What's up with my voice?

[Khassera]

I've had a bad cold for a week now and I've been coughing my lungs out.

Here's what I sound like.

It's easy to keep the folds together, but it's hard to make falsetto sound.

[ronws]

It's not uncommon to have some inflammation of the folds and the surrounding tissue, as well as some loss of elasticity in ligaments and muscles when suffering from a systemic infection. For me, my voice will sound rougher, for example. I can do my best Clint Eastwood impersonations, then. As well as getting a few low notes not normally available to me.

I would not worry about it too much. Just rest. And this is part of the reason why I think a person should not sing when he has a respiratory ailment or something like a cold or sinus problem.

First off, real limits to the breath, such as being short of breath. Or having congestion. What happens is that you compensate elsewhere, usually tension in the throat and you can develop a bad habit, really quick.

Secondly, second-guessing yourself, like this, worrying that you broke your singer mechanism by having an ailment.

Or, it could be a case of like when the guy goes to the doctor for surgery and when he is done, he asks the doctor, "Will I be able to play the violin?" The doctor says, "Sure." And the patient says, "Cool, because I could not play before."

You sound kind of north American. A bit Canadian, a bit virgin islander. I know you are from Finland but they must teach really good English there with almost no accent.

[Khassera]

Thanks Ron. And thanks for not feeding me the usual "go see a doctor," which I plan to do once the coughing stops and the dust settles. If I go now he'll just tell me to come back if it still hurts/persists after the acute stuff's over.

I haven't been practicing throughout my illness, and the only thing that's made it worse, or how I've seen it's gotten worse, is that I happened to call my cat to come to the store with me (cute, huh?) and my voice flipped into a head voice. There wasn't a break, so that really startled me, it just kinda skipped an octave.

I lived in Dallas from 1996 to 2000, so I picked up the language there. Now, living in Exeter, UK, I almost got punched in the face for "being a yank" at a local pub. The dude wouldn't believe I'm a finn. They do teach great English in Finland, and most finns are grammatically better at english than native english speakers.

[ronws]

I lived in Dallas specifically from 1987 to 2000, though I have been in north Texas since October 1974, having moved from California.

Most times, with a cold or similar ailment, it will go away and normal pliability will return. At least in my experience. Then again, bugs bite me and the bugs die.