What Is Voice?
Faith loses her voice one autumn afternoon, leading us to ask: what, exactly, is voice?
How Is Speech Different from Voice?
The Speech Line separates voice production from speech formation. Mr. Heimler’s stroke shows why this distinction matters.
What Is Hoarseness?
There are only two ways to be hoarse. This precise definition is the foundation of understanding voice disorders.
Voice—What Does It Really Do?
Mary Marlboro loses her larynx to cancer and finds another way to speak. Voice carries both content and emotion.
Anatomy of the Voice Box
The larynx is a valve with three jobs: regulate breathing, create sound, and keep food out of the lungs.
Intrinsic Muscles of the Larynx
Ten muscles — five pairs — control the position, length, and tension of the vocal cords. Explore each one.
Vocal Cords, Vocal Folds
A muscle beneath a ligament beneath mucosa — and why that layered structure makes the vocal cord vibrate.
Vocal Cord Vibration
How the upper and lower lip of the vocal cord open and close hundreds of times per second to generate sound.
Singing
How trained singers extend their range, control resonance, and protect their instrument over a lifetime.
Two Types of Hoarseness
Structural and behavioral causes of voice disorders — and why the distinction shapes every treatment decision.
Asymmetric Vocal Cords
When the two vocal cords differ in tension, mass, length, or stiffness, they vibrate at separate pitches simultaneously. This is diplophonia — rough hoarseness.
Talkativeness
An innate personality trait and the strongest predictor of vocal cord swellings. The Bastian seven-point scale puts it in clinical perspective.
Voice & Hoarseness Summary
Hoarseness has exactly two mechanisms: air leak and asymmetric vibration. Every diagnosis traces back to one or both. The complete picture in one page.
Types of Voice Disorders
Hoarseness comes in two fundamental categories: behavioral and structural. Understanding the distinction is the foundation for diagnosis and treatment.