1. You voice becomes raspy sounding. This is mostly for those who scream alot, if your throat becomes raspy then your putting to much pressure on the vocal chords when you scream. Very Bad cause you're thinning out the vocal chords, and that's how you damage your voice. Eventually you will lose it.
2. You throat or chest begins to feel winded and you can barely talk. The muscles required to produce the voice are tired. Give them a break, if you are recording on a schedule usually 15-20 minutes is enough time to give it a break.
My Theory teacher was also the choral teacher as well, and he gave me some pointers. Here are some of the things he said.
When you sing, sing from your diaphram not your throat. To do this all you do is tighten your chest when you sing. This will keep you in pitch, rather than swinging around a note. And also it will take alot of pressure off the vocal chords. If you notice how you hear certain singers doing a vibrato effect when they sing a pitch, this is from them learning to control the diaphram. Try this... put your hand right below the strenum (the flat plate of bone that protects the heart.) Sing any pitch and vibrate your hand on your chest. There's the vibrato effect. It takes time to master it, you should consult a vocal trainer. I'm not all that sure about how to accomplish that, to me it comes naturally. I dont know.
Another Misconception about singing, is the harder you sing the better and more powerful your voice will sound. Truth is the harder you sing, the more damage your doing and the weaker your going to sound. The voice is very fragile, so it must be treated delicately. The point is to control the voice to produce a solid pitch and not a bunch of overtones and cracking. ESPECIALLY WHEN RECORDING! LIVE you get into the music too much to worry about it, but still you should learn to control it. When a good singer sings, he/she is using the same amount of vocal as if he/she was just talking but there singing a pitch. Even in the low registers and high registers. If you are feeling your vocal chords vibrate when singing low, or when you sing higher notes you feel like you have to push. You are escaping your vocal range, and your causing damage.
To increase Vocal articulation, learn to sing in key. Just like when you learn to play guitar, you have to learn the scales. Difference is that you have to tune your voice to hit each pitch correctly. Nothing sounds worse than someone who can't sing in key or worse correct pitch. So to do this, you need something to sing along with. Whatever instrument you play, play the lowest note on that instrument that you can sing comfortable. Sing along with the note your playing on the instrument, and try to sing it as accurately as possible. Don't be a fanatic, no instrument is perfectly in tune so your voice isnt going to be either. Just sing in tune with it, but make sure your not singing a note flat or a note sharp. Your accuracy will improve over time. Once you find the lowest note in Your Range, play the major scale of that key, and sing each note up and down the scale. This will be the basis for learning how to sing, practice this regularly and in no time your singing will improve. Another thing, just use the major key for now, I wouldn't start with some weird scale with a bunch of accidentals cause your building a foundation with the Major scale. Minor scale is ok too.
Once you become comfortabe with that scale, which usually doesn't take long. Start using the keys that you use most in your songs. Keep them in the Major/Minor scales, I know songs have accidentals in them. And the song may not actually be in a Major or Minor key, but once you have that foundation. The accidentals will come naturally, just by you knowing the actual key the song is in and knowing it's sound. Most Important!! Just use your natural voice, it's the one that will give you the best sound!
"My whole life is a dark room...ONE BIG DARK ROOM" - a.f.i.
