From Tension to Expression: Unpacking the Effects of Anxiety on the Voice
For some, singing is a great source of comfort, expression, and joy. Done in the right way, singing can calm the nervous system and help you feel connected to yourself and those around you. But this is not the case for everyone. Though some of us have a strong desire to sing, just thinking of singing can trigger either a fear response, an anxiety response, or both.
In this blog, I’ll explain exactly what these are, how they differ from one another, and strategies to manage and overcome them.
The Fear Response
For some, singing in front of others can feel like facing death - literally. The system that turns on when you’re faced with a grizzly bear (the sympathetic nervous system) is the same system that makes your knees shake, palms sweat, and breathing to become quick and shallow just THINKING of singing in front of someone. It is an acute response to a perceived threat.
In singing, this is referred to as performance anxiety, which can affect your ability to control breath, vocal fold coordination, pitch, and memory.
How to Overcome Performance Anxiety
Sing in front of a vocal coach first. If you’ve never sung in front of anyone before, start by finding a trauma-informed vocal coach who can support and encourage you in your vocal exploration without judgment. This is a great way to regulate your nervous system for singing in front of others as you begin to build confidence in your singing ability.
Join a community of singers. Joining a community of singers who are on the same path as you is also a great way to build your confidence. Not only do you realise that other singers have the same hang-ups as you, but you’re able to share your experiences and ask for feedback, knowing that your singing peers will support you. This will help you build the confidence to eventually perform in front of a live audience. A singing community could be a Facebook group, a choir, or a singing group.
Preparation is key. If you’re preparing for a performance, make sure you know your lyrics, the melody, and the form of the song off by heart. Know which vocal techniques to use where, like when to switch voice qualities, or when to sing loud or soft. Make the most of this preparation phase by working with a vocal coach.
Perform in front of a supportive crowd. If you’ve never performed in front of anyone before, it’s crucial to make sure that you perform in front of people who understand that you are a developing singer and will not expect you to be perfect or even “good”, but will give you the space to show up exactly as you are without judgment. If you’re taking singing lessons, your vocal coach may provide this opportunity for you by organising a student showcase. Karaoke is also a great place to practise your performance chops, as people don’t generally expect you to be a “good” singer. Taking this pressure off allows you to put aside the fear of being judged, rejected, or humiliated.
Focus on storytelling. On the day of the performance, you want to drop everything you’ve learnt about technique and focus on telling a story. Trust that the technical preparation you’ve done up to this point will kick in. Fixating on getting the technique right could cause you to spiral into an anxious mess and detract from your performance. When you focus on storytelling, the creative, expressive part of your brain switches on, which calms your nervous system and makes your performance more engaging. An audience will be much more forgiving of technical failures when the emotional delivery is strong.
Keep performing. Always look for opportunities to perform. The more you perform, the more your nervous system will realise that singing in front of people will not result in death. It’s important to understand that nerves never go away. You just become better at not being overcome by them. If you’re nervous, it means you care. Nerves can help you remain alert, and in the moment if channelled correctly. The only way to find this balance is by doing it regularly.
The Anxiety Response
Then there is another kind of response - the anxiety response. It is not so much that you feel like you’re facing death, but there is an underlying sense of distrust in your ability to complete a vocal task, whether on your own or in front of someone else. Anxiety differs from fear in that while fear is an acute response to perceived threat, anxiety involves worry about a threat that has not yet, or may never, happen. Both responses activate the sympathetic nervous system to different degrees.
From my observations, the anxiety response seems to be triggered in individuals who are unfamiliar with how to use their voice expressively. The muscles in the larynx that are needed for singing can only be activated by expressing sadness, affection, joy, excitement and other similar emotions. If you are not used to using your voice in this way, your laryngeal muscles don’t have the conditioning they need to make singing feel intuitive and easy.
Instead, the body uses a different kind of effort - breath effort - where the abdominal muscles tense, the breath pressure below the vocal folds becomes too much, and the throat constricts. Due to the extraneous force used to produce the sound, the voice feels uncomfortable, sounds squeezed, and if used for extended periods, becomes damaged. It also creates and continues to reinforce anxious feelings around singing.
How to Build Self-Trust Using Evidence
Singing is all about expression. When you express sadness, affection, or joy, your parasympathetic nervous system is activated. This system is responsible for slowing down your heart rate and promoting relaxation. If you experience anxiety around singing, there is a disconnect between your singing and expression. To build trust in your singing voice, kinesthetic awareness needs to be developed around what it feels like in the larynx when you use your voice expressively. The best way to do this is not while singing, but by using expressive phrases that you use frequently when you speak. Examples of these phrases are:
“Why are you doing this to me?” - Sadness
“Oh, what a lovely baby” - Affection
'“Oh, I love it!” - Joy
It’s important to experiment with different parts of your range as well as varying levels of emotional intensity. For example:
As if you’re a child throwing a tantrum, say “Muuuum, why not!?!”.
As though very excited to see a friend, yell “Yaaay!”
Notice how you automatically use higher notes for these kinds of expressions.
Once you start to develop kinesthetic awareness around using your voice expressively, you can use it as a reference point in your singing. Start singing phrases in a “woe is me” voice as if you’re very sad, or affectionately as if singing to a baby. Successfully being able to do this in your singing becomes the evidence you need to build self-trust. Rather than pushing on a high note and thinking “I’m never going to be able to do this”, remember that you’re just using breath effort, and need to turn on more of your expressive voice. You may have off days when you can’t seem to find it at all. It’s okay. Learning a new skill is difficult, and there could be many factors as to why it’s not working for you, like physical, mental, and emotional fatigue, illness, stress, and more. On days like this, you can either try to calm your nervous system by meditating for 10-15 minutes or leave it and come back another day. Muscling through when it just isn’t working can eat away at your self-trust.
Conclusion
When you realise that singing is all about expression, it starts to make sense. Of course singing is about expression! Why else would I love listening to someone sing if they weren’t expressing something that I resonated with? Vocal expression is an innate ability that we all have, and have had since we were children. Even if you feel disconnected from it for whatever reason, it is there somewhere, tucked under your protective mechanisms. If you can find the courage to push yourself beyond those uncomfortable edges, you’ll discover vocal freedom like you’ve never experienced before. Your anxiety around singing will slowly begin to fade as you build confidence in your ability to express yourself.
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