Whispering Harmful To Your Voice?

Sore throat? Need to preserve your voice?

Just whisper...

However, otolaryngologists actually disagree saying that whispering causes more trauma to the larynx than normal speaking.

Singers have been always been advised to never whisper as it will damage your pipes!

For many years, otolaryngologists have confessed research hasn't been done to prove this, but years of pronouncement has made them confident in this.

In 2006, the “Laryngeal Hyperfunction During Whispering: Reality or Myth?” study was done by  Dr. Sataloff, a professional opera baritone. He tested 100 persons who were asked to count from 1-10 in their normal voice and then in a whisper. Their vocal cords were being examined by a fiber-optic scopes during this process.

Results showed that in 69/100 subjects showed clear evidence that whispering put a heavier strain on vocal cords than normal speaking. 18 persons had no clear change and 13 persons have more strain shown speaking in normal voice.

“They were squeezing their vocal cords together more tightly to produce the whisper, which is more traumatic,” said Dr. Rubin, director of the Lakeshore Professional Voice Center in Michigan.
Dr. Stataloff advises not to whisper if concerned about your voice, but to talk in a soft voice, “the voice you would use if you wanted to talk to somebody next to you without having other people in the room hear.”