Advice after your nerve block for surgery
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Sob
The following exercises utilise a sound quality known as ‘sob’. It encourages the vocal cords to vibrate along their full length and for false cord deconstriction to occur. This helps you to produce your voice in a relaxed way without strain. It is particularly useful for accessing the higher part of your voice.
Practising these exercises regularly will help ‘retrain’ your voice, and is also a useful exercise for singing.
Tips for achieving sob
- The sound is called sob because it is the sound we naturally make when we cry. It can help to think of a sad sound to begin with
- This voice quality should not be loud or breathy. It should feel gentle and effortless, and sound pure
- The sound should be completely smooth, and there should not be a hard (glottal) onset to the sound
- Keep your jaw and throat relaxed – think of the ‘inner smile’ or slight ‘yawn’.
Accessing your head voice
‘Head voice’ is a term that refers to the higher part of the voice. A well functioning voice should have access to the whole range of vocal pitches, so that the voice does not sound monotonous or get ‘stuck’ at a certain pitch. This can often happen with voice problems, due to patterns of muscle tension and vocal habits.
People with voice problems can often end up ‘pushing’ to reach the higher part of their voices, both when speaking and singing, which leads to strain. These exercises are designed to help you access your higher range, for speaking and or singing, without straining.
Exercises
Only do the exercises your therapist has advised.
- ‘Puppy whimper’ on an ‘ng’ sound (as in sing) or hum (‘mm’). Start high in your pitch range, and use very little air pressure (think effortless)
- Start to vary the pitch more, sliding (‘sirening’) from high to low and low to high. Ensure you maintain smooth easy voicing
- Start to ‘whimper’ on vowel sounds, e.g. ee, oo, ah, oh …
- Bring the ‘sad’ voice into speech, bringing the pitch down to a more normal level. Start with ‘sad’ phrases such as, ‘oh no’, ‘oh dear’, ‘why me’, in a smooth, open, effortless voice. Gradually extend the length of the phrases.
For singing:
The following exercises should all be done with the sob sound quality. If you lose this you may start to push or strain. Speak to your therapist if you are unsure, or having difficulty.
- Once you can consistently achieve sob on ‘ng’ or ‘mm’, siren up and down the pitch range
- Spend time working from low to high, and high to low, until you can shift seamlessly between registers. Do this on vowels as well as ‘ng’
- Octave jumps. Moving up the scale, siren from the lower note to one octave higher and back down again (low-high-low)
- Switch to an ‘ee’ sound and repeat the exercise, first sirening smoothly up then down, and then using short staccato notes
- Extend to arpeggios etc. across your full pitch range on staccato ‘ee’
- Sing through songs using ‘ee’, focusing on the transition to your higher range.
Contact us
If you have any queries relating to this information, please contact the Speech and language therapy service.
About this information
Service:
Speech and language therapy
Reference:
VV/038
Approval date:
1 September 2024
Review date:
1 September 2027
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Important note
This page provides general information only. It is developed by clinical staff and is reviewed regularly every 3 years for accuracy. For personal advice about your health, or if you have any concerns, please speak to your doctor.