What happens when our voices crack and do other animals experience the same or is it exclusive to humans?

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What happens when our voices crack and do other animals experience the same or is it exclusive to humans?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

My voice cracks when I’m giving lessons, I try to make fun of myself when it happens but sometimes ignore it due to the frequency of it. Maybe the right breathing will fix it.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Firstly when one talks or sings your vocal folds (Larynx)manipulate themselves to make the air passing through them resonate. This in addition to the other vocal apparatus will create the sound you wish to make.

During puberty your Larynx increase in size and lower themselves thus creating a deeper, and often louder, sound. However during this transition muscle memory doesn’t sync with your physiological development. So as you’re talking your vocal folds are moving, but sometimes they attempt to reach a pitch which was previously ‘reachable’, due to muscle memory. But because of their new position and size they cannot vibrate to that extent anymore, so they spasm and release. Causing the typical ‘crack’ in the voice.

Obviously when you’re ill the voice cracking is different to puberty. When you have an illness in your throat the surrounding tissue can be inflamed or covered in mucus or simply tired. Once again muscle memory comes into play; you attempt to speak a word at a specific pitch but due to the vocal folds’ inability to vibrate at that frequency, they will spasm and release, once again causing the ‘crack’.

As for voice cracking while you’re singing (trust me I’ve had more than my fair share of this) it is all to do with the vocal folds vibrating. Now when you’re singing your vocal folds are vibrating much harder and are under intense stress. It is here where ‘support’ is essential, proper breathing and propagation of the note are paramount. If you maintain as steady, consistent airflow through the vocal folds while you sing it will help prevent ‘cracks’. But if your vocal folds do attempt a pitch which is physiologically difficult or impossible. They will spasm and release, no matter how good your support was.

To combat vocal ‘cracks’, breathing is vital. When you breath, if your shoulders are moving, you’re doing it wrong. Breath into your diaphragm, let your lungs fill from the bottom up. And when you exhale to speak or sing support the sounds with steady airflow, feel your diaphragm push the air out.