by Anisha Nandan | anisha.45687@gmail.com

Your voice is a part of you as opposed to an outer instrument and consequently, it is imperative to keep yourself healthy to consistently use your voice at your best. Assuming you are a singer, your vocal lines are your valued belongings, or you simply have a career that includes publicly speaking, vital to ensure your voice stays sound. Devangi Dalal, Audiologist and Speech-Language Pathologist, shares a couple of concentrates to follow that will assist you with maintaining a healthy voice.

1. Train your voice and body:

If you are a vocalist, your voice is your instrument, and to nurture it, one must train their vocals with a proper singing technique and not hackney it. Getting repose and eating fairly with a proper balanced and healthy diet is also vital. Professional singers risk themselves while practicing, which might often cause their voice to strain, hence maintaining a disciplined practice schedule with intervals and recovery to perform at an optimal level, regardless of genre is crucial.

2. Pace yourself:

When you are intending to prepare for a show or an audition season, you should pace your voice. Putting up with a steady speed with regular intervals like singing in more modest augmentations of time (30-45 minutes) every day will gradually expertise your muscular endurance and boost your stamina. As you improve, you ought to have the option to expand the amount of time you practice as well as the difficulty level of your vocal skills.

3. Avoid Phonotraumatic behavior:

Keep away from Phonotraumatic ways of behaving, such as, yelling, screaming, and singing too loudly. Whenever you increment your vocal uproar, your vocal folds colloids more vigorously (similar to clapping truly hard, boisterous, and fast). If you cannot avoid this, you will notice your vocal folds will start to respond to the effect by swelling up and redness. Long-term phonotrauma can lead to vocal fold changes such as vocal fold nodules.

4. Adequate hydration:

Vocal cords can easily get damaged, as they are the product of extremely sensitive tissue. If you permit yourself to turn out to be dehydrated, your voice may additionally have to suffer. Whether we’re speaking or singing, the sound is created by using the vibration of our vocal folds. Mucus protects these vocal cords and staying hydrated assurances that everything is working properly.
Be certain to drink an abundance of non-caffeinated beverages all through the day.  Although not anything you devour or drink receives onto the vocal folds, adequate oral hydration allows the mucus to behave as a lubricant rather than glue.

Precautions to be taken care of while performing

Performing with a Sore Throat or Hoarseness

Performing during an illness can turn out to be a speculative decision.  It is advisable to see an ENT (eyes, nose, and throat physician) and Voice Therapist when you are suffering from throat pain or hoarseness and medically examine whether or not your vocal situation is secure to perform on.  Sometimes, medications or steroids can also offer some relief of signs, but could probably provide a false sense of “being well” making an individual over-sing which can eventually result in additional vocal damage.  Ultimately, in case you are unwell, there is no show or role worth risking the rest of your career for. Sometimes it is better to take a rest.

There are times when you must perform whilst an illness and when you do, think of it as running on a sprained ankle where you learn to make adjustments to “get via it.”  If you do this regularly, your body will develop new muscle patterns for voice production.

Voice Care Before and After a Performance

Professional singers, voice-over artists, or actors know that warming up in advance of a performance and post-performance is necessary. Not only is this essential for performing, but they’re also top-notch to ensure you are delivering your best audition possible.
Warming up appropriately before the performance through gentle vocal stretching and vocalization and then relaxing and cooling down the laryngeal muscles when you are finished is important. Vocal cool-downs can be gentle vocal slides or glides up and down your range, which stretches and contracts the vocal folds.  Physical body stretching and staying mentally focused are also key factors.