Vocal Health

A Few Tips To Help You Look After Your Voice by Jenny May

Hydrate Your Voice

Sip water throughout the day and get into the routine of steaming your voice (inhaling steam from a bowl of hot water). It's not necessary to put anything else in the water.

Become More Aware of Your Voice Use, Effort Levels & Vocal Rest

Start to become more aware of how much effort you are placing on your voice when speaking and singing. We can go through some exercises in lessons to make you instantly more aware of this. I can also show you how to engage your body in a non rigid way to take some of the effort away from the voice.

Vocal rest is also important. Be aware of how often you are giving your voice rest. Many of the techniques we work on in lessons are to achieve a more powerful, sustainable singing voice without overworking the voice but all voices also need a certain amount of rest.

Get Your Body and Your Mind in Good Shape

A lifestyle of late nights, drinking, smoking, STRESS, poor diet, lack of exercise will usually be detrimental to the voice. Get to know your own body and voice. What does and what doesn't work for you.

Be Energetic

Healthy voicing requires energy and physical engagement. If you're feeling tired, unwell or upset, your voice is likely to feel the effect.

Warm Up & Cool Down Your Voice Before & After Singing

I can give you a helpful 5-7 minute routine to wake up the body and the voice. A long warm up routine is not necessary or helpful.

A Few Basic Things to Avoid

coughing/ throat clearing
constricted or breathy tone at volume
yelling for long periods of time or yelling at all without active posture
tanking up on breath
locking the abdominal muscles or pushing down when singing

If You are Experiencing Persistent Voice Issues

If you are experiencing persistent voice issues; hoarseness, roughness, breathiness, discomfort or vocal fatigue you are doing something wrong or you may have a vocal health issue. This can be due to something as simple as reflux. Consult a voice teacher and your GP.

A Few Tips for Live Singing

Make Sure You Can Hear Yourself!

Ensure your audio monitoring/amplification is good. In ear monitoring may be useful (in both ears).

Prepare

Know the sensation of your voice working comfortably. Be aware of the volume, effort levels and techniques necessary to perform your material and stick to them on stage. Don't allow inexperienced band members or poor sound engineers to encourage you to oversing. You may need to work on techniques to improve your volume with a vocal coach before your tour. Tour preparation takes time.