How to make my voice deeper

Every guy has his own ideas about what it means to be a man. For some, it's all about being confident in who you are. For others, it's about, how they act and present themselves to the rest of the world. For instance, the first impression they make on the phone. And for many guys, their voice can be a source of insecurity if it's not as deep or "manly" as they think it should be.

Does a deep voice really make you more of a man?

"A deep voice is commonly associated with manliness and being male and, until recently, the majority of marketing from a male perspective has relied on the depiction of the male voice as being deeper in pitch," says Vinny Raval, a speech and language therapist, and director at The Speech Coach. "Accordingly, men wish to fit the 'norm' or the 'stereotype' and sound like men, with a higher pitched voice being mostly associated with being increasingly feminine."

Of course, this stance relies on an internal logic that assumes it is "good" to be considered masculine, and that having a voice which is interpreted to be feminine—or, by extension, gay—is an inherently negative thing. This attitude persists, even in our supposedly progressive society.

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The 2014 documentary Do I Sound Gay? explored the degrees to which a higher-pitched or so-called effeminate voice can have on a man's perception of his own masculinity, and highlighted that even out-and-proud gay and bisexual men can struggle with this. This is sometimes due to internalized homophobia or misogyny ("femme" = "bad") which is fueled by the media and information about gender roles we grow up consuming.

"Due to societal stereotypes, men feel like men when they speak with a deeper voice," says Raval. "A deeper voice is also associated with control and sincerity, again aspects that one associates in a biased manner with male characteristics."

There is, of course, another reason why a man might want to change the way he speaks: studies have shown that women tend to be more attracted to men with deeper voices (quite possibly for the same outdated-but-prevailing reasons).

What can I do to make my voice deeper?

While it is impossible to permanently change your voice without medical intervention, there are a range of exercises that men can practice in order to speak with a deeper pitch, although their implementation is dependent on the individual and their specific goals. Raval advises that anyone looking to recalibrate their tone or vocal register should first seek the guidance of a speech therapist or voice coach, in order to avoid accidentally damaging the vocal folds.

Diaphragmatic breathing.

It's possible that the way you usually breathe is having an impact on the way your voice sounds. Try inhaling deeply through your nose, bringing the air all the way in and as far down as possible; then, while exhaling slowly, say something. You should feel a vibration as you speak. This technique—popular among singers and actors—might be able to help you control the pitch of your voice.

Blowing bubbles.

We've all, at some point, idly blown bubbles through a straw into a soda or milkshake. Turns out, this is a widely used "reset" for the voice. According to the National Center for Voice and Speech, the straw technique stretches and relaxes the vocal cords. It can help make your voice stronger, and make it less likely to go hoarse or raspy.

Yawning and sighing.

Speaking in a breathier, aspirated way, as if through a sigh, can help to bring down the pitch of your voice. After a long yawn, you can use the voiced sigh to go down through the scales to a lower tone. An advantage here is that husky, breathy voices are considered among the sexiest in men.

Humming.

When you hum, you're warming up your voice, which can give you a greater level of control over it. Try taking a deep breath and then hum for as long as possible, once again going down the scales to find a lower tone.

Inflection.

There are three kinds of inflection; upward, neutral, and downward. Neutral inflection results in a robotic, monotonous way of speaking, while upward inflection can make every sentence sound like a question. Aiming for downward inflection, on the other hand, can make your voice sound deeper as you're ending the sentence at a lower pitch.

Philip Ellis is a freelance writer and journalist from the United Kingdom covering pop culture, relationships and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.