National Center for Voice and Speech

03/30/2026

"To a large degree, vocal fatigue may be similar, physiologically, to muscle fatigue in any other part of the body. We have all heard it said that singing is vocal athletics, especially if it is of the operatic kind. This would suggest that many of the principles associated with muscle growth, maintenance, and deterioration in athletics may also apply to vocal performance.

There are differences, however, that may make prolonged use of the vocal folds in phonation even more problematic than running or weight lifting, for example. Human body tissue is not specifically designed for vibration. In fact, aside from incidental noises made in passing air and snoring, we rarely engage in activities that involve vibrating and colliding tissue at a rate of 100 to 1000 times per second; phonation is the exception. Thus we may ask, are there special stress and fatigue factors associated with rapid acceleration and deceleration of tissue that add to the more common problem of muscle tiring?

Before we examine this question from a biomechanical point of view, it is worthwhile to point out some of the common signs of vocal fatigue. Visually, we perceive facial distortions, tensing of the neck and shoulders, perspiration on the forehead, some compromise in posture, and more frequent and unplanned inhalations. Throat clearing and swallowing may also become more frequent.

Auditorily, we perceive loss of intensity in the extremes of the pitch range. High notes and low notes become weaker, whereas the middle range is preserved a bit longer. Similarly, extremely soft notes and extremely loud notes suffer. The loss of high notes and loud notes is expected if the parallelism with athletics holds up, but the loss of low notes and soft notes is a bit puzzling. Surely a fatigued weightlifter can lift his lightest weight and a fatigued runner can walk without much trouble. Apparently singing soft and low involves more than simply reduced muscular effort."

from "A Further Look at Vocal Fatigue: Part 1" by Dr. Ingo Titze. First published in NATS Bulletin, a predecessor to the Journal of Voice. Sept/Oct. 1983 issue.

03/27/2026

Not sure that resonates.

03/26/2026

Abstracts are due next week!

03/25/2026

The March 2026 Edition of NCVS Insights is out! This month Dr. Marco Guzman and Dr. Kittie Verdolini tackle the topic of Primary Muscle Tension Dysphonia and why that term, in their words, "has got to go." Sign-up to get the latest insights delivered to your inbox.

NCVS Insights is a monthly publication dedicated to the advancement of science in the study of voice and speech production.

03/24/2026

Available now.

Sing and Shout for Health explores the remarkable impact of vocalization on human physiology, health, and well-being. Edited by renowned physicist Ingo R. Titze and vocologist Elizabeth C. Johnson, this groundbreaking book delves into scientific discoveries that reveal how singing, shouting, and oth...

03/23/2026

"If we consider one aspect of vocal quality to be a continuum between heavy (or full) voice on one extreme and light voice on the other extreme, we can choose (somewhat arbitrarily) two paths through this continuum: a ramp or a stair-step. The ramp would be analogous to the one-register voice, whereas the stair-step would be analogous to the multiple-register voice.

The necessity to change vocal quality along the heavy-light dimension comes from at least two demands, one being aesthetic and the other physiologic. Heavy and light qualities are needed for proper interpretation of music, but light registration may also be dictated by biomechanical and acoustic constraints at high pitches.

The electromyographic recordings of Hirano, Vennard, and Ohala (1970) on singers suggest that the vocalis muscle is less active at higher pitches and lighter registers (head and falsetto) than at lower pitches in the chest register. On the basis of the body-cover theory of pitch control (Hirano 1974; Fujimura 1981; Titze 1979), this would suggest that a lighter quality is usually associated with an elongated and stiffened mucosal covering of the vocal folds.

This is in contrast with a reduced vocal fold length (Hollicn 1960) and a slackened mucosal covering at lower pitches in the chest register."

from "Vocal Registers" by Dr. Ingo Titze. First published in NATS Bulletin, a predecessor to the Journal of Singing. March/April 1983

03/20/2026

Honestly, who writes these jokes?

03/19/2026

Announcing a brand new podcast from NCVS: Toe-to-Toe with Ingo. Listen and enjoy the first episode with Dr. Ted Mau and Dr. Elizabeth DiRenzo from Stanford Medicine at the Stanford OHNS as they explore the role of basic science in laryngology.

In the inaugural episode of Toe-to-Toe with Ingo, voice scientist Dr. Ingo Titze is joined by Stanford University laryngologists Dr. Ted Mau and Dr. Elizabeth DiRenzo for an in-depth conversation on the role of basic science in laryngology. Together, they explore how foundational scientific discipli...

03/18/2026

"This article is intended as an introductory tutorial for technically inclined clinicians, vocologists, and voice pedagogues who want to understand the principles and potentials of voice mapping.

Voice mapping has its origins in the Voice Range Profile, or phonetogram, but it is less concerned with the extremes of the voice range, and more with what happens within a relevant range of the voice. It is a voice instrumentation paradigm that is intended to improve the evidential value of voice measurements. It exposes and automatically accounts for the strong co-variation that most voice metrics exhibit with fundamental frequency and sound level.

Very many data points are automatically collected in a short time, and their means are mapped by colour onto maps. This results in a robust representation of voice status and function. While individual voices are very different, a voice map’s appearance is reproducible within individuals.

Comparing maps across interventions gives rich information, even on subtle changes in a voice. Moreover, by statistically clustering multiple metrics, phonation types can be identified and mapped automatically, thereby enhancing clinical relevance, and facilitating a deeper understanding of voice data."

The abstract from "From Voice Signals to Voice Maps" By Sten Ternström and Peter Pabon. First published in the International Journal of Voice Sciences, October 2025. Featured this week in NCVS Notes.

03/17/2026

Available now.

Fascinations with the Human Voice is an easy-to-read introduction to human vocalization. It is intended for non-scientific and non-clinical readers, with emphasis on the amazing versatility and expressibility available to everyone with the sound-producing organ. It is recommended for patients, stude...

03/16/2026

"In order to begin to understand vocal fatigue, it is important to understand the structure of the larynx and the demands that are placed on it. In terms of vocal output, if we choose the acoustic power radiated from the mouth as a measure of the ultimate requirement for voice production, it is interesting to note that this quantity ranges over a factor of about a million when one compares a quiet whisper with maximal effort phonation. Few machines are able to perform efficiently over such a range of output.

Unless different modes of operation are prescribed over various regions of such a large dynamic range, the operation is likely to be inefficient at one of these regions. Thus, if the system is finely tuned for optimal performance at the highest levels of vocal output, the same critical adjustment may not be necessary (and therefore not employed) at the lowest levels.

This brings us to the first hypothesis about vocal fatigue: inefficient use of the mechanism. A larynx may tire easily if a new performance task requires control strategies and structural characteristics that are inconsistent with those that it considered optimal in the developmental stage. Adaptation may be slow, or perhaps impossible in some situations. For example, if one is accustomed to using a soft voice, attempts at long-term high effort phonation may initially result in fatigue due to inefficient production."

from "Vocal Fatigue" by Dr. Ingo Titze. First published in NATS Bulletin, a predecessor to the Journal of Singing, Jan/Feb 1983.

03/13/2026

Sounds tough.