How does your voice feel today? Is it gunky? Limited? Tired? Trashed? Or does it feel Normal, Better than yesterday, or Fantastic... like you could sing anything you wanted to? Asking that question is the first step to getting your voice in great shape, because as I often tell my students:

...the first step to Change is Awareness.

Let me assure you from my experience with my and other's voices, and it may surprise you: you never have to trash your voice! It is my firm belief that

...all vocal strain and damage, barring actual organic illness, is preventable.

So, if your voice has been getting tired, trashed or God forbid, damaged - it's time to get serious and find out why. Check yourself with the following list. Consider every checkmark a big reveal.

1. Sing on laryngitis

2. Pay no attention to the weather

3. Drink dehydrating caffeinated or alcoholic beverages

OK so if you need a cup of coffee to string sentences together like I do in the mornings, go for it. But only one cup, and drink an extra glass of water. DON'T go for it - even in the morning - if you know it brings on the phlegm frogs and you're doing the Today Show.

If you NEED to have an alcoholic drink, then consider rehab. If you just WANT one, wait til after your show, and have an extra glass of water to chase it.

4. Scream.

So you are really into that game, and somebody scores that you love or despise. Better make a pact with yourself to forgo every impulse of blood-curdling shriek. Twenty minutes of screaming can cause blood blisters on your vocal cords. In fact one special scream can cause vocal cord hemorrhage. If you are a metal screamer, learn to do it backwards. Yes, you can. Those I've taught are SO much happier.

5. Sing songs that are too high for you.

How do you know when a song is too high for you? It hurts. It hurts your throat and your listener's ears. This is so nuts... completely counterproductive. Take that song up at vocal lessons and either change your technique for those high notes, change the key, or change songs!

6. Push more breath for vocal power

Pushing too much breath is almost 100% universally an issue with my new students... at first. Because we get to that issue immediately. There is a seriously voice-trashing (eventually damaging) belief out there that to sing powerfully you need to push a lot of breath. Actually the opposite is true... for a powerful sound, PULL breath, like pulling punches, into the most efficient power source possible. Pull laryngeal vibration through an open throat channel and RESONATE for that big sound.

7. Offer your voice no support

There's an equally counterproductive belief out there that you should just relax and sing. The problem with that is that singing requires movement of air, so something is going to have to give. Controlling your breath doesn't mean holding your breath. But delegate that power support to your pelvic floor or lower, not from the middle of your chest (the diaphragm), so you can confidently support your voice without blowing it.

8. Perform with bad posture

9. Talk wrong.... a lot. Loud. Or breathy. Or monotone and numb

One of the main ways you can trash your voice is to talk wrong. You should use the same good vocal techniques for talking that you do when singing. If someone can't hear you, either move in to their ear or use sign language. Breathy talking feels like the Sahara desert wind across the edges of your cords. Monotone comes from a tight, frozen throat channel, and wears your voice out as well as the poor ear listening to it.

10. Neglect your vocal warm up before performance.

You might get by with it. Especially if you're singing a lot, with good technique. But for you as vocal athlete, why risk using cold muscles and tissues to fully activate themselves for the main event when it would be so easy to protect them by spending a little time warming them up? The caveat: If you don't know how to do vocal exercises, don't do them. Done wrong, they can hurt you. Just sing lightly, gradually getting louder, to warm up. And do it again if you have multiple sets. Then cool your voice down with light singing or exercises as you go home.

Here is a video vocal lesson via Zoom I did with a great singer named Silvana del Campo. Her issue was vocal fatigue... in other words, a trashed voice!  Enjoy... and leave comments/reviews!

Labels: "All Things Vocal", breath control, breath issues, breath support, Judy Rodman, Speaking Voice, tired voice, trashed voice, vocal damage, vocal fatigue, vocal warmups