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Liner Notes
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| Body
& Soul Vocal care with
Laryngologist MARTIN HOPP, MD
EFFECTS OF VARIOUS DRUGS ON THE VOICE
MBADC: I would guess that decongestants would be bad for the voice?
MH: Absolutely. They dry you out, and dryness is the enemy.
MBADC: What about caffeine? Is that a drying thing?
MH: Yes.
MBADC: I would assume alcohol is as well then?
MH: The worst. Not only is it drying, it’s a diuretic, so it makes
you urinate, so you lose fluids.
MBADC: Can you explain what cocaine does to the vocal cords?
MH: The biggest risk you have using cocaine is that it numbs your vocal
cords, so that you have the illusion that you’re singing well. But in fact
you’re abusing your vocal cords. And the result is very traumatically abused vocal
cords.
MBADC: Ecstasy, heroin, and speed would have the same effect?
MH: All this gives you a false sense of comfort when you have vocal
abuse. The normal pain and discomfort from vocal abuse is a feedback mechanism to tell you
that you’re singing wrong or you’re singing too much. If you’re singing
wrong, you need to get speech and voice technique lessons. What many drugs do, like
cocaine and other things, is that they give you a false sense of security that you’re
singing OK, when in fact you’re abusing your vocal cords--and it results in vocal
cord hemorrhages and nodules.
Range, Resonance, and Sound of the Voice
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