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Here’s How I Got a Deeper Voice (the 5 Best Techniques)

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If you came here from Google, you’ve probably already been through a heap of articles on how to get a deeper voice. The problem with these is, none of them seem to be written by people who are actually speaking from experience. With each point, you have no idea whether you’re getting tried and tested advice or just guesswork they’ve plucked from the internet.

McConaughey voice-deepening exercise

As someone who has actually deepened his voice (from about average to low), I wanted to take a different tack and discuss the methods that worked for me, alongside a few others. Most of these I’ve tried, but not all of them, so where I don’t have first-hand knowledge I’ll link to discussion boards to show you real people talking about these techniques and how they worked for them.

Just to get it out of the way, none of this is medical advice. I trust you to follow these tips without giving yourself an injury – and if you feel in any way like you might, you should stop immediately. Right, here we go.

1. Strengthen your Neck Muscles

I’ve seen a lot of talk about this online, so I wanted to start by confirming here: this truly does work. Actually, it’s my favourite method of all of them.

If you put your hand on your throat, you’ll feel two long muscles which run down from behind your ear to your collarbone. These are your sternocleidomastoids, and when they get tense they tug on your vocal chords, resulting in a higher note. Relax these and, logically enough, your voice gets lower.

Sternocleidomastoid stretch

One recommended way of doing this is by making the neck muscles stronger. Stronger muscles are better at meeting their daily demands and therefore less likely to tighten up throughout the day. I was interested in this idea, so I thought I’d test it out.

Every day, at 2 o’clock and in the same room, I recorded a sample of my voice and wrote down the figures. I chose 2pm because I wanted the ‘morning effect’ of my voice to have worn off and I knew I wouldn’t have been drinking alcohol around that time. After the recording, every other day, I’d do 3 sets of 20 reps of crunches, where I lay on my bench and slowly nodded my head from horizontal to vertical, tucking in my chin – like doing sit-ups with your neck.

And it worked. Here’s a chart I made with Vocular.

deepening-voice-graph

As you can see, by all four metrics, my voice did deepen over time. My matches completely changed too.

More compellingly, my voice actually got higher before it got lower. It starts at about 105Hz, then shoots up to 113Hz and stays high for a week, before it gradually deepened month after month to the current pitch of 89Hz. That’s like going from Edward Norton, to Justin Bieber, to Jon Hamm.

This fits the idea that strong neck muscles give you a deeper voice. The exercises first made my neck weaker, like any muscle when you start training it. So my voice got higher. Then, as I continued with the exercises, it got used to the strain and became stronger, and my pitch dropped.

I should add that I also stretch my neck to relieve any tension that might build up with the exercises. So if you’re thinking of doing this, that’s something to keep an eye on. In fact, this guy on Reddit seems to have a routine which worked really well for him and seems to focus more on stretching.

Update: I’m also currently experimenting with a neck harness to build the muscles at the back of my neck as well as the front. It’s early days but I’ll report back here if I find that to be more effective.

2. Breathe from the Diaphragm

Ever noticed how your shoulders bob up and down as you breathe in and out?

If you’re have, you’re doing it wrong. This is a thing called ‘shallow breathing’ and it’s something most people are guilty of. While it seems as good as any method, this kind of breath shifts effort to the upper half of the torso, putting tension on the neck and vocal chords.

Instead, breathe with the muscle that’s designed to do it: the diaphragm. As you inhale, try to shift the effort downward so your stomach flexes out while your shoulders remain completely still. Feel as though the air is being summoned by your abs.

I know it’s quite hard to follow in writing, so Eric Arceneaux does a very good job of explaining this.

This one correction had the greatest impact on my voice depth – but, like any bad habit, it requires a conscious effort to overcome it. You may want to try something to remind yourself when you’re creeping back to your old ways. One vocal coach has created the Singing-Belt to do this, although it’s expensive so using kinesiology tape or a tight T-shirt might work better.

It’s tough to get used to, but mastering diaphragmatic breathing will also give you a richer, more resonant voice, which is probably more important than having a deep voice. It also has a host of other benefits, such a reducing stress and improving athletic performance, since it’s just a more efficient way to breathe.

3. Aspirate

You can try this one for yourself and immediately see its effect. Open Vocular and enable the Pitch Tracker in Settings, then speak to the microphone in your normal voice and see what numbers come up.

Now try talking in a breathier, more aspirated kind of way, as if you’re speaking through a sigh. If you need someone to copy, Tom Hiddleston’s a pretty good example.

You should see your numbers drop as soon as you take on this breathier kind of tone. And not only does this make your voice deeper, it makes it more attractive too. A 2014 study found that the most attractive male voices were also the breathiest – and this was so pronounced that women preferred a high-pitched but breathy voice over a deep, non-breathy one.

4. Drink More Water

Please don’t skip over this section, because it’s a lot more important than you might think. You know how the depth of your voice is partly caused by the size of your vocal chords? Well, dehydration literally shrinks your vocal chords. The loss of water equates to a loss of mass, leaving you with thinner, squeakier vocal chords.

And, strikingly, most people are dehydrated. A recent study found that 75% of Americans fell far below the recommended daily intake, which, again, gives us a majority of people speaking with higher voices than they ought to be.

dehydrated-clint-eastwood

The solution is to make things easier for yourself. If you work at a desk, get a jug (one that can hold 3-4 litres) and fill it every morning. Not only will this encourage you to drink more because it’s there, it’ll bring the water to room temperature which stops the throat contracting from the cold.

If you’re sceptical about the impact of this, see for yourself. My hydrated voice is often so much deeper that it shares almost no overlap with my dehydrated one – the similarity comes out at about 10-20%. In fact, I now make a point of drinking a litre of water an hour before going on a date or to an important meeting.

5. Be More Monotone

I’ve noticed a few names that come up time and time again when discussing voice depth. One of these names is Clint Eastwood. But the weird thing here is that, in terms of pitch, Eastwood doesn’t have a deep voice. It’s about average.

clint-eastwood

However, one thing Eastwood has in spades in monotony. This is a very manly trait – in fact, a recent study found that men with monotone voices tend to have more sexual partners than those who don’t. So it may be that the masculinity of a monotone voice tricks people into thinking that voice is deep as well.

This is backed up by a paper on vocal attractiveness, which found that the voices which varied less in pitch were the most likely to be considered deep. In fact, pitch variation was almost as important as actual pitch in deciding whether a voice was deep or not.

297 Comments

  1. Michael

    You mentioned here that you were experimenting with a neck harness to build the muscles on the back of your neck. Have you noticed any difference in your voice after doing so?

    1. Vocular

      Hey Michael, yeah, I meant to update this actually. My voice is now 85Hz, which is the deepest I’ve ever known it. It sounds weird as well but my neck actually feels different. My SCMs used to feel gristly and tight, but now they feel a lot more supple and tender, like a good cut of meat. Sounds weird but that’s the best description I have for it.

      1. David

        Oh I’m on 97 and i haven’t even really trained is that relatively deep?

        1. Vocular

          If that’s the median/average, then yeah, that’s relatively deep

        2. Enes

          Sound depth: 113 hz Median: 146 hz
          Is it too bad for a man?

          1. Vocular

            That’s in the higher category, although that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad voice.

          2. Enes

            I am 20 years old. Is it in the 140 Hz male range? Should I go to the doctor?

          3. Vocular

            140Hz is definitely normal. It’s quite high for a man and would be deep for a woman, but it’s within the normal male range. You probably get a number of male matches, don’t you? I’m thinking Will.i.am, Bill Clinton, Russell Brand, Casey Affleck…

          4. Arwa taylor

            No, Diffently not

          5. S

            It’s ok but if it hurts your vocals then you have to show it to a doctor

      2. Jade

        Hello vocular , when doing the neck exercises do you just basically ly on your back and nod your head forwards and back and do it in repitions

        1. Vocular

          Yes, that’s it. You’re basically doing a sit-up/crunches with your neck instead of your abs. I plan to put up a video soon

      3. Trisha

        Hey I wanted to ask if girls can also do this

        1. Vocular

          Hi Trisha, I can’t see any reason why this wouldn’t work for women, although I’ve never heard from any who’ve tried something like the neck exercises. Could you be the first?

          1. Riv

            I’m a trans guy – born female – and I can’t go on testosterone, which would deepen my voice, for medical reasons. I found this through Google and have been doing your exercises for about 4 months – my voice deepened about 30 Hz!!

          2. Vocular

            Hi Riv, woah, that’s amazing! Is there any indication that it’s levelling off now or do you think you can get it deeper?

      4. James Irwin

        Hello, could you please share with us the steps involved in the neck harness you did? Also, where could I buy a neck harness please?

        1. Vocular

          Sure, I do it just like this guy: https://youtu.be/e0PyIvz7–U

          One thing to keep in mind too, a little bit of weight can be a lot of weight when it comes to your neck. I started with something tiny like 2.5kg. It never feels like much but it’s quite easy to overdo it. So I’d always err on the side of caution. You can get neck harnesses anywhere too. Amazon has a range of them.

          1. James Irwin

            How kind of you to answer my question so quickly! Thanks very much; I’ll
            check into the neck harness at the weight you suggested.

          2. Vocular

            That’s alright. Let me know how it goes too. I got down to my lowest average of 74Hz when I was using the neck harness regularly, but it’s still a bit experimental.

          3. Ties

            Hello! I’m currently 12 years of age (nearing the 13 range), and my voice sometimes cracks/breaks, and is a little deeper. Should I wait for my voice to get naturally deeper to do the activities from above (I’d understand if some activities are better at my age than others)?
            Also, you mentioned your favorite activity was the neck crunches, but is it also the most effective way? If not, which is?

          4. Quinn

            I’m at 160HZ and I’m 19 years old is something wrong with my voice

          5. Vocular

            Hi Quinn, I’m afraid I don’t know much about the development of the voice, although I have a huge database of voices now which contains several male voices which are higher than 160Hz. Have you tried any of these exercises too though?

        2. DelaceD Wilson

          This is the best neck harness I’ve seen on the planet; it works all angles left, right and traditional. It’s called The Iron Neck Alpha Harness on Amazon it’s an inexpensive, but well made version of the Neck Flex
          https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NHWGCN9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

          1. Ty

            Hey, so possibly an unusual question here. My voice depth is 59Hz and the average, median, and mode are all in the 60-70Hz range. Heck, my closest match is Barry White, but I have a really light timbre and sound nothing like him. A lot of people speak at a significantly higher pitch than I do but their voices are much darker. Do you think the neck exercises would help with that, or would it only lower the pitch further?

          2. Vocular

            Hi Ty, I’m still not totally sure what people mean when they talk about a dark voice, or whether they’re all talking about the same thing. My guess would be that a thing called formant dispersion kinda covers it, but that’s just a hunch at this stage. Would you consider Armie Hammer to have a dark voice? He gets mentioned quite a lot despite having a voice which isn’t off the charts in terms of depth. Any other examples come to mind too?

      5. Ties

        Hello there! I am around the age of 12 (nearing the 13 range), and I’m starting to get a deeper voice. Should I wait for my voice to naturally get deeper, or can I do (most of) the activities above? Also, you mentioned your favorite activity was the neck crunches, is this also the most effective way?
        (i think my other comment didn’t get approved, but maybe its still out there somewhere)

        1. Vocular

          Hey Ties, yeah, I approved it. To be honest, at your age, you just have to wait. During puberty the male voice falls from 300Hz to 100Hz, which is a much greater decrease than any of these techniques can achieve. Obviously you can use the app to track your voice change over the years, but I wouldn’t get disheartened by the results – it’s normal to still have a fairly high voice at your age.

          As for the neck exercises, I changed to diaphragmatic breathing years before so I can’t really compare, but the neck exercises are the best technique for lowering pitch in my opinion.

          1. Ties

            Thank you for your quick reply! I have one more question if you do not mind 🙂

            So in 3 months I’m turning 13, so I’m as I said, still 12.
            What is the average Hertz a voice is at my age? Mine is about 130 Hertz at the moment.

      6. Tyler

        I have a median of 113hz. I haven’t really had any issues with my voice although I’ve noticed it isn’t the deepest. I have had plenty of succession with finding women who like me though. I do have more of a monotone voice. Honestly hearing my voice back annoys the hell out of me but I’ve been told by many women of multiple ages that I have a “hot voice” but I’m confused because its still not too deep. Should I try doing the exercises for my neck and see if I can deepen it or should I be happy with my current vocals?

      7. Shaw

        Hey, I’m 15 with a voice of 90hz. Is that deep and can it get deeper via this method?

        1. Vocular

          Yes, that’s deep. It says this on the app. These techniques will probably make it deeper, but your voice will probably deepen anyway. Might be interesting to take a recording each month and see whether it’s still changing…

      8. Milan sharma

        Hello, I need deep voice.can you help me please

    2. Vocular

      I’ve been doing the neck harness exercises for six weeks too, initially with 5kg, then 7.5kg, now 10kg.

      1. Michael

        NIce! Could you recommend a specific neck harness?

        1. Vocular

          Well, I haven’t tried any others but the one I use is by One X Sport. I don’t remember buying it, so it must’ve been cheap. There are probably more comfortable ones out there as well though.

        2. Gabriel Richardson

          What type of neck exercises (other than crunches) did you use to make your voice deeper?

          1. Vocular

            That’s really it. Just crunches and lifts with the harness. I should say that I’ve been struggling with upper body tension recently though, and my voice hasn’t sounded the same. This past week I’ve started doing a load of new back exercises in the gym, and I’m already feeling and sounding a lot better. So it’s good to bear that in mind – you want to remove all tension from your upper body. If you have a muscle imbalance from only doing lifts that target the front of your body, or your posture is skewed forward from sitting at a desk all day, you’re going to hear it in your voice.

      2. Beth Harford

        Hey this article is very helpful, i am trying to get a deeper voice for a character i am playing at school. I have a high register, and for the impact of the character i really need a lower pitch. i have one question, what sample did you use on Vocular?

        thanks so much!

        1. Vocular

          Hi Beth, thanks. I’m a bit confused by your question though. Which sample are you referring to?

      3. James Irwin

        Hello, there’s a very highly-rated neck harness on Amazon, and it seems like the best one to buy. However, it apparently doesn’t include the neck weights you need to attach to it. Just wondering if you know where I could buy those and just search/browse for–like in the lighter weight size you had mentioned you started off with? For instance, should I search under “neck weights”? Also, I live in the US, in the Chicago area, if that makes a difference. Have a good day, James

        1. Jared Caldwell

          My one and only question that I can think of at the moment is, how do you have or develop a more monotone voice? I’m sorry if this is a dumb question.

          1. Vocular

            Hi Jared, I’m not totally sure how to answer this because it comes quite naturally to me. You just speak very calmly and without much intonation though. The app effectively tells you if you’re doing this right because it gives a measurement of how varied your voice is. Also, try listening to guys like Harrison Ford, Tom Hiddleston, Roger Federer. They’re some of the most monotone voices in the database.

    3. Del

      I’m a trans guy, and I just started this, regular voice is 135 hz right now because of other training. I’m really hoping this is going to work! I’m scared lol.

    4. Gabriel

      Hey. I just read your article and downloaded the Vocular app. I did 2 “voculars” just now. The first one I got 92Hz and the other 83Hz. That’s good right? That’s my normal voice. I think it can become deeper if I do the stretching and strength exercises you mention. I do speak and breathe from my diapragm naturally.

  2. Matheus

    Thanks for the tips! When you began trying out the neck exercises how long did it take until you saw some positive results?

    1. Vocular

      Hmmm, can’t remember the first time. I think it’s generally been in the second week that I’ve seen improvements each time. Have you been doing them for long?

      1. Matheus

        I just started 4 days ago. So far as expected my voice has gone up a bit. You mind going into a bit of detail on what exercises and stretches you do? I read the reddit post you mention in the article and Im pretty much following that. I do 15 repetitions of “sit-ups” with my neck and hold at the top for 10s or so. I do 3-4 sets twice a day. After I do the opposite by stretching my neck out as opposed to contracting it.

        1. Vocular

          Yeah, I only do 3 sets and I don’t actually hold, and I do this every other day (3-4 times a week). I do also exercise the muscles at the back of my neck too with a neck harness because I was worried about a muscular imbalance. They seem to have gone pretty well, although I’ve been very slack about it lately. Stretch wise, I just do SCM stretches and this stretch when it suits me.

      2. Katie

        Hi, for some reason the website won’t let me comment so I figured I would just reply to a random one, anyway, I was wondering if you need an app to see if your voice has gone deaper or could you hear the difference on a recording?

      3. Katie

        Hi, for some reason the website won’t let me comment so I figured I would just reply to a random one, anyway, I was wondering if you need an app to see if your voice has gone deeper or could you hear the difference on a recording?

        1. Vocular

          Hi Katie, you can listen to a recording and judge but it’s all very subjective – a bit like telling to tell if you’ve lost/put on weight by looking at yourself in a mirror. Vocular is more like a set of scales that gives you objective, consistent results and measures differences you might not notice yourself.

          1. Alex

            Hey man, I just want to thank you man, I lived with terrible voice for forty years but after I tried this exercises, dude I sound completely different person and people can understand what I’m saying now, My voice became clear and deep! Thank you bro

          2. Vocular

            Hey Alex, not at all. Thanks for letting me know your progress. Which of the exercises did you do? It sounds like diaphragmatic breathing might have been the biggest one for you?

  3. Matheus

    Sweet, thank for the info. Have you thought about adding a section where people can add pictures of their progress? My voice is gradually getting lower in part because of the exercises now.

    1. Vocular

      Great idea, I take it you’re keeping a chart at the moment?

      1. Matheus

        My phone was restored but I was. Just started a new one today.

  4. Edward

    I cant get the chart to work with the app

    When are you adding in the other features for example to get rid of nasality etc. etc.

    1. Vocular

      Hey Edward, what device are you using? Are you saving a recording before adding it too?

      I’m not totally sure. My dev’s been working on another project for a while, so he’s not been able to focus on this. Good news is that that project goes live in early May, so, unless there are any problems, we should be able to work on adding new features then. From a linguistic point of view, I already know how to calculate these things, so we just need to get the code done.

  5. Mory

    Really interesting !
    Could you explain how you suggets to work with a kinesiology tape?

    1. Vocular

      Sure, you just wrap a band of it around your chest (just below your pectorals and shoulder blades). When you start breathing with your chest, it’ll start to tighten and remind you to breathe with your diaphragm instead.

      1. Mory

        Thanks!
        Is it possible to use this also for building support like the singing belt is supposed to do?

  6. Frey

    Is tgere any way to gain back morning voice after losing it if not what to do then?

  7. Kalle

    Is there any risk of getting sleep apnea by doing these exercises? Ive read that you can get it by adding mass to your neck but that requires a bit of heavy lifting. I want to try the exercises that you wrote about my I dont want to risk getting other problems like sleep apnea.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Kalle, that’s an interesting question. I didn’t actually know what sleep apnea was until a minute ago, so I can say I certainly haven’t been affected, but then again, I don’t know whether some people are especially susceptible to it. Nobody’s written in to report this to me though. Is there a big risk in trying the exercises and seeing if they affect your sleep?

    2. Vocular

      I live near an Olympic physio who specialises in the neck and shoulders and I’ve been wanting to interview her for a while, so I’ll add this to the list for when I do. Won’t be for a while though.

  8. Jack

    Hi will this work for me as I am 14 and going through puberty my voice hasent dropped and it’s annoying so will this work?

    1. Vocular

      Hi Jack, no, it won’t work with that kind of thing. When you go through puberty, your voice drops about 200 Hz. These exercises (in my experience) deepen your voice by about 20 Hz, so they’re no contender to your voice’s natural development. You could use Vocular to track the change in your voice over time and see how it’s changing month by month so you can see that it is getting deeper – but don’t get upset if you don’t like the initial results. That change will come with time.

  9. Igo SanMa

    Eu fiz os exercícios de flexão de pescoço e consegui baixar a minha frequência média vocal de 120Hz para 95Hz. Isso já faz três meses e a minha voz continua grave. (Sou do Brasil e uso o aplicativo).

    1. Vocular

      “I did the neck flexion exercises and managed to lower my average vocal frequency from 120Hz to 95Hz. This has been three months and my voice is still serious. (I’m from Brazil and use the application).”

      Hey Igo, just wanted to post the translation to your comment so other people would see it too. That’s really great news. Did you follow a different routine at all or was it totally the same as what I did?

      1. Carson

        This question does not have anything to do with it but I want to ask you if hertz actually affects the way that a voice sounds because my average voice is 85 hertz but then I listen to my voice on recordings and it does not sound as deep as it really is and I want to know if my voice is high pitched and has a low hertz or if my voice sounds higher when I hear it on recordings then other people actually hear my voice

  10. Curious

    Hey,Can you post your voice transformation recordings?Like the initial recs and the final rec.
    105 Hz and the 85 Hz one.

    1. Vocular

      Sure, they’re actually already on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/foZOOKpy770

      I also show my archive recordings in one of the comments on the video.

      1. Alp Cengiz

        Bro my voice depth is 113hz and also my voice’s classification is high. My voice is also baritone. My variance is medium. Finally vocal fry is %13. So what do all of these mean? Is my voice thin bro?

        1. Vocular

          Hey Alp, your voice shouldn’t be considered high at 113Hz. What was the reliability number of your recording?

  11. Joshua

    So for those neck crunches, is your neck starting perpendicular to the floor, or do you let it just hang down all the way before doing the crunch?

    Also, I can’t be totally sure from the graph because the scale is missing. Over how long did it take your voice to change? I’ve been doing the exercises for about a month and have noticed a little progress (using Vocular), but it just seems like my progress has been a little slow…

    1. Vocular

      Hey Joshua, sorry it’s taken a day to get back to you. I read your message at midnight UK time and couldn’t reply straightaway.

      Anyway, yeah, my neck is basically parallel with the floor when I start the crunch (kinda like this: https://www.jefit.com/images/exercises/800_600/1701.jpg).

      Looking back through my archives (and listening to the recordings to make sure they’re mine), I can see that my voice was about 95Hz median, down from 105Hz, after a month. Two months in, I start getting recordings in the 80s, so you should see further improvements and more consistent results later. What kind of difference have you seen so far?

      1. Joshua

        I’ve been doing the exercises for about two and half months. I’d probably discount the first month because I don’t think I was doing the exercises quite right. I started doing it closer to what you posted in your picture after that. That leaves about one and a half months of productive exercise.

        When I started my average speaking pitch (averaged for the first week) was 110hz. Now my average speaking pitch (averaged from the week up to this post) is 104hz. However, I’m really not as concerned about that. My ultimate goal is to get my average pitch around 98hz, or maybe a little below.

        What I really am trying to do is lower my voice depth. I am currently enrolled in a Voice and Diction class at my local community college. Our instructor informed us that there is something called habitual pitch, and optimum pitch. Habitual pitch is the pitch the you speak at normally, which can either be above or below your optimum pitch (usually below). Optimum pitch is the range of frequencies of your voice that is the easiest to resonate and project with. It also ensures that you are not hurting your larynx by unnaturally depressing your larynx if you’re attempting to talk too low. That is why some singing teachers encourage their students to use their optimum pitches for speech, because it makes it much less likely for the voice to get strained or injured between lessons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ug82QJ-dSU (that’s my teacher in the video)

        When I started doing the neck exercises, my optimum pitch was C#3 to a Eb3. It is currently at a C3 to a D3. So it has gone down, at least a little. There were some days when I would consistently get a B3 or a Bb3, which is encouraging because it leads me to believe that , like the other vocal paramaters, optimum pitch is changeable to some degree. My hope is that as my voice lowers, my optimum pitch will lower along with it. I would like to get my optimum pitch down to around 98hz (G2), if possible.

        Furthermore, what causes some actors voices to sound so good is not just their average pitch. It also has a lot to do with their voice depth. For instance, if you look at the celebrity analysis’ of Ian Mckellen and Patrick Stewart or even Morgan Freeman (three actors with amazing voices), you will find that all of their average pitches (according to Vocular) are all around 98 Hz. But what gives their voices their “golden” qualities is the vocal depth that they are able to resonate with. Trust me, an Mckellen talking at an average of 98 Hz sounds a lot richer than I do talking at 98hz, at least for now.

        That being said, I consider my vocal depth to be a more important thing to develop than just my average speaking pitch. When I started (again, averaging the week), my average Voice Depth was 100hz. It is now 95hz. Not that much, but it is still quite noticeable. My goal is to get at least to 82hz depth. That would be an E2 and just under a 20Hz shift. I don’t think that’s unreasonable.
        I have also noticed that my voice depth changes throughout the day, and not just with morning voice. If I had a busy day at work and I test on Vocular right after, my voice might have a depth of 98hz. But once I get home and I test again, I’ve gotten as low as 91hz. So my hope is that just means my neck muscles are still developing and as their endurance grows the lower end will be easier to maintain. You said that your average pitch went down 20hz (25hz in one of the comments), has you vocal depth gone down an equal amount?

        Also, from a Voice training standpoint, I would say that a big part of the muscles we are training are not just the SCMs (although you certainly were correct in saying that they were. Because they are involved). There are another set of muscles in the center of your neck called the hyoid muscles. They actually aid in the motion of the larynx, which in turn facilitates the use of the vocal folds. And from some research, it seems that these are the very muscles these neck exercises primarily target ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4433964/ )
        ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1ThTZhAncY )

        Just out of curiosity, what is the lowest note you are able to sing and has it changed since doing these exercises? When I started my lowest was a F2 and now I’m really close to being able to hit an F2 in normal settings (with morning voice I can sometimes flirt with an Eb2). I’m not sure, but it may be that there might be a correlation with your lowest singable note and your potential voice depth. It may be that your lowest note you can sing also becomes your lowest possible fundamental frequency (or depth) that you can speak with. That’s all speculation of course. Have you ever been able to get a voice depth lower than your lowest (clean) singing note.

        Also, Not to bother you too much, but do you think you could post a couple pics of your stretching routine. Maybe I just wasn’t looking hard enough, but I didn’t see any visual examples on the reddit link.

        p.s. Thanks for the great app. I’ve really enjoyed using it over the last couple months. If I may be so bold as to request a couple more celebrities, I would love to see Christopher Lee and Alec Guinness.

        1. Joshua

          Just a quick update, I’ve still been doing the neck exercises and I’ve made some progress. Some days I’ve been able to get vocal depth in the high 80s. I’ve uploaded a Youtube video to share the results so far (The reason I picked the second to last day for the last example was because my voice was still tired from the exercises I had done the previous day, so I didn’t think it would be the best example to use).

          Unfortunately my voice hasn’t lowered quite as much as I would have liked, but it is definitely noticeable. One day after my neck exercises my throat felt a little funny around my larynx and I had almost what I would call a mini cold. My voice was noticeable deeper, and I thought it might have just been the cold. But even after I got better my voice retained most of the new depth. I am now able to easily sing an F2, and with some effort can usually hit an Eb2 (sometimes even a D2) without fry.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtEahmsvwY4

          1. Joshua

            Sorry, I think the video link got cut off by the seductive voice header.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtEahmsvwY4

            That should work.

          2. Vocular

            Hey Joshua, I’ve left a more detailed comment on the video but that’s really cool. I hope more people post their results. Really interesting to see how your voice has lowered in variance as well as pitch (not a bad thing). Has anyone mentioned the change to you? It sounds very striking with back-to-back recordings.

  12. How To Seduce Women With Your Voice -

    […] To practice deepening your voice, you can follow the advice in this article. […]

  13. Tony

    Well, I think it can make sence, but then, how to explain that there are some guys with rather thin necks and very deep voices? It means that their muscules are just naturally stronger/more relaxed and they dont need any special training or what? It’s the only thing that seems quite contradictory as for me.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Tony, thanks for your question. The guys with thin necks and deep voices could just be explained through genetics. Like I say (in the Q&A), the depth of your voice is really a product of the size of your vocal chords and their tension. Some guys just have longer, thicker vocal chords, so their voices are naturally deeper. Or, as you say, maybe their neck muscles are relaxed, even though they aren’t particularly big.

      1. Tony

        Yeah, i understand it, and thats why i really doubt how people with strain (no previous training) can talk medium 80 hz or near that. Because as far as i know there is a limit for chest voice – around C2-D2 for most of men (except people with gigantism of course). So I dont think thay can go really lower (for 20HZ like you). Also, if i don’t make a mistake, longer necks (if we talk abour basketball players, but they also train a lot, so…) are also thicker without training. By the way, i also noticed (didn’t pay much attention to it before) that mostly all celebrities with deep voices (like Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Rickman etc) have rather thick necks.
        And one more question – what is your neck girth now? Because. you know, i don’t do any other sports/don’t go to gym etc, so you understand that it will look kind of funny, lol.

        1. Vocular

          Oh right, do you know where that chest voice figure comes from? I figured it was possible for a man to speak at around 70Hz, they just need to have big, relaxed vocal chords. That’s interesting what you say about longer necks. There’s a thing called ‘formant density’, which is a greater predictor of the masculinity of a voice than pitch. My gut feeling is that longer vocal tracts (i.e. the larynx to the lips) give rise to greater formant density. I’m not entirely sure what a high formant density sounds like in a voice, but I plan to add it to the app with a bunch of other features and do some research on it. My guess is that someone like Armie Hammer has particularly dense formants which make his voice sound deeper than it is in pitch alone, whereas nasal voices are the opposite.

          Not sure what my neck girth is now but it’s definitely thicker because a tuxedo shirt I bought in 2015 basically cuts off the blood flow to my brain now. I really should have measured it and kept a log against the graph…

          1. Joshua

            Hello again! This is slightly off topic, but for those interested here is a link to a discussion on formants and harmonics:

            https://www.voicescienceworks.org/harmonics-vs-formants.html

            Also, I found a doctor that does something called Thyrohyoid elevation, which is an operation that raises the larynx in the throat in MTF transgenders. His website provides audio examples, and it looks like in most of them that was the only surgery they had. So that can be a useful way to see the difference that comes solely from a high or low larynx.

            https://www.voicedoctor.net/Surgery/Pitch/Thyrohyoid-elevation
            (audio examples on the left)

  14. Tony

    Oh, sorry for late answer. I just want to say that not all people have neck/voice strain. And i am more interested about is it just a physical issue or more mental? About lengh of vocal tract – i dont think it can influence a lot – cause there are a lot of women with longer necks.
    About possibility of speaking 70hz – its possible to “speak” even around 60 hz, but it will be more like reaching notes, not comfortable speaking, and of course it will be souftly and quiet. What about me – men with the lowest voices i’ve met all spoke around 80hz.
    Also, you didint use any special harness to build front neck muscles? Well, then it proves that neck really can grow fast.

  15. romain

    Very interesting, i did a bit of research about it.
    It seems that the scalenes muscles are a big compensator for neck flexors weakness. So the more the flexors are strong, the more the scalenes are relaxed, and so the vocal cords.

    Plus i have a thoracic outlet syndrome, basically first rib too much elevated and compressing my arteries. Scalenes are very tight and my neck flexors are freaking weak so i’m sure i’ll have crazy benefits from working them out.

    I also gained some depth after exercising my serratus anterior, which keeps the shoulders back and down and helping good posture.

    1. Vocular

      Hey Romain, that’s really cool. So are you already recording your voice change?

    2. Jamie

      Hi Romain,

      Did you get any benefit from strengthening your flexors, either in terms of your voice or your TOS problems? I likewise have both TOS and voice issues (the latter caused by using dictation software).

      Hope things are going well for you!

  16. Isaac Sales Rodrigues Furtado

    Is there an exercise to speak in a aspirate way?

    1. Vocular

      It’s not something we currently have in the app, but I’m planning to expand it in the next couple of months so it analyses how husky your voice is, and that’ll help you practise. But like I say here, just try and speak while breathing more air out, as if you’re sighing at the same time. Tom Hiddleston or Jon Krasinski are good examples to copy

  17. Terry

    One of the coolest(if not the coolest) apps ever!

    (1) Please start a website similar to celebheights.com/(on this website a celebs height is listed and visitors comment under it,its very cool) where celebrity voice pitches will be listed and visitors can comment on what they think about that celebs voice and post their own voice samples etc,I think it would be very popular.

    (2) Please open this link here https://youtu.be/FWQxw82PQcA ,the blonde character’s voice actor is named Banjo Ginga and he did that voice without any artificial help.The comment I often see when people have heard that voice is that it is too deep to be humanly possible,personally I think its the best deep voice ever but I don’t think its too deep.What is your opinion on it,is it the deepest voice you’ve ever heard,what is his pitch level on vocular and how does he compare to the other Basses on your database? thank you in advance.

    1. Vocular

      Hey Terry, thanks! I’ll take a look at the guy’s voice. I’m planning on adding a bunch of new voices to the app (especially female ones) so I’ll check his voice out when I’m editing them.

      As for the voice listings, did you know they’re on the app? If you go to Archives then click the Celebrities tab at the top, you get the full list of voices in the database.

    2. Hamza H.

      Could you please explain specifically which muscle I am supposed to be working with the neck crunches? When I do them I feel it in the muscles around the middle of my neck, throat area. I have another workout I do that targets my sternocleidomastoid muscles much better so I just do them both. Thanks.

      1. Vocular

        Well, you see the image with the neck muscle? I think that shows it pretty well, the SCMs. What’s the other exercise you do, out of interest?

  18. Tyler

    Anything to combat losing voice depth as the day goes on? For me, I start off as 73hz, and I feel its depth and in my chest. It lasts for a good few hours. Today for example at night it’s 87hz. No longer feel it anywhere. Feels very weak.

    Any idea on what to do? Will training neck help keep my voice?

    1. Vocular

      Really? If 87Hz is as high as it gets, I’d say you don’t have anything to worry about. Neck exercises should help you though, by building stronger neck muscles that aren’t affected as much by everyday strain.

  19. Willrich

    I have been at the exercises for a couple weeks now, but haven’t noticed a significant trend downward yet. Just bought a neck harness so now am switching to weighted exercise. We’ll see how it goes…I started off already in the 80-90Hz range, but I would like to get consistently down into the 70s.

    1. Vocular

      Hey Willrich, did you notice your voice get higher at first at all? Have you been measuring most days too?

  20. Antony Reynolds

    So does this affect your entire voice? For example I plan to sing with as much range as humanly possible.

    Does this just increase my lower registers or will it also decrease my high notes?

    1. Vocular

      I honestly don’t know, as a non-singer who hasn’t heard from singers who’ve done this. My guess would be that it shifts your range downward, so you can hit lower notes but lose some of the higher ones. It’s just a guess though…

  21. ElliotElliot

    How do I sound monotone without sounding emotionless?

    1. Vocular

      I suppose you vary your volume and rate of speech without varying your pitch too much. I’d listen to someone like George Clooney or Benedict Cumberbatch as an example. They don’t speak with intonation but neither sound ‘cold’ in my opinion. There’s another post on monotone voices on here, I’m going to be updating it next month as well

  22. Gabriel

    Okay, so I don’t quite know how to start this comment but I guess it will just come along as I type. So I’m going to be 15 in a couple of weeks and I should have already experienced puberty by now. It might just be that puberty is coming late for me but I’m still concerned. My voice has always (relatively) been pretty deep so it already sounds like I’ve been through puberty. This is because of something loosely related to your 1st example. I have a disorder called Rhythmic Movement Disorder in which it (most of the time) forces me to bang my head back and forth repeatedly. The disorder’s effects usually happen for most people before sleep and during sleep. For me, it happens before and during sleep, and it also happens when I’m awake and just sitting upright. I’ve been doing this ever since I can remember. You could probably already guess how this is related to your first example. The constant motion of my head banging has strengthened the muscles in my neck, causing my voice to become significantly deeper. I don’t know if this has been of any interest to you, so if you have any questions just ask me.

    1. Vocular

      Hey Gabriel, that’s pretty interesting. So your neck muscles are a lot stronger than most people’s of your age? On the puberty thing, could you have your blood tested for testosterone? I don’t know much about this, but it seems plausible than your blood testosterone level would rise before you notice any of the effects of it.

  23. […] To practice deepening your voice, you can follow the advice in this article. […]

  24. Will

    I presume that you raise your back and then you move your head as far to the left, right, up & down as you can for 20 reps, rest, and then perform another two sets?

    1. Vocular

      Hi Will, I just lie flat on a gym bench and then lift my head up and down 20 times. I also turn it to the side to isolate particular neck muscles

  25. Frank

    Hey, how much did your neck grow in size during these two months? My neck is aesthetically fine at the moment but I am concerned with the outcomes of neck training, especially regarding perceived shoulder breadth. See James Milner, for instance. His frame is fine, but his shoulders look relatively narrow because he has such a strong neck.

    1. Vocular

      Hey, I’m not sure exactly. I’ll say that some shirts I own are now uncomfortable when I do up my top button, but I can still just about button them up. I think it all looks better as well.

      1. Frank

        Thank you for your answer. Do you think the aesthetic change is significantly noticeable to people around you?

        1. Vocular

          Probably not. Some new people have asked me if I play rugby, which didn’t really happen before, but no one has mentioned my neck getting bigger or anything…

  26. Tom

    I’m liking this app so far. Very interesting concept. That said I think the voice classifications could do with a bit of tweaking as it seems a bit strange seeing Daniel Radcliffe as a “bass” and various female actors as tenors and baritones. Perhaps add Soprano and Alto to cater for female users aiming for the sweet spot in the female range? Other than that I really like where this app is going!

  27. Jack

    How long should it take for my voice to get higher and then deeper when doing the neck exercises?

    1. Vocular

      Hi Jack, your voice should get higher the next day, stay that way for about a week before it returns to normal, then be significantly deeper after a month, then get deeper still. This is all just based on my experience though, so it might vary from person to person.

  28. Brad Alexander

    The part about dehydration is spot-on. I do voiceovers and I generally drink warm rooibos tea to keep the vocal cords loose and keep me hydrated.
    Also, Morgan Freeman’s trick of yawning a lot before a session helps.

    1. Vocular

      Ah, that’s interesting. I also used to have a section on Freeman’s yawning in here but I deleted it because people weren’t clicking on an article about 15 techniques for making your voice deeper…

      1. Brad Alexander

        I just tried your app for the first time and got my “similar too” list. I was happy that Robert diNero and Arnold Schwarzenegger were at the top. I had to laugh though as Jude Law wasn’t far behind. A few months ago an American colleague saw one of my videos and she had thought that Jude Law had done the narration.

  29. Ryan Koula

    Ahh everyone here is saying they started at 90-80 Hz but here I am starting at 170Hz as a guy. It sucks but I suppose I have a lot of work to do to even just sound like a guy in general. Also I am 21 so puberty has come and gone.

    Although I should note a few things. I had a deviated septum my whole life up until two years ago. This meant I could only breathe out of one nostril up until then. Also I have had incredibly bad posture all my life up until recently. I started to work out and it got slightly better but I still have some work to do. Overall, breathing has always been difficult (to do properly) up until recently so I am still trying to harness the power of my voice.

    I will do anything to deepen my voice as it is the least attractive quality of me by far. I think I will try singing classes and/or a voice coach and see how it goes for a while. But if I don’t see results I’m tempted to move towards surgery. Now I know surgery has risks and thats why I will and would only go to the best of the best to get it done.

    Also I have been training my neck for a few months now. I have only worked the front of my neck thusfar and have gotten to about 25 lbs for 12 reps. I havent noticed voice difference because I didn’t know neck work affected that. I plan to get a neck harness soon to really maximize my neck growth.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Ryan, have you been doing the neck exercises I recommend here? It sounds like you weren’t previously doing them to lower you voice. How do you do yours?

      1. Ryan Koula

        Actually what you described is exactly the exercise I do but with weight. I will do the movement but with a weighted plate on my forehead, doing curls and slowly nodding as you described. Originally I started working the neck for size purposes but yesterday found out on your blog that it can help train for your voice as well.

        Honestly the first times I did the exercise with weight is one of the best feelings Ive ever gotten. My neck loosened up and I could really feel the muscle fibers in my neck activating for the first time in my life. Whoever sees this comment and hasn’t tried neck training with weight (safely of course) I highly recommend it.

        1. Vocular

          Yeah, I felt that too, especially when I started using the neck harness too. I need to get back to that. I’m surprised it didn’t noticeably affect your voice though. Do you think it could be that you weren’t measuring before and after?

          1. Ryan Koula

            It might have affected it but you’re right, I didn’t measure a before and after.

            What would you say I should work on first in my voice journey? Im starting at a high 170Hz so I can only go deeper from here. Now I know that I will never sound like Morgan Freemon but I do want to improve. So many people when they talk to me I can tell my voice is like nails on a chalkboard to them, which spurs my social anxiety most times.

          2. Vocular

            Hey Ryan, I’m not sure completely. To be honest, I’m a bit flummoxed by the fact that the neck exercises aren’t having much impact. Do you have the app yet? I’d definitely try playing around with the pitch tracker to see what frequencies you’re capable of. I’d also start saving recordings everyday at 2pm so you can see if the neck exercises are having a good effect. Also, do you ever feel like you have a lot of upper body tension? Tight pecs maybe? That can cause problems if it pulls on your neck muscles (in my experience anyway).

            By the way, I’ve actually recently started a PhD in voice research, mainly looking at what makes a voice sound male or female and why some voices are more attractive than others. You might be surprised to hear that pitch isn’t as big a deal as most people think when it comes to having an attractive voice. John McEnroe’s voice is really high for a man, but he’s always seemed like a really manly guy to me. I don’t really like the word, but he’s always seemed so ‘alpha’. I was amazed to see his voice wasn’t deep, never mind high. So there’s other stuff going on. Same with Bill Clinton. Feel free to email me if you want to talk more about this.

  30. GGk gg

    Can you specify easy neck exercises?

    1. Vocular

      The ones I specify are easy. They only take five minutes.

  31. Kleber

    Hi James,

    Would it be possible to post a video showing the neck movements and exercises you performed?
    That would make it clearer just to follow.

    When I bought the app I really thought there would be some guide for exercises in it due to the description. I am happy with it, but it would help greatly if there was a video tutorial.

    Cheers,

    1. Vocular

      Hi Kleber, yeah, I’m planning on recording this soon actually, I just need to get my voice back to where I want it first (I’ve had a lot of upper body tension which seems to be affecting my voice, but I’ve started doing some new back exercises that seem to be helping a lot).

  32. Kleber

    Hi

    Would it be possible to post a video showing the neck movements and exercises you performed?
    That would make it clearer just to follow.

    When I bought the app I really thought there would be some guide for exercises in it due to the description. I am happy with it, but it would help greatly if there was a video tutorial.

    Cheers,

  33. Isaac

    Hi James,

    Thank you for writing this blog post. I just bought the app and finished my first day of exercises – looking forward to the results. In the past I’ve struggled with deep diaphragmatic breathing and shortness of breathe, to help me with this I purchased a breathing exerciser to supplement with daily exercises. My starting voice is ~117Hz, on my first recording I noticed a very high vocal fry of 24%. Do you have any tips to improve vocal fry? Can’t wait to hear my voice after a few months of training 🙂 Thanks again.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Isaac, good question. I should probably write up a summary of tips for avoiding vocal fry, but from what I’ve understood it’s like the opposite of uptalk, where you’re dipping into a lower register by habit instead of a higher one. Are you using the pitch tracker? That tells you your pitch as you speak so you can see when you dip from 110Hz to 75Hz (i.e. the fry register in your case). My feeling was that it’d be quite easy to correct once you had the visual feedback, but I’ve never really had vocal fry so I can’t say from experience.

  34. Sonny

    Hello, and thank you for an amazing app!

    Been using it since a couple of months now, and i began with depth of 101 hz and 120hz average. Now i´m down to 95 hz and 110 hz average. Going in the right direction, but slower progress than average it seems.

    Still doing the neck excercises you recommend. Hope to get even lower.

    This whole thing got my attention after a strange experience. One day i was talking to this woman in her 20`s. She has always had a very creaky voice with lots of vocal fry. But it was always only parts of sentences. Suddenly during normal conversation, she dropped absurdly low in vocal fry throughout her whole sentences, and kept talking this way for maybe a minute. I thougt i was having a conversation with Barry White all of a sudden…

    I got so surprised so i didnt say anything. As a male i would have been accused for harrassment probably. She did not seem embarrassed or even aware of the situation.

    If a man suddenly would speak like Mickey Mouse, he would probably be called out for it immediately though…

    I began doing research online, and found out its more common among females to use this vocal quality. Speculation is that they try to sound more like men to be taken serious. I just find it sad to see yet another feminine quality tossed to the roadside in the name of equality.

    One question though: why does your app exclude vocal fry? If the reality is that women now actually have registers down in Morgan Freeman territory, should it not be recognized?

    I agree with you, that vocal fry sounds horrible regardless of gender, and that it should be reduced to a minimum. It just sounds healthier and more pleasant without it.

    Best regards!

    1. Vocular

      Hey Sonny, thanks for the nice message! Yeah, I agree with you. What’s worse is that this style of speech doesn’t even appear to make people sound more authoritative, so it’s completely self-defeating.

      I guess that’s part of the reason why we exclude it from the overall depth calculation. Somebody looking to sound more authoritative may want to lower their pitch, but dipping into vocal fry has the opposite effect, so it made sense to exclude it from the overall figure at the top. However, another reason was that I personally don’t think vocal fry sounds deep – it’s pretty obvious when you’re hearing a woman with a bona fide deep voice (like Shohreh Aghdashloo or Cate Blanchett) compared with, say, Paris Hilton. That’s just my personal intuition though – I don’t know how any studies that rate whether vocal fry makes a voice sound deeper.

      So that’s it. Basically, I didn’t want the app to inadvertently coach people to speak in the fry register and I figured that excluding fry would lead to a better approximation of voice depth.

  35. Sonny

    Hello again and thank you for the fast response!

    I had to check out Shohreh Aghdashloo. That was the smokiest voice i´ve ever heard 🙂

    I think the microphone on Android devices have trouble registering under 58 hz. I tried to analyze her from an interview on Youtube. It seems to bottom out 🙂

    Have you analyzed her voice?

    This was the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGcUB55muSw

    Cheers!

    1. Vocular

      Hey, sorry for the late reply. Had a lot of jobs to do outside (I live on a farm). Anyway, yes, I’m actually currently doing a PhD on the difference between male and female voices, so I spend a lot of my time hunting for voices like hers. You basically want to find very deep female voices which still sound identifiably feminine to test how well the model works when it can’t use pitch to divide male and female.

      Shohreh’s voice has a median pitch of 110Hz. It’s not the Android’s fault too, we don’t do frequencies below 58Hz because they’re harder to analyse (and human voices very rarely fall below there in a meaningful way anyway). Although I should also say that you often won’t get reliable results by using a recording from a speaker, they seem to have trouble reproducing some frequencies.

      1. Sonny

        No worries! I am in no hurry 🙂 Just thankful for your time and expertise.

        Did you ever find where and when you bottomed out after doing the neck exercises? I plan on doing atleast one more month. The median and average is going down more than my depth strangely enough.

        My goal is 85hz depth and 100hz median.

        Some mornings im down to 80hz and 97hz respectively. Would love to keep those numbers throughout the day…

  36. rarysadasda

    How exactly did you perform your crunches? I may be over complicating it, is it just a normal crunch with your neck tucked in and elbows out?

    1. Vocular

      Hello, I just lie on my bench and then lift my head from flat to roughly 90 degrees. Like you’re lying down looking at the ceiling and you then move your head to look at your feet. You should feel like your SCM muscles (on either side of your voice box) are doing all the lifting too.

      1. Ge

        Ah I see, thank you! I feel it right by my SCM Muscles exactly. I don’t wish to bother, but it seems like a small but helpful detail:
        Do you put your hands on your head and have your elbows point out to push forward for the crunch? or is it just all neck and you leave your hands by your side?

        1. Vocular

          No worries. It’s all in the neck. I generally touch my SCM muscles with one hand just to make sure that they’re activated when I’m doing each crunch.

          Btw, on this line “I feel it right by my SCM Muscles exactly”. I wondered what you meant by ‘by’? You don’t feel it in muscles next to your SCMs, do you?

          1. rarysadasda

            Oh, that was nothing. I wasn’t really thinking when I was typing since I had to leave… Thanks anyways. How long are your breaks in between sets? I am doing 2-3 minutes right now.

          2. Vocular

            Yeah, pretty much that. I probably give myself a minute

  37. iRobbani

    Tis is to inform u that My voice was very thin I mean vocal tone sound is very thin when I speak with other people face to face and on cell or Mobile phone heard not normal voice or abnormal voice for that reason I am facing criticize by other people or they think I am a abnormal man not
    I am ok only my vocal tone sound problem. I had visited ur website but I am not clear what I have
    to do? Pls advice me as a easy way or understandable way to change my voice tone. Actually this problem stop my career, honor,arise mental depression. What can I do now? May be for than reason I am lose many years and I can show my intelligency,Strenght,Creativity, self confidence and others.

    Pls reply me ASAP.
    Thanks

    1. Vocular

      Hello iRobbani, well, just so I understand what you mean about your voice being thin, what Hz is your voice currently?

  38. Kathy

    I want to hear my voice to see what I’m gonna sound like when I get older

  39. Nic

    Hi, before I start the neck exercises, I was just wondering whether the initial time after you first do the exercises (where your voice becomes higher at first) would be easily noticeable to myself/family/friends etc. ?

    1. Vocular

      Hi Nic, I wouldn’t say easily noticeable. I’m not sure anyone noticed with me. To be honest, I’m not sure people consciously notice pitch all that well. I’ve met quite a lot of people who didn’t even realise that your voice is deeper in the morning or after you’ve been drinking. I’m also pretty sure my voice is higher after an upper body workout, although I didn’t pay attention to this until after I started work on this.

  40. Nico

    Hi, I don’t have a bench, where else can i do the exercises?

    1. Vocular

      Initially, I just lay on the floor of my dorm and did them there. You could also just lie on a bed instead

  41. LouBloom

    I’m 17 years old, my voice has 85 – 90 hz average and sometimes reaches 79 hz of depth, do you think i should do the exercises or my voice is just fine as it is with 17 years old?. Thank you for the app.

    1. Vocular

      Yeah, I wouldn’t worry if your voice is averaging in the 80s already

      1. LouBloom

        Yeah, I mean sometimes is like 86 hz average but most of the time is 90 hz average and 80 hz of depth, the app says that is similar to Jon Hamm. Thank you for answering man.

        1. Nin Caqli Badhan

          What’s your tongue posture like?

  42. GhostTown

    Hi, I’m 18 years old, my voice has 89 – 95 hz average, and the voice depth is 80 hz sometimes, do you think it will deepen with time or do you recommend me to do the exercises?

    1. Vocular

      No, I wouldn’t worry if you’re already down there. Anything in the mid 90s or below is deep.

      1. GhostTown

        Really thankful for your fast reply, but do you think it will deepen with time or it will stay just as it is?

        1. Vocular

          I can’t say for sure, but I read a paper recently that showed that the voice naturally deepens between the ages of 14 and 21 and then it stabilises for the rest of adulthood. This doesn’t tell us how much of that deepening happens between 14 and 18 rather than 18 and 21, but I’d guess that your voice gets a little deeper. By all means try the neck exercises, it’ll be interesting to see if you get the same decrease, but you probably don’t need to.

  43. Imagination

    Hi bro, does my head need to be hanging off the edge of the bed or can I do the exercise by just lying on the bed or the floor?

    1. Vocular

      Hey, you can do either. Personally I think it’s better hanging off the edge of the bed because works your neck out more, but either works.

  44. Imagination

    Hi bro, does my head need to be hanging off to do the exercises or i just lie down on the bed and do it like that?

  45. BarryWhite

    Hi bro, I’ve been doing the exercises for 2 weeks and I haven’t noticed my voice going higher, so I was worried I’ve been doing the exercises wrong, I let my head hang off the edge of the bed and then tuck my chin, I feel the scm muscles working but no difference in the pitch of my voice.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Barry, are you keeping a chart of this or does it just sound the same to you?

      1. BarryWhite

        I’m keeping a chart, I see a fluctuation, I was just worried about doing wrong the exercises. I will keep doing the exercises and report the results in a month.
        Also what can I use to put weight on my forehead? I don’t have gym equipment. Thanks.

      2. BarryWhite

        Yep, I keep a chart, I see a little fluctuation, I was just worried about doing the exercises wrong.
        I will start doing the exercises with weight now, I will report the results in a couple of weeks.

        1. Vocular

          Hmm, it should be up the first week and then down the second, based on the three times I’ve done this. Is there any chance your neck was quite well-built already?

          As for adding weights, I’d generally just find a book that weighed 0.5-1kg and place that on my forehead as I did the neck crunch. Be careful not to overdo it though. Your head likely weighs between 5kg and 6kg, so an increase of 1kg is actually pretty big.

          1. BarryWhite

            Not well-built but the size of my neck is 39 – 41 cm. Thank you for the tips man.

  46. Scott Kellas

    Hey there, I will start my saying that I’ve been mistaken for a woman every time I answer the phone, even though I’m a 45 year old man. I largely blamed choir for this, as I was active in that during my early years. I ended up buying Vocular off of Google Play.

    My Voice depth is 150Hz; Average is 170Hz; Median is 173Hz; Highest is 219Hz. Reliability is Excellent at 2104 and my variance is 13.93

    I’m most similar to Penelop Cruz, Kristen Stewart, and Emilia Clarke.

    I really need to work on lowering my voice, and plan to employ some of the suggestions here, because yeah, being mistaken for a woman every time I answer the phone, or play a game with new friends online…it gets so old.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Scott, sorry for the late reply here. Good to hear from you too! I’d love it if you could update me on your progress with this. My gut feeling is the higher your voice, the greater the gains you can get from these exercises, although I’ve never seen any confirmation of this. Feel free to email me too, if you want to know more about any of this.

      I’m also currently working on algorithms which judge how male or female a voice sounds. We may be adding some of these measurements to a new version of the app soon.

    2. Vocular

      Btw, I’d also look to take your variance down to 8. More monotone voices sound deeper and more masculine and they don’t sound any less attractive (in the West, anyway). I talk about a few studies into this here: http://vocularapp.com/monotone-voice-myth/

  47. Nkazimulo

    Thanks really helped

  48. nihal poodamveetil

    hey, im 13 and i havent hit puberty yet but can i still follow these steps and getting any effects from this, or am i gonna have different side effects from adults.

  49. nihal poodamveetil

    hey, im 13 and i havent hit puberty yet but can i still follow these steps and getting any effects from this, or am i gonna have different side effects from adults?

    1. Vocular

      Hi Nihal, I probably wouldn’t. I don’t think it would be harmful but your voice drops from 300Hz to 100Hz during puberty and these techniques only seem to lower the voice by about 20-30Hz. You could use the app to check your voice though and log its changes. It might not sound like anything’s happening to you but an objective measurement might tell you otherwise…

  50. Alex

    Hi James. I’ve been doing the exercises for 6 weeks now and didn’t find any difference in my voice, it didn’t get deeper or higher. I did the exercises with and without weight and I never trained my neck before. I will keep doing the exercises to see if i find any progress.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Alex, thanks for reporting this. Any idea why this might be? Did you measure your voice shortly after doing the exercises? Did you take recordings at the same time each day too? Did you notice any change in your SCM muscles too? (Some of my old shirts wouldn’t fit me after a point). Sorry if these are obvious questions. I’m just surprised because I’ve done this three times and always found the same results…

      1. Alex

        I don’t have idea, maybe I’m doing the exercises wrong but I’ve seen videos about it and I am doing it like in the videos. I measure my voice before doing the exercises and at 5 pm. I do the exercises every day though. I’ve noticed that my neck is somewhat bigger but not that much, just a little more.

      2. Alex

        I know that the exercises work but maybe I’m doing it wrong. I will keep doing the exercises though to see if i have results later.

        1. Vocular

          Oh yeah, I didn’t mean to end this discussion, it was just late over here when I read your last message. Could you send me the video of the neck exercises you’re doing? I’m just wondering if they’re significantly different to what I’m doing. The other thing is that every day is probably too much – I’d just do every other day. But the first time I did these in 2015 I did do them every day and I still got the same ‘higher then lower’ effect…

          1. Alex

            I do the exercises similar to this video but without that weight.
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAZ8Q2jbdHw

          2. Vocular

            Hmm, yeah, that’s pretty much what I do. Do you experience upper body tension at all? I have that problem some days and I think it affects my voice, makes it sound reedy and strained.

          3. Alex

            I don’t suffer upper body tension just some tension in the cervicals. I will try to do the exercises every other day and do them some more weeks to see If i have results. I will report it if that happens.

          4. Vocular

            Okay, maybe that explains it then. Might be worth trying exercises with a neck harness, starting with a light weight (2.5kg). My voice was deepest when I was doing both the SCM exercises and using the harness.

  51. Hamza

    How long did it take to achieve those results you mentioned? Thanks

    1. Vocular

      The graph shows 3 months of change, but my voice started getting deeper after 2 weeks. It was higher for the first week though.

  52. Jason

    My voice is around 180 (average). I am a male and have nasal voice. Can I make it any better with neck and breathing exercises?

    1. Vocular

      Hi Jason, how old are you? I believe the neck exercises are probably more effective for people in your range, although not many people have tried these so it’s hard to say. The nasality seems to be a ‘bad habit’ too, rather than anything physiological. You should be able to practise speaking with your fingers on your nose and train your vocal energy lower, so it sounds less distorted by the blocked nasal cavity.

      1. Jason

        26 years old right now. I always had a problem with allergies, flu and blocked nose when I was little. These problems have improved since the last few years. I also have bad posture (rounded shoulders and forward head)… I have doing these exercises for neck and some exercises for shoulders for a week now. My posture have become a lot better. So I suppose this will help me too.

        Should I practise speaking by blocking my nose?

  53. Epicnt

    My voice can already go down to about 62 hz without straining too much. Will this work to go even lower?

    1. Vocular

      I’m mean, probably. But if you’re already usually in the 70s, I wouldn’t worry about making it deeper.

      1. Epicnt

        Thats fair. One last question, I’m 14 right now, so will my voice go any deeper naturally?

  54. Matt

    Hey bro could you upload a video doing the exercises? I don’t think I’m doing them right.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Matt, yeah, this video shows how I do them actually. Specifically around 2:30: https://youtu.be/gimeRpdqWQw

  55. Jack

    I found this on my explorer page and I need help getting a higher voice right now I’m at a 50 Hz voice and I cant stand it.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Jack, that’s not something I really know much about. Can you not just speak in a slightly higher voice? I can use the pitch tracker on the app and speak with a voice 20-30 Hz higher at will

  56. KYLE B HARRINGTON

    What was your voice in Hz when you first started vs. after you worked on changing it?

    1. Vocular

      Initially 105Hz, although I was already breathing diaphragmatically by then. 90Hz after a few months of the SCM neck exercises. Then low 80s after I’d been using the neck harness for a while (although I’m still not sure how much of that was down to the harness)

  57. Miles

    Hey I just wanted to ask. Why are there men with rather thick necks but not with deep voice?

    1. Vocular

      Hey Miles, I think that broadly comes down to the size of their vocal cords. Some men just have just have shorter or thinner vocal cords, which is why I tend to talk about getting a deeper voice, rather than a deep one. There are psychological factors too – some guys talk with a higher voice just out of habit or adopt bad posture which puts a strain on their voice. Also, a lot of nasal voices are low-pitched but people perceive them as being high-pitched (e.g. Richard Ayoade)

      1. Miles

        Thank you for your response. Just another question, how much time were you doing the exercises and noticed that your neck was bigger?

        1. Vocular

          Good question. I actually didn’t notice this for ages, although I was never looking out for it either. The only thing I can say is that I had a tuxedo shirt which ended up so tight I would leave the top button undone until the last minute because it felt like it was stopping the blood from getting to my brain. That used to fit comfortably too. So my neck definitely got thicker, I just don’t know how long it took and what the difference was…

        2. deep voice wannabe

          hello, i’ve got a question about the 1st way. what’s the best way to relax my sternocleidomastoids? also, can teenagers do this? (ages 13-17)

          1. Vocular

            Best way to relax your SCMs is to strengthen your neck and relieve upper body tension, which can be caused by bad posture, a bad exercise routine, stress, etc. You should notice after a hot bath, your voice gets deeper. That’s this effect in action.

            As for whether teenagers can do the neck exercises, I don’t see why not. But I’d maybe caution against building up a strong neck if the rest of your body doesn’t carry much muscle. Until recently, I worked out the front of my body much more than the back, and it caused a kind of imbalance that I’ve been trying to correct where my shoulders naturally slumped forward. It’s just good not to work out some muscles a lot more than others.

  58. michael

    Is 147hz for a twelve year old relatively deep?

    1. Vocular

      Hi Michael, I don’t actually know. I’d expect it to get deeper based on one paper I read, but they didn’t have many figures for different age groups.

  59. Dustin

    My voice is averaging between 58-65hz, I know that’s fairly low. Would the exercises and hydration make a significant difference in my case?

    1. Vocular

      I don’t see why they wouldn’t, although that’s a bit like being 6’8” and asking how you could get taller, lol.

      1. Dustin H

        Lol! I suppose you’re right. I might give it a shot though and see if I can get down to 50Hz. I also have a solid monotone with minimal vocal fry. I’m trying to get to the point of speaking like James Earl Jones and singing like Johnny Cash.

  60. Evan

    Hey, so I’m 17 and my friend sent me this as a joke. Before he sent me this he did these tests and got himself down to 96hz, he didn’t test me but just measured my voice. I’ve been told I sound like the person named corpse? And I got a hz of 58. A lot of people don’t hear me talking if they are used to hearing high pitched voices from the people they know. It can get very annoying so I have to basically yell all the time.

    1. Emanuel

      Hey man, yes I know this really well, I have totally same problem. My voice is 59-64 hz. Iam unable to talk loud, my loudest yell is about 50 db. It took me some time to get used to it, but now, I dont see it as problem. About month ago, I got hurt. I was not able to speak, my larynx was blocked with some shit. Not a nice story. It took me 2 weeks to get from it. I must say, Iam happy that I can even speak :D. Also, corpse has channel on youtube, a lot of people talk about his voice nowadays.

  61. mIKE

    Hi, I have a few questions about the exercises:

    Would it suffice to only do neck crunches, or should I be doing a variety of exercises to strengthen different neck muscles (I assume crunches primarily work on the SCMs)? I don’t care about having a big neck – I only want to deepen my voice.

    Is the deeper voice that results from these exercises permanent or does it need to be constantly maintained with continued neck exercises? I’m excited at the prospect of deepening my voice, but I don’t really want to have to do multiple sets of neck crunches every other day for the rest of my life.

    I’ve been doing the neck crunches for a little over a month now and my voice does seem to be deeper, but it isn’t consistently deeper – it seems to fluctuate from one moment to the next. If I really concentrate of taking a deep breath and speaking from my belly, so to speak, I can produce a nice, rich, lower tone….but a few seconds later I might speak again without really thinking about it and my voice is back to being light and high pitched. Can you relate to this at all? I’m working on deep breathing, which is something that doesn’t come naturally to me at all, so hopefully once I’ve improved this I will be able to speak at a lower pitch consistently.

    Thanks.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Mike, sorry for the late reply here. I’ve been a bit busy getting ready for Christmas with a business I own. Anyway…

      “Would it suffice to only do neck crunches, or should I be doing a variety of exercises to strengthen different neck muscles (I assume crunches primarily work on the SCMs)? I don’t care about having a big neck – I only want to deepen my voice.”

      Neck crunches alone has worked for me in the past, although I’ve been going to the gym for eleven years now so I’ve sorta always been working out while doing the neck exercises too.

      “Is the deeper voice that results from these exercises permanent or does it need to be constantly maintained with continued neck exercises? I’m excited at the prospect of deepening my voice, but I don’t really want to have to do multiple sets of neck crunches every other day for the rest of my life.”

      Yes, I believe you have to keep doing them, although maybe less so once you’ve built up your neck muscles.

      “I’ve been doing the neck crunches for a little over a month now and my voice does seem to be deeper, but it isn’t consistently deeper – it seems to fluctuate from one moment to the next. If I really concentrate of taking a deep breath and speaking from my belly, so to speak, I can produce a nice, rich, lower tone….but a few seconds later I might speak again without really thinking about it and my voice is back to being light and high pitched. Can you relate to this at all?”

      Oh yeah, I can definitely relate. Some weeks my voice is randomly really deep and then others it’s higher. I think upper body tension has something to do with it. I’ve struggled with tightness in my shoulders and torso for some time now and my voice always sounds better when my body feels better. My voice is also higher after I’ve just been working out. But like you say, other factors to do with how you use your body (the way you breathe, your posture, how ‘warmed up’ your voice is) also affect how you sound.

      1. Mike

        Thanks for your reply. The inconsistency of pitch is frustrating and there doesn’t seem to be any real pattern to it. For example, the last few days my voice was really deep all day long, and then suddenly, today (even in the morning) it’s back to its old higher pitch….yet I’m not stressed, no changes in sleep pattern, etc….so it’s a mystery!

        I’ve increased the intensity of the neck exercises a bit, so hopefully that will help yield greater results but it’s early days and I’m going to be very patient about it – treating it like a long term project instead of a quick fix.

        May I ask why you switched from doing the exercises every day to doing them every second day?

        Thanks.

  62. abrhame

    hey i was wondering if a fifteen year hold could get a deep voice and at what hr would it be at

    1. Vocular

      Hi Abrhame, I’m not sure unfortunately. I haven’t seen much data that doesn’t involve people over the age of 18 at least.

  63. Robin Hayes

    ima transgender male, and this advice has really helped me deepen my voice without testorone, i am currently at 115 hertz, coming from a 180. and it just keeps getting deeper as i go. thank you so much!

    1. Sonny

      This is truly astonishing! It isn´t a typo? 65hz drop without hormones? Good job! With testosterone you would be rumbling like an earthquake 🙂

      It makes me wonder if most females have the physique and ability to habitually speak in average male register. I mean men speak at the bottom of their register and women in the middle. Is it just habit?

      I suspect it has to do with the fact that we have been handling plastics, eating birthcontrol pills and other drugs and medicine, eating processed food with unnatural additives, breathing exhaust fumes and drinking water with heavy metals in it for the last 70 or so years.

      The lines between genders are dissapearing more and more. Sperm count/testosterone is alarmingly low the last decades in the western world, Gender dysphoria is on a steep rise in young people etc etc.

      Another little detail i have noticed, is that in old photographs and movies you never ever see a woman with a prominent adams apple. This has definetly changed over the last 40 years or so. Nowadays its pretty common to see women with this attribute. This would correlate with the drop in voice depth probably.

      Sorry if this is a little offtopic, but it is fascinating how we as humans evolve/devolve.

      1. Vocular

        “It makes me wonder if most females have the physique and ability to habitually speak in average male register. I mean men speak at the bottom of their register and women in the middle. Is it just habit?”

        Hi Sonny, I’m sure there’s a degree of habit to it, but men generally have larger vocal cords than women which gives them a lower voice pitch. This is also why the male voice drops so suddenly during puberty – testosterone lengthens and thickens the vocal cords, so the frequency falls from the 300s to the 100s.

        Also, I haven’t looked into the testosterone research in great detail yet and I’m typing this off the top of my head, but I wonder how much of the decline in T/sperm count can be explained by demographic trends. Testosterone is at its highest level in men during adolescence, so you’d expect testosterone levels to ‘fall’ as the world population got older. I believe testosterone is also lower in men with higher life satisfaction (although men get a boost in T when they win a contest). Testosterone is actually lower is pre-industrial societies too.

    2. Vocular

      Hi Robin, wow, that’s an incredible change! I wasn’t actually aware that was possible. Do you mind if I ask how you did it? I feel like you’re probably doing something different to what I’m doing.

  64. Timothy.l Drew Lambert

    Drink hot water with fresh lemon, known as the “singer’s drink”. Clears up everything.

  65. eean

    hi, I am curious about the neck exercises. how many times would you lift you’re head each time you do them? how often do you do it a day? what time of day would it be best?

    1. Vocular

      Hello, ideally, I do them once every two days and I do 3 sets of 20 reps, so 60 head lifts in total. I tend to do them at night too because they can make your neck feel uncomfortable if you do them early on and then have to work at a desk or something like that.

      1. Steve

        When did you start seing results?

        1. Vocular

          Hi Steve, I noticed a change straightaway – my voice was higher for about a week. It takes about a month to get significantly deeper though, I’d say. My neck felt different after a couple of days too. I’ve actually just started doing the exercises again this week after months off and it feels a lot more supple.

  66. Jean

    Good article! How about an unethical and unhealthy tip? Cigarette smoking, I believe this works by causing edema in the vocal cords. Do you have any studies on this?

  67. Kangmaru

    Hi vocular
    I’m 17 I wanna gv a brf background of how I got a weak high pitched voice.
    I was young n had a wonderful angelic voice .
    When puberty stroke me it bcam raspy and everyone pointed it out.
    I then had to squeeze and tighten my vocal cords unknowingly .
    I noticed my voice ain’t good while video recording myself during major shutdowns
    I have been reading about voice deepening on this page since bgning of lockdown.
    I tried the neck exercise and i noticed sum subtle changes .
    I mostly immitate deep voices and it really amaze me but it strains me more.
    How would you help me speak with a constant deep voice at least the one I obtained as i continue with the exercise

    2nd I started nofap and went more than 47 days and my voice seems to have deepened naturally..Do you have any say on this as a vocular?

    1. Vocular

      Hi Kangmaru, uhh, I don’t have much to add to the article at the moment. Just that you have to keep doing the neck exercises to maintain the effects on your voice and try to make the change in breathing/posture habitual.

      On the NoFap thing, I’ve always been sceptical, although it is interesting how many people report these findings (seemingly without having expected their voice to get deeper). I guess you weren’t tracking your voice with the app over those 47 days?

      1. Kangmaru

        Happy new year
        So I wasn’t used the app
        Could you tag it for me

  68. Asif Sayyed

    I’m 16 and I have a 85hz voice is it possible to go deeper?

    1. Vocular

      Probably, but your voice is already really deep and it’ll probably deepen more with age.

  69. Andrew

    Hey man. I am 14, almost fifteen. I have a normal voice, average in my school, however I want a deep one. Chances are, you know about Corpse. If not, look him up on YouTube. I love his voice. I really want a deep voice like his. Do you think I can do it or wait till 20 or something?

    1. Vocular

      Hi Andrew, I think this comment from Dustin was meant as a reply to you, so I thought I’d post it as a reply here:

      “So here’s the thing. Corpse is 23 and has gerd (a medical condition that damages his vocal chords), he also is forced to speak fairly quietly (listen to how close he is to his mic), and has a HUGE amount of vocal fry that also affects to depth of his voice. Feel free to do the exercises and try to add some depth to your voice. It certainly won’t hurt, but don’t expect to go from average to sub 58Hz overnight or possibly at all.”

      In terms of deepening your voice, how deep is it now? I ask because at 14/15, it’s likely that your voice will get deeper naturally. But also, during puberty, your voice falls from 300Hz to somewhere around 120Hz on average. That’s a huge decrease, and a lot more than you can get from the exercises I mention here. So it might just be worthwhile waiting, maybe tracking your voice once a month.

  70. Dustin Haskell

    So here’s the thing. Corpse is 23 and has gerd (a medical condition that damages his vocal chords), he also is forced to speak fairly quietly (listen to how close he is to his mic), and has a HUGE amount of vocal fry that also affects to depth of his voice. Feel free to do the exercises and try to add some depth to your voice. It certainly won’t hurt, but don’t expect to go from average to sub 58Hz overnight or possibly at all.

  71. Timor Kamran

    If i was to do 6 sets of the neck rep thing would it make the process quicker or make my voice deeper and would it be bad for my health?

    1. Vocular

      I’m not sure. Never tried 6 sets, but generally with lifting weights I stick to 3, so I did the same thing here.

  72. Dean

    Ey mate, I am wonderin is “Deepest” the highest you can get in Classification? I’ve been doing neck exercises for 3 weeks, I was at 64HZ at the beginning and I was gettin “Extremely Deep”. Now my voice depth is around 58-60HZ range and it seems like it doesn’t go higher than Deepest and any tips on how to lower vocal fry? It ranges between %2 and %4.

    1. Vocular

      Yup, that’s right. I wouldn’t pay much attention to the classifications though. They’re really just there for people who haven’t used the app before. I only really look at the numbers.

      In terms of vocal fry, a certain amount of it is unavoidable. It’s really there so that people who speak with a lot (15%+) can get out of the habit if they want to. It also doesn’t really work for voices below a median of 100Hz because it’s harder to measure at those depths.

      1. Dean

        I see, thanks for the quick reply.

        So what you are saying is Average&Median where I should be looking at to track my progress? Are 74HZ Avg and 76HZ Median good numbers?

        1. Vocular

          Yes, they’re good. Median is the main one I look at because it’s not shifted by extreme frequencies as much. I look at the matches too because that gives me a good ‘flavour’ of the voice too.

          1. Dean

            Median also determines how low you can get with the musical pitch I believe. Greatest basses usually have less than 60med or so.

            How is your progress going by the way? I don’t know if numbers on this page are updated or not but I am really curious which range are ya in right now.

          2. Vocular

            Progress with the app is going pretty well. I’m doing a PhD now to come up with algorithms for vocal attractiveness, gender recognition, clarity of speech.

            As for progress with using the app, I’ve kinda let it slide during the pandemic. I’m probably not going to be meeting anyone new for a while now, so I haven’t been as strict about the neck exercises as I normally would be.

  73. Rajat

    How long will it take to get a deep voice? I am 17. And if I follow these steps, will I get a fry range voice?

    1. Rajat

      Like Corpse Husband

      1. 851_random

        Not without scarring your voice or hurting it.

        In other words: don’t. I did it by accident while my voice changed for the first time [I’m 14 currently] and it hurt like hell for a week.

        I can however recommend making your voice tired without hurting it, you feel them get tired when they start to get dehydrated and weaker, any more than that without a lot [and I mean A LOT] of water and you’ll scar them.

        What that did for me is make them get used to vibrating every day and for long periods of time which by default made them thicker and more resistant. I can proudly say I have been told I sound 20, 30, and once even 38 which is literally the age of both my parents and for a 14 year old to be able to hit chest notes down to G#1 [46 hz] and F1 [43 hz] with a median in speaking of D2 and C#2 while doing this is pretty impressive for just some exercises that anyone’s able to do.

        However, note that my voice was in the countertenor range before 12, then it lowered to somewhere to the normal vocal range of a teenager with cracks and all that, but as I said I did hurt my voice for quite a bit before I realized what was happening, which by default lowered it to about 90 hz and weakened it, and it took some time to repair it.

        by 13 I was able to go into my contra-octave A1 [55 hz] and let me tell you if you are really focused on singing and want to get into a choir or an A Capella group as a bass, you will definitely be able to if you do not quit.

        Don’t focus as much on vocal range once you get down to where you feel comfortable and to where it sounds decently deep, try to learn techniques like subharmonic singing and chest-fry mix, and even high voice techniques like mixed voice, head voice and falsetto. Once you got them down you can focus on maintaining it and going lower slowly.

        Wish you good luck Rajat!

        1. Mike

          Hey 851_random, I am bit confused by your post. What exercises are you referring to in your 4th paragraph? The ones that you say got your voice down to F1? You mention purposefully tiring your voice in order to strengthen it, but then that sounds very risky and I’m not sure how it could permanently thicken your vocal folds.

        2. Luis Ramirez

          hey so I’m 17 and my voice has an average of 89.9 hz and median of 88.1hz and the low is 79.4hz would you consider this really deep or just a deep voice and do you think my voice will get deeper as I age

  74. Kevin

    Hey what’s the app called mate?

  75. Marie

    This might be an obvious question, but would the “sit ups” technique also stop me from being able to reach some higher notes? I’d like to increase my range to the lower notes, without loosing my ability to speak/sing in the higher ones.

  76. Kai

    Hi there! I’ve just found this on Google and I plan on trying it out! I’m about to turn 15 ( in 2 weeks). I’m AFAB (assigned female at birth) non-binary, and I prefer being masculine to being feminine. I don’t ever plan on going on testosterone because I want to be a singer when I grow up. I have a very high singing voice that would disappear if I ever decided to go on T, something I really don’t want. I was wondering whether these exercises would work for me and if it’s possible to go back up once you make your way to the lower range.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Kai, sorry for the late reply. You caught quite late over here in the UK. Anyway, I’m really not the right person to give you advice here. Is there an example of a voice which would be ideal for you? I’m currently working on an algorithm that determines the gender of a voice, and it would have a category for androgynous-sounding voices.

      Also, I’m not sure what to say about people as young as 14/15 doing these exercises. I first started doing them at 24 and I’m not sure how they would affect a developing body, especially the neck exercises. Sorry I can’t be much help here and happy birthday.

      1. Kai

        No worries! I’m sorry for replying late as well haha. I figured I might have to wait a bit to start “fixing” my body to how I want it, so it’s not that big of a deal if I don’t start yet. Hmmm… The best example of the type of voice I’d like to have would maybe be kinsen (he’s a Chinese VA) or maybe Khoi Dao (american VA as Albedo). Generally more on the masculine side, but not incredibly deep sounding.

        I plan on asking my doctor about possible ways I could safely lower my voice and whether these exercises could work or not, but I did want to get your opinion first, since you did write the post. Don’t worry if you think you’re not being too helpful to me! I figured it’d be a bit tough to advise someone my age. Thanks for replying anyways though!

  77. Steve

    Did your morning voice also become deeper, or was it like the difference between your morning and day voice which became smaller?

    1. Vocular

      I don’t actually know, annoyingly, although I’ve been off the exercises for a few months during lockdown and I’m going to pick them up again next week, so I’ll test it out.

  78. Hayden

    My voice is 62 hz normally, which makes me feel good for a 15 yo

  79. Steve

    Can you do these exercises without a bench?

    1. Vocular

      Yeah, I started off just doing them on the floor of my dorm room. You can do it on your bed too.

  80. N.L Chathura Poornima

    I am a boy but I have female voice , can I make male voice

  81. UFEDO OJO

    What if my voice depth is about 59 Hz while the highest one is 77Hz is that considered as deep voice or its just my coincidence to think that it is?

  82. MrmMeesiks

    My voice depth is 159 htz and I am 24 years old.
    i have similar voices to Katy Perry, taylor swift etc.
    Do you have any recommendations to make it deeper

  83. Valt

    What has been the lowest depth you have come down to?

    1. Vocular

      Hi Valt, it was the low 80s as my median, and 74Hz as the lowest pitch

      1. Valt

        Wow, from 100 to 74. That’s very impressive. Do you recommend a neck harness over the regular neck crunches by the way?

        1. Vocular

          I recommend both. Each exercise does muscles at different sides of your neck so it’s good to balance them out. Other people have had better results than me too.

          1. Steve

            If the exercise starts feeling easier, should I increase the number of reps or sets?

          2. Vocular

            I’d increase weight in that case. For the SCM neck exercises, I used to do them with a folder rested on my forehead that weighed 0.5kg and then slowly add papers so it weighed 1kg etc.

  84. Steve

    Can I use a 1 kg dumbbell or could it be unhealthy for you to rest it on your forehead?

    1. Vocular

      Yeah, that doesn’t sound too comfortable. I’d use a book or a bag of sugar before that. But I’d also work up to this slowly. Your head likely weighs 5-6kg, so 1kg is actually quite a steep increase, even though it doesn’t sound like much.

      1. Steve

        Ok, thank you.

  85. HOo

    I’ve always had a very high pitched shreaky kind of voice that is just gross to hear. Many people have said so. During puberty I tried making it deeper and that just worsened it, as just speaking normally my voice is never the same tone. Do these exercises help a woman too?

    1. Vocular

      I don’t see why they wouldn’t, but this is just something I’ve tried on myself a few times. I’ve heard feedback from other people who they’ve worked for too, but they were all men. Are you a woman?

  86. md

    This has to be the best advice I have ever read or watched on the subject. I feel I can take a realistic approach and achieve results thanks to your willingness to go all in. Thank you man.

    In case you didn’t know, here is the best neck harness I ever owned; an inexpensive version of The Neck Flex called The Iron Neck Alpha Harness on Amazon; it works all angles:
    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NHWGCN9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

    1. Vocular

      Hey MD, thank you very much. I’m actually thinking about making a video on the topic soon, just need to get my better voice back first – I stopped during these during lockdown. Thanks for the recommendation too. I’ll check it out.

  87. Danny

    Hey! I just wish to find out whether if you stop doing the exercises your voice becomes as high as it originally was, or you have to keep doing them forever if you want your voice to remain very deep forever. Also, at what age does a man’s voice stop deepening?

    1. Vocular

      Hi Danny, yeah, you basically have to keep them up, although it’s not a big deal. In terms of voice deepening, I seem to remember that it levels off in your late teens, then very slowly deepens over time, but not by much (maybe 10 Hz or so). We don’t actually know all that much about this though because nobody’s ever randomly sampled the population to find the average voice pitch, etc.

      1. Danny

        Alright, thanks very much for the info. I’ll keep up with the exercises then.

        1. Vocular

          How long have you been doing them for?

          1. Danny

            I’ve been doing them for about 1 week now, and my voice has gone up like I expected… But I’m feeling a little sore

      2. Danny

        I also saw a few people saying something about losing their morning voice….. Do you lose your morning voice after doing the exercises for some time?

  88. Steve

    If I don’t feel sore after doing the exercise, does it mean I’m not working hard enough?

  89. Nick

    So Im 17 and my avg frequency is about 114 hertz,
    Is that considered avg? Tbh I don’t feel like the sound of my voice deep at all.]

  90. Valter

    Am I doing something wrong if I also feel like I’m working the muscles in the back of my neck? And if so, what do you think I’m doing wrong?

  91. Jonathan

    I think the app is decent and I like it.
    I’d like to believe you about your transformation but the problem is that app’s measurements can be inconsistent.
    It’s also hard to rule out that you could simply be speaking deeper in the later recordings, whether consciously or not.
    For example, I’ve found that when speaking as close to normal as possible, my measurements for depth have ranged anywhere from 75hz to 90hz depending on the day and the most of the other measurements are often anywhere from 90hz to 105hz as well.

    1. Vocular

      Hi Jonathan, that’s true but I’ve tried to standardise it as much as possible by recording my voice in the early afternoon (so my morning voice had worn off and I hadn’t been drinking). I’ve also done this three times already, so I feel pretty sure that it’s not that I learned how to speak more deeply as I was doing these exercises.

      There’s other stuff too. If you do a neck workout (or a normal upper body workout) and then measure your voice pitch, I’m pretty sure it’d be higher as those muscles have tightened up. So there’s a clear link between your physiology and your voice.

  92. OOO

    is 76 deep? because mine read 76

    1. Vocular

      Yes, it is.

  93. Steve

    I did the neck exercises for a few months and it worked. My voice went from 94 hz to 76 hz. But unfortunatuly, I have been too lazy to do the exercises lately, and I feel like my voice has gone up a bit after not doing them. Do you think my voice will deepen faster than when I started if I start doing them again because of muscle memory?

    1. Vocular

      Hey Steve, that’s great news. Thanks for writing in. I’m not sure, honestly. I’ve done this three times and I think the rate of change is always about the same, although I guess you’re probably not back up to 94 Hz? Is there anything else you were doing too? That’s a very good decrease.

      1. Steve

        I also did some humming and diaphragmatic breathing exercises but I think the neck exercises were the most effective.

  94. Guy on internet

    Would you recommend doing some of the things you talk about for deepening the voice for someone who’s mean is around 72 and depth 58? Or is that too deep for deepening?

    1. Vocular

      Not really. I mean, try it if you like, but you’re already in the lowest 1% if you’re getting those figures.

  95. Ty

    Hey, wasn’t able to reply to your original comment for some reason.

    I’d say Armie Hammer has a dark voice, sure. I guess Peter Dinklage, Jeremy Irons, and Bryan Cranston have darker sounding voices than say, Benedict Cumberbatch or Tom Hiddleston, even though the latter two also have deep voices. Maybe it’s more of a gritty vs smooth quality? Hard to explain.

    It seems more prevalent in music. A lot of baritones sound deeper because they have darker timbres, like Matt Berninger or Josh Turner. Is that helpful?

  96. Dr jith tho

    Thanks for sharing this great information

  97. Jerald

    I’m currently 14 years old and I think that my voice is too high, I feel kinda uncomfortable speaking at school because of it. Will the exercises and procedures above work for me at this age? I hope so. I’d like to see people’s reaction when I achieve a deeper voice…

    1. Vocular

      Hi Jerald, I’m not sure. To be honest, I only really recommend people of your age use the app to keep a track of your voice pitch over time. During puberty, the male voice generally drops from about 300Hz to 120Hz, which is a pretty huge drop and not the kind of thing you can achieve with these exercises. Maybe it would help you to know that your voice is still developing though.

  98. Akmal

    Hello! I’m currently 16 years old and the lowest I can go is around 78Hz. Do you think I can go lower by doing this exercise?

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