Singing For Beginners Review

The Health of Your Voice

What’s one of the worst things that can happen to a singer? You guessed it! It’s a tossup between the singer’s nightmare of a sore throat, a hoarse voice, or laryngitis.

Absolutely the worst habit a singer can do is smoke, as cigarettes are the enemy of a good singing voice. If you want to be good without vocal problems, quit smoking so you can avoid a host of medical problems such as hoarseness, breathing problems, coughing, and shortness of breath just to name a few problems.

Stay in healthy environments which are comfortable and beneficial for your vocal cords—such as those with humidity and clean air. Avoid smoke filled environments that contains a lot of second hand smoke, which is detrimental to your health whether you’re a singer or not.

Air conditioned rooms often irritate the lungs, and dry out your voice. And of course crowded areas such as doctor’s offices or subway platforms in the winter are full of sick people with colds and the flu.

Keep yourself hydrated with water and stay away from milk as it produces phlegm which irritates the lung and throat. You don’t want to cough when your singing while you have phlegm irritating the lungs, do you?

What about diet? It is important to stay away from milk or lactose based products, alcohol, spicy foods, rich and heavy food when you are going to sing either for a performance or practice. You want to sing your best without any interruptions.

You often hear that a singer should use a cough drop or lozenge to soothe the sore throat, but actually that can irritate or hurt your throat because it contains menthol which can dehydrate the mucous membranes in your throat and larynx, which make the vocal folds more susceptible to possible infection.

Make the health of your voice the first priority as a singer. Because without a well-cared for voice, your ability as a singer will suffer. Take care and you will be at your best.