Vocal Health

Vocal health is not something I have learnt a lot about so I thought it would be interesting to do some external research as it will be beneficial to me as a performer.

After trying to find some information online I found a “voice guru” called Dr. Martin Hop who shared a few vocal health tips on his website. Most of Dr. Martins tips were common sense such as drink a lot of water, make sure your vocal chords were hydrated. This is something I’m trying to do as I always try to bring water or diluted drinks into practices and before performances. I no longer drink fizzy pop or high caffeine drinks as It’s bad for your general health and vocal health.

 he made a rather interesting point, it was to have a humidifier in your room. As a dry cold room, will dry out your vocal chords this might be something I will invest in the future as I find even though I keep hydrated and avoid fizzy drinks my throat is dry a lot of the time.

This leads onto another point he made don’t smoke. Well I’m guilty. I do smoke quite a lot I didn’t think it was an issue till I had a singing lesson and the teacher immediately said “do you smoke” and I responded with “yes” and she explained how it can ruin your vocal chords. Which thinking about it that’s common sense. I’m not trying to say smoking is good there are multiple health benefits from stopping smoking which should be a good enough reason for me to stop/cut down.

Most of my favorite artist smoke, don’t get me wrong you can tell when a singer smokes it gives them a raspy sound which I love. I’m not into “perfect sounding voices” from Disney sound tracks. I like voices with some edge and attitude. Kurt Cobain and Amy Whinehouse yes, they didn’t just smoke cigarettes that’s no secret. Still amazing influential artists. Stubbornness aside smoking is bad and isn’t great and I will cut down.