Mayo Clinic Minute: How does your voice work?

Your voice works by turning sounds inside your body into noises you can hear, just like a speaker turns music from your phone into songs you can dance to.

When you talk, you're using your larynx, which is like a special door in your throat. It has two little vibrating things called vocal cords, think of them like reeds on a musical instrument. When air from your lungs pushes up through your trachea (your windpipe), it makes the vocal cords vibrate, just like when you blow across the top of a bottle and it hums.

Once the sound starts vibrating in your throat, it travels up your pharynx (the back of your mouth) and out through your mouth or nose, where it becomes the sounds you hear, like when you say “hello” and someone else hears it.

If you have a cold, sometimes your voice sounds different because your nasopharynx (the part behind your nose) gets blocked, just like when you’re trying to speak through a stuffy blanket. Your voice works by turning sounds inside your body into noises you can hear, just like a speaker turns music from your phone into songs you can dance to.

When you talk, you're using your larynx, which is like a special door in your throat. It has two little vibrating things called vocal cords, think of them like reeds on a musical instrument. When air from your lungs pushes up through your trachea (your windpipe), it makes the vocal cords vibrate, just like when you blow across the top of a bottle and it hums.