Miss Donna 4 Music

Happy New Year everyone! I hope everyone had a great holiday season and is ready to jump into 2022!

To start the new year, I want to talk about something very important for every singer and vocal student and even every teacher or anyone who spends a lot of time talking (or yelling) for their job or vocation: Vocal health. It’s also the time of year for an abundance of colds and flus, not to mention all the covid variants, so its a great time to start taking care of your voice.

There are several things you can do habitually to help prevent voice strain or loss of voice, or at least lessen some of the symptoms.

1. Hydrate. Drink lots of fluids, especially water. Staying hydrated keeps your whole body healthier. Keeping your throat hydrated will keep your vocal cords lubricated to keep singing in a healthy way, even when you are sick. Hot tea with lemon is good for your throat too.
2. Rest. Getting plenty of restful sleep at night helps your body to heal and replenish itself to keep going for the next day. The healthier your body is, the healthier your voice will be and stay. If you are able, sometimes taking a quick power nap in the middle of the day can be beneficial as well. When you are sick, you need even more rest than normal, both for your body and your voice. If you have a sore or scratchy throat, avoid talking whenever possible. Don’t whisper because it will make it worse.
3. Exercise. I know, I know! For some people, this is a dirty word! But its so important to your overall health, as well as the health of your voice. Singing involves your whole body and to have a strong voice, you need to have a strong body. Thats not to say that those with physical challenges cannot be great singers. They absolutely can! You don’t have to do strenuous hour-long workouts in the gym. Whatever kind of consistent movement you can do with your body can go a long way. But having a strong body (in whatever form that takes for you), and more importantly, a strong mind, will put you in a place to produce the best singing voice you can.

There are also some things, you should avoid whenever possible.

1. Avoid coughing. Sometimes you get a tickle in your throat that you can’t get rid of except by coughing, so this is a tough one. But sometimes people get in a habit of coughing any time theres the slightest little catch and it leads to unnecessary over-coughing. Every time you cough, your vocal cords get slammed together like someone shutting the trunk of a car. And when you do this over and over and over, eventually your vocal cords get tired and raw and sore. When you get the urge to cough, try swallowing a few times first or take a sip of water. If you still need to cough, then go for it. This is where staying hydrated comes back into play!
2. Avoid cough drops. Again, I know this is a tough one during cold and flu season. But if you’ve kept in mind hydration and avoiding the cough, hopefully you won’t need this bit of advice. Most cough drops contain menthol which is meant to soothe the throat. But in actuality, it can dry your throat out, which leads to more coughing, and the menthol mildly numbs your throat and vocal cords, which is not good for them. There are a few brands of cough drops that do not contain menthol, so look for those. Also any piece of hard candy will do the same thing. It causes you to salivate, which in turn causes you to swallow more, and BAM! We’re back to hydration.
3. Avoid alcohol and smoking. I’m not here to preach. Everyone has a right to make their own choices for their health. But back to my original point: the healthier your body, the healthier your voice. Also alcohol and smoking dries out your throat, in addition to causing other health issues.

These are just a few practices I try to follow to keep my voice healthy all year long, especially at this time of year. Stay tuned for more tips on maintaining a healthy voice coming soon!