I am frequently asked about the problem of losing your voice at a noisy party or convention. It is the perfect storm of lousy communication conditions. People find themselves screaming in the evening and being without a voice the following morning. This is very bad for teachers or speakers who must use their voice for their work.
People are hardwired to talk louder than the ambient noise level. The louder the surround sound, the louder you have to talk to be heard. You've noticed that you automatically speak in hushed tones in very quiet places, haven't you? This is an unconscious attempt to establish an appropriate signal-to-noise ratio. You are doing the same (but opposite) adjustment when you find yourself yelling at a party, but here you pay a painful price for the extreme effort: vocal fatigue and strain and laryngitis. So the obvious first thing that you can do is to reduce the noise whenever possible.
Sometimes it only takes a request to get the volume from the sound system lowered. If nobody says anything, it will be assumed that it is okay. So say something.
Move Away from the Noise
It always amazes me how people are willing to tolerate the discomfort of room noise when they could reduce the assault by taking just a few steps away from the noise source. You can position yourself behind some kind of barrier to the loudspeaker, or you can lead your conversational partner around a corner. It also helps a little if you turn away from the noise source. You notice our ears are built to be maximally functional for sounds that we face. So turn your back to the noise. And it really helps catch your partner's speech if you are willing to cup your hand behind your ear when he is speaking. It's surprising how well this technique amplifies someone's speech.
Get closer to your conversational partner.In extremely loud conditions you may have to get your face within inches of the other person's face in order to understand what he is saying and to make yourself heard. Many people keep a distance and speak with their usual articulation level. Worse, you keep this "closed mouth" form of speech at the same time that you are forcing your voice to be heard. You will have added physical discomfort to your psychological unease. And people will still have trouble understanding what you just said.
Drink water! Actually, the time to load up on water is several hours before the vocal strain begins. I'll spare you the juicy physiology, but trust me, it makes your vocal folds much more comfortable and capable of staying that way through several hours of demanding conditions. The hard stuff (alcohol) is just that-hard on your vocal folds. Let me note that the likelihood of saying smart, appropriate comments intelligibly is not directly related to your alcoholic intake, even though it feels that way. You will not be nearly as witty as you think. But you may be loud-very loud indeed.
Keep it light. In noisy circumstances, it's a good idea to try to save the long, meaningful conversations for a more comfortable time.
