How to Help a Nasally Voice

The way you articulate sounds, vibrate your vocal cords and resonate the sounds you produce all contribute to your unique vocal quality. Although nasal resonance is one of the most difficult characteristics to change, it does have a significant impact on speech clarity and intelligibility. Nasality occurs when excess air passes into the nose because the soft palate fails to close correctly. Some regional accents are naturally more nasal in their qualities than others; for example, the North American accent is typically more nasal than the British accent. Regular practice of a few simple exercises can help to reduce nasality and you will enable you to achieve the voice quality you desire.

Things You'll Need

• 18 inches clean aquarium air tubing

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Instructions

Assessment

• 1

  Talk to your family and friends about your speech quality and ask for their opinion. Remember that American accents are typically more nasal than British ones. Your speech may be appropriate for your region and there will be no need to reduce the nasal quality.

• 2

  Identify the difference between nasal and non-nasal speech. Place one end of the aquarium tubing into the end of one nostril and hold the other end at the entrance to your ear. Produce and sustain "m," "n" and "ng" sounds for approximately five seconds and feel the air flowing down the tube into your ear. Repeat this exercise with "s," "f" and "sh" sounds. There should be no airflow through the tube. Count from 60 to 70 and feel the air passing through the tubing.

• 3

  Read the following sentences aloud and feel the difference in airflow.

  "Sissy sees the sun in the sky."

  "She went shopping."

  "I eat cherries and cheese."

Exercises

• 4

  Yawn several times. This will help to relax the facial muscles, elevate the soft palate and close the nasal cavity.

• 5

  Say "m b," "m b," "m b" six times. If air escapes from your nose when you say "b," try leaving a short gap between each sound. Gradually decrease the delay and say the sounds faster. The goal is for air to pass through the nose for "m" and from the mouth for "b."

• 6

  Repeat step 2 using different sound combinations such as "n d" and "ng g."

• 7

  Say the word "ink" forcefully several times. Repeat with other words such as "and," "pink," "under," "bank," "Monday," "lank" and "handy." The aim is that only nasal sounds, such as "m," "n" and "ng," are produced through the nose. Use the tubing as described in step 2 for assessment to gain extra feedback about your speech production if necessary.

• 8

  Read aloud tongue twister sentences that have combinations of nasal and non-nasal sounds. These could include "My marvelous mother makes magnificent macaroni," "Many men make much money on Mondays" and "Nora the nice nurse nurses no noisy naughty children."