What happens to low-voiced(bass) people when they get a cold?

December 20, 2012 1:36 PM

What happens to low-voiced(bass) people when they get a cold?

Normally, I'm not a bass, but I have a cold right now. As a consequence, my voice is really, really deep. Leonard Cohen or Barry White deep. It's very entertaining, but it got me thinking....what happens when someone who has a naturally bass voice has a cold? Does their voice deepen further or do they lose it entirely?

posted by specialnobodie to Science & Nature (7 answers total)

I am a bass-baritone. When I get a cold, my voice gets subsonic. I feel my vocal chords vibrate and my mouth moves, but no sound comes out. Animals react, however.

Just kidding. It has been a while since I've had a cold, but my voice just gets raspy and crappy.
posted by Tanizaki at 1:51 PM on December 20, 2012 [3 favorites]

Anecdotally, my voice usually deepens. When it happened just before a gig, others in my group thought it was amusing how much lower I sounded. Occasionally it'll get raspy and not great-sounding, but usually it just gets a bit lower.

I generally sing bass in choirs but I'd probably be a bass-baritone or even a baritone, classically.
posted by brentajones at 2:05 PM on December 20, 2012

Another anecdote here from another bass-baritone: Mine gets a tiny bit deeper, but very scratchy.
posted by jbickers at 2:21 PM on December 20, 2012

My range normally bottoms out around a D below the bass clef and a cold usually gives me around another semitone (max a whole tone) but with some attendant raspiness, etc.
posted by en forme de poire at 3:48 PM on December 20, 2012

I, personally, sound like Brenda Vaccaro when I have a cold. I'm a dude with one of those "radio voices" when not deathly ill. I know my cold is bad when I start to sound like she does in this commercial.
posted by kuppajava at 7:16 PM on December 20, 2012

My speaking voice gets much deeper.

My singing range constricts --- I can't go as low or as high --- and my voice gets tired much more quickly.
posted by fantabulous timewaster at 3:21 AM on December 21, 2012

This effect happens because your vocal folds get inflamed - thicker strings = lower sounds (just like a guitar). Likewise, while they're all puffy and swollen full of fluid, they aren't as flexible so they don't work as well and your top range is likely to be gone when singing.

You can achieve the same effect by abusing your voice, for example, screaming lots, but I wouldn't recommend it as it's possible to damage your vocal folds from a one-off abusive event like that.
posted by kadia_a at 12:46 PM on December 21, 2012