How do you not talk through your nose

Talking through your nose means, you sound high pitched and 'whiny' when you speak. In anatomical terms, it means your soft palate is not making strong contact with the back of your mouth, and hence there is excessive air escaping through your nose.

Simple test to figure if you talk through your nose when you speak.

  • Try saying /ah/ sound , with your mouth side open.
  • Pinch your nostrils together, so no air goes through your nose.
  • When you pinch your nostrils, the sound /ah/ should not stop, or change quality. That means all the air is coming through your mouth, rather than your nose.

Some people speak naturally that way due to the way that their oral body parts are structured. Australians speak using a nasal tone, meaning they lose air through their nose, when they should not be.

So, the question is, how do you not talk through your nose? How do you come up with a nice clear resonant voice, that makes your sound powerful and gets you listened to?

The simple answer is that the soft palate needs to make enough contact with the back of your mouth. There needs to be some space created inside  your mouth, so that your voice gets reverberated correctly.

This is ONE way how to do it.

YAWNING is the answer! But how do we do it?

Firstly, we need the throat to be nice and relaxed. The throat, also known as the pharynx, sits just above the larynx ( the voice box). An open throat encourages relaxation of the muscles, which help us with speaking and projecting our voices. When you open up your vocal tract, your nasality reduces, and your pitch changes. Steps to yawn and hum.

  • Create a yawn feeling, and go ahead and have a nice stretch and yawn
  • Instead of fully opening the mouth at the front, keep the lips in a /u/ shape.
  • Exhale the yawn, in a /u/ shape, and then follow it up with /m/ sound. So you are ending in a hum.
  • Repeat the cycle a few times. Yawn in /u/ shape, exhale in /u/ shape, and then end off with a hum /m/ shape.
  • The alternating pattern of air going through mouth and the nose, will get your soft palate working and opening.

I have done a video explaining how you do this exercise above. Please click on the link here to check out my you tube video on how to sound less nasal.

I look forward to reading your comments and questions.  Have fun yawning!