Straw therapy for low speech volume

[1rocketman]

Hubby has low volume speech. He is currently doing work with the Parkinson’s Voice Project (PVP) with some success — IF he keeps up with it. We recently saw exercises for help projecting with volume using a straw (you blow into a glass of water), supposedly this helps with increasing the muscle tone in your throat. For more detail, please search for “straw exercises” on YouTube. There are not many specific to PD; it’s mostly for musical voice training, but it does make sense as an exercise to increase muscle tone in the throat. He reports to me that he finds that it helps — again, IF he keeps up with it. It’s good for him to do different types of training, as the PVP work can be exhausting since he needs to do it twice a day.

[Michel0220]

Agreed. I do straw exercises and it helps but effect fades away unless done regularly.

[Ripraniya]

I will definitely try the straw exercise. Thankyou for the post

[JMDean]

Semi Occluded Vocal Tract (SOVT) is another search term for this approach. Vocal Function Exercises (VFE’s), developed by Joseph Stemple, fit under this umbrella as well if you are looking things up l on YouTube. Both can be of use for PD although they do not address the mismatched awareness of loudness in the way SPEAK OUT does. My rec is to incorporate them into your daily maintenance exercise routine.