Keep Your Voice Healthy: A Review for Singers, Actors, Podcasters, and Others Who Use Their Voices Regularly
Photo by Rita Mock-Pike
It may have been published in 1988 and there surely are more updates in scientific study behind the human voice but Keep Your Voice Healthy by Dr. Friedrich S. Brodnitz, M.D. (E.N.T. international authority on voice disorders) is, as the subtitle suggests, one of the most powerful tools anyone who uses their voice regularly could keep around.
Keep Your Voice Healthy focuses on not just tips and tricks like you’d find on the internet today but provides an in-depth, intelligent, scientific view into the human voice and all the components required to protect, preserve, and restore said voice.
Take your time with this book and don’t skip over the “science” details, even if you want the “heart” of the matter in the practical steps for caring for your voice. Instead, read every word, every detail, and get to know the human larynx, the esophagus, and all the other physical aspects of your vocal apparatus.
As a singer, podcaster, actor, public speaker, pub trivia game host, and Zoom instructor, I use my voice nearly all day, every day. I’ve met with incidents that broke my voice (a director once who wanted me, for three months, to out-sing the brass band on tour, while I was off-mic), I’ve met with an overused voice. And I’ve left ear/nose/throat conditions untreated at times.
Even for those dealing with voice damage, Keep Your Voice Healthy can help you restore and revive your instrument. It may well re-teach you how to use your voice, as well, to prevent further damage to your instrument.
Take the advice for protecting your voice during illness seriously. Use the suggestions as you perform with your instrument as if they were gospel. Welcome the sometimes-gross descriptions of your inner workings so you can better know how to use, protect, and save those vocal cords.
The book is worth the read – and even more, worth a deep study in conjunction with more current scientific information on procedures, tools, and healing treatments.
At the time, Keep Your Voice Healthy was a cutting-edge book because so little was known about the functions of the human voice. Today, it remains close to it as little scientific knowledge is accessible for the average person – even professionals in the voice-use fields.
Need more useful tips for your creative endeavors? Check out these other reviews, tips, tricks, and more from the professional creatives at the MockingOwl Roost.
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- Audition Tip: Be Ye Cheeky
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Editor-in-Chief of The MockingOwl Roost, Rita Mock-Pike is the granddaughter of aviatrix, Jerrie Mock, first woman to pilot an airplane solo around the world. Rita has found inspiration from her grandmother’s life and flight and pursued many of her own dreams in theatre, podcasting, novel writing, and cooking up delicious food from around the world. She now writes on food, travel, pets, faith, and the arts. She’s happily married to Matt, and faithfully serves the very fluffy kitten queen, Lady Stardust.
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Book cover image from Anderson’s Book Shop
Book cover image from PenguinRandomHouse.com
