Beat Boxing Less Injurious To Vocal Cords Than Believed, Study

Beatboxing may sound like it could cause a serious sore throat; but new research suggests it may actually do less damage than singing soprano, according to a press statement.

University of Illinois researchers found that this form of singing is less stressful on the injury-prone vocal cords than people assume.

"While there are lots of data on how the voice is used and can be injured in singers, little is known about the structures involved in beatboxing and if it poses a risk of injury to the vocal tract," Doctor H. Steven Sims of the University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, said in a news release.

Beatboxing is usually a mix of vocal repercussive sounds accompanied by singing or rapping. For the study, Sims used a flexible fiber optic endoscope to observe four beatboxers' vocal chords. The device was inserted through the nose and placed above the "vocal apparatus." A second video recorder was used to monitor the artists' from the outside as they beatboxed. The two videos were compared to determine what was going on in the vocal chords with each individual sound.

The researcher noticed the wide range of sounds the artists' produced helped "spread the energy" throughout several vocal structures. This kept any specific part from being forced to withstand too much strain. The technique also tended to keep the area between the vocal chords (the glottis) open.

"Keeping the glottis open means that beatboxing may actually be protective of the vocal folds," Sims said. The beatboxers also employed the pharyngeal muscles to elongate the vocal tract to produce higher pitch sounds, Sims said.

This technique is believed to impose significantly less stress on the vocal chords.

"Singers rely almost exclusively on the vocal cords themselves to produce their sounds," Sims said. "So all the energy involved with singing is concentrated on these structures, which can develop scar tissue with overuse."

This technique could be employed to help people who sing for a living, such as Broadway performers, from straining their voices.

"Women use their voices differently, in part because their larynxes are smaller and are shaped differently than men's. So the results could be very interesting," Sims said.