Creaky Voice/Vocal Fry Is Not Bad For Your Voice!
So apparently this is a misconception that a lot of people have. For those of you who don’t know, creaky voice/vocal fry is the noise that’s created (usually) at the end of sentences that has a creaky affect to it. It’s something that nearly everyone does in their speech, but there’s a misconception out there that it actually damages your voice over time.
Creaky voice is created when your vocal folds are adducted, which basically just means that they’re pressed together. The adduction of the vocal folds creates the noise because it causes the vocal folds to vibrate irregularly. Speaking at a lower pitch can create this environment (or heighten the affect), which is why lowering your pitch at the end of sentences tends to cause it.
The misconception states that because you’re holding your vocal folds tense that it’s somehow bad for your voice. In reality, vocal folds are made to change their states of tenseness. Simply changing the pitch of your voice changes how lax or tense your vocal folds are. It’s something that they’re supposed to do. While keeping a string on a violin very taught will probably stretch it out over time, tuning the string so it’s tight only when you’re playing isn’t going to do anything to the string. Nobody speaks in creaky voice 24/7 and even if they did, there’s no substantial evidence that it actually does anything bad. Not to mention that if it was actually bad, it would probably hurt to do. Your body tends to tell you when it doesn’t like something that you’re doing to it.
The thing that really bothers me about this misconception is that it’s something that is only targeted at women. Men do this all the time too, but for some reason, women are the only ones who are called out for it. The reason why I think this is the case is because (mostly) men like to police the way that women speak. For instance, before creaky voice was a thing, men used to criticize women for using “uptalk” which just consists of raising your pitch at the end of sentences (think “valley girl”), basically saying that it was annoying. Women took that advice and instead now lower their pitch at the end of sentences which is something that leads to creaky voice. This was then also criticized for being annoying and the misconception was created that it was bad for your voice.
So anyway, use creaky voice as much as you want. While it’s your own prerogative whether or not you think it’s annoying, it’s not going to do anything to harm your voice.
