How to Make Your Voice Raspy and Hoarse
Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence, Bryan Adams, Steven Tyler, Miley Cyrus. The list of celebrities who might have Google searched “how to make your voice raspy and hoarse” can go on forever. But why?
Over the past few years, more and more people wonder how to make their voice sound hoarse. And it mainly is because of fashion, and the same trends that have established deeper voices as more attractive. Generally, people with raspy and hoarse voices come off more confident than people with regular, “normal” voices.
And maybe, this is why you’re looking for ways to make your voice sound raspy.
Make Your Voice Raspy But Keep It Healthy
If you search “how to make my voice raspy” or “hoarse” on Google, you’ll come across some controversial articles that suggest weird tips like dehydration, alcohol, smoking, and exposing yourself to allergies.
Please, don’t follow any of those tips.
It is possible to give the impression of a raspy voice while talking and also stay safe. However, we need to state the obvious and say that you cannot make your voice raspy permanently, but you can definitely give the impression of a raspy voice with this mysterious hoarseness.
And here are some exercises to consider:
Exercise #1: Understand Accidental Reactions
The very first thing you want to do is to see how your voice reacts to three different circumstances:
1. Cough
2. Whisper
3. Moan
Emit a cough and see where it comes from. Do the same with a whisper sound, and pay attention to how much you need to engage your stomach and throat to whisper, and try to pull this sound down to the back of your throat where your cough was coming from. Then produce a sound like a moan and also see where it comes from.
Exercise #2: Go Louder
Now, if you’ve done this correctly and you were able to find where your hoarse voice comes from, you need another simple step. You have to make it louder.
Find your raspy voice and slowly, but steadily, amp up your volume, and you will find yourself speaking in the exact voice you were looking for. But the hard part is when you need to maintain your newly introduced raspy voice.
Start by citing short sentences, focus, and you will eventually normalize your volume while keeping that hoarseness.
Congratulations again! This is how you make your voice sound raspy. But you can do more!
Exercise #3: Master Your False Cords
Most people believe that we have just one set of vocal cords. And this is false (see what we did there?).
The truth is that there is an additional set called “false cords.” Located in the larynx, false cords work as a second sphincter, and they’re not intended for voicing. But they can be used to produce a raspy, hoarse sound through the power of vibration.
Speak loudly and start lowering your pitch until you notice your voice getting organically raspy with that vocal fried element. Keep doing it and practice from 5 to 10 minutes a day until you’re able to control your false cords and form complete sentences.
Exercise #4: Don’t Relax
When you want to make your voice higher, you need to relax your body. When you want to make your voice sound deeper, again, you need to take some deep breath and relax.
But since you’re looking for ways to make your voice sound raspy, you need t do the complete opposite. You need to tense that neck!
To produce a raspy voice fast, inhale as much air as you can, tense your neck, find your false chords, and talk or sing loudly while extruding a lot of air.
However, this is not a completely safe way to get a hoarse voice effect, so you don’t really want to overdo it.
Exercise #5: Three, Two, One, Growl!
The human species has a lot of different voice types, depending on where they come from. The most popular types of voice are the head and the chest ones.
The chest voice, in general, is much more powerful, and it produces a deep, almost intimidating sound. On the other hand, the head voice uses the larynx a lot, and, as said above, this is where the raspy voice originates from.
A simple exercise you can do is to growl using your head voice and then try to move your sound to the back of your throat while slowly turning it down. You will immediately feel the vocal fry that many voice actors and actresses use when they want to narrate a compelling story.
This is not a simple exercise, and maintaining this vocal fry effect can be really hard, but you will sooner or later master it with practice.
Conclusion: Make Your Voice Raspy Carefully
Again, we can’t stress enough how important it is to follow tips that at least sound healthy. After, all you searched for advice on how to make your voice raspy, not on how to lose it.
Do your daily exercises, and don’t overdo it. Start slow and advance as time goes by. You will soon be able to locate your raspy voice’s nest and evoke it whenever you feel like.
