Talking loud increases my vocal range, why?

My voice is quite dark and when I go out with my friends to a pub I have to talk loud to get heard. What happens after a while is that my vocal range increases radically, both high and low.

What's the explanation? That my vocal chords are more relaxed? How can I do this without having to go to the pub all the time?

You're probably exercising your cords (CORRECT spelling!) when you talk, which is probably okay as long as:

You're not shouting;

You're speaking in the normal pitch in which you usually talk, or deeper;

There's no smoke in the pubs;

You're not overdoing it;

You "cool down" after you hit the pubs (sneaking in some subtle warmup before isn't a bad idea either).

To do this at home, do some warmups (lip trills, hums, scoops) every day, followed by exercises that are proper for your voice (see Al Koehn's book, as well as Seth Riggs, Roger Love, Jeannie Deva or Lis Lewis) or reading aloud standing up for at least 10 minutes, feeling like it's coming from your chest voice, followed by lip trills again to cool down.

Aha, cords! Thanks a lot for your advice and for the titles!

All the best,

Thomas "Ryder"

Actually, though everyone calls them "vocal cords," the proper anatomical term is "vocal folds." What they really are are muscles! We tend to think of them as a vertical zipper, closing along part of their length according to pitch, but in reality they're horizontal. Ever blow up a balloon and then pinch the opening of its neck and manipulate it to make a melody (or noise)? Look down at the opening of the balloon--the rubber on either side of the slit formed by manipulating the opening looks remarkably like your vocal cords. (Blew me away first time I got to watch myself sing and talk while my cords were being 'scoped--if it weren't so dang expensive and if insurance companies covered it, every singer should get their cords scoped at least once so that they can better understand their vocal anatomy and uncover any potential structural, mechanical or medical trouble spots).