Healthy Voice Habits

Learning to sing means learning to take care of your voice. While there are a number of illnesses that can impact the quality of your singing voice, there are yet many more preventable factors that can hinder how well you sing. The sooner you develop healthy voice habits, the better your voice quality will be and the longer you will be able to sing well.

Drink your water. Simple advice that every doctor gives to every person whether you are a singer or an average Joe, yet for singers drinking at least six to eight glasses of water a day is imperative. Drinking enough water every day is important and does not include thinks that have alcohol or caffeine. Water hydrates the body and keeps skin and muscles at their best, but if you add alcohol and caffeine, it dries out the body. Keeping yourself hydrated means keeping your throat hydrated, too.

Though water is important, so is breathing. One of the first lessons you will have when you start learning how to sing is learning how to breathe. Singers need to breathe from the diaphragm in order to protect your voice. If you talk or sing from your throat, without the support of a breath, you will put a strain on your voice.

Avoiding certain foods, drinks, and behaviors are included in developing healthy voice habits. They may taste good, but spicy food can result in stomach acid moving back up into the throat causes problems for your voice. Also, do not smoke. This advice goes along with learning to breathe, because smoking hinders your ability to breath properly and irritates the throat. Yet, avoiding smoking also means avoiding second hand smoke. Any contact with smoke will cause throat irritation.

Besides smoking, you will also need to avoid things like mouthwash, cradling the phone, and talking in loud places. Mouthwash contains alcohol and other chemicals that can irritate your throat. If you have to gargle, try to use a saltwater solution rather than mouthwash. Cradling the phone extends your shoulder for a significant amount of time causing neck tension, which affects your voice. However, another behavior that has a strong impact on your voice is the volume at which you have to speak over any period of time. Try to avoid places where you have to do a lot of shouting or loud talking.

Avoiding places where you will have to speak loudly allows you to rest your voice, which is very important. Resting your voice also goes along with resting your body. If you are fatigued, it can cause fatigue for your voice. Recognizing vocal fatigue is important, because you do not want to make any hoarseness worse or lose your voice completely. If you do feel that you are straining your voice, you need to rest and avoid speaking or overusing it.

Still, the healthiest habits for keeping your voice healthy are those that also keep your body healthy. Exercising regularly and eating right will work wonders to keep both your body and your voice healthy. Using common sense and the breathing techniques you have been taught will allow you to keep your voice at its best.

About the Author: