If you speak truth your words wont rely on tone, pitch, or body language.

A few days ago I was watching some medical programme late at night. This bloke had some heart defect and went under the knife. They fixed his heart problem but unintentionally caused his voice to become weird. It kept fluctuating between high and low.

The surgeon explained that he had to move a nerve to one side in order to get to the heart. They moved it back again after surgery.

Well, turns out this nerve supplies the voice box apparently. I never knew. An actual special nerve supplying the voice box controlling how it functions. The surgeon said even just moving it to one side temporarily can # up the voice!

Well you learn something new.

Maybe there's something wrong with my voice box nerve.