Voice Maintenance 101

Hey internet,

                I know it’s been a long while- but life’s been nightmarish and just gotten in the way. So without any further ado, I’ll get onto doing the post- but expect to see more content on the site regularly.

This is intended to be a basic guide to voice maintenance for your average metal singer. 

This can be broken down into two categories, Good Habits to get into and maintain throughout your career in order to minimise the stress and damage to your voice and Repair Solutions for when you’re not on top form for whatever reason.

You’ll use these tips to combat two different kinds of vocal wear and tear. Singing regularly and repeatedly is a hard task for any singer, so obviously this has big implications for those of us performing using such extreme methods. But not all throat problems come from good practice, some may have simple but critical causes like illness or lack of sleep and need more immediate solutions.  

Good Habits

Drinking/smoking- It’s terrible to start off a section on good habits with negative reinforcement but it’s definitely the most common vocal hygiene issue that I see at shows. I’ve warned before of the dangers of drinking and smoking whilst being a singer (and highlighted my hypocrisy) but these are still true.

Alcohol dries out your throat and can cause your vocal chords to vibrate together slightly differently and this can change vocal tone dramatically and cause damage to your throat. Continued drinking will only exacerbate the problem, causing more irritation, and drying the tissue further.

Similarly, smoking causes the throat to become irritated and inflamed (as our throats weren’t designed to inhale smoke)- which can cause pain, changes in vocal tone and if done continuously can contribute to the growth of vocal polyps (which will change the way you sound permanently). Short term, smoking too much can cause your voicebox, or Larynx (the name for irritation of it was rather imaginatively named Laryngitis), to become sore and add an audible croak or break to your voice, or indeed, cause you to lose it altogether.

Over time, smoking and abusing your throat can lead to a huskier, lower and rougher voice tone envied by all late night telephone line workers but it’s bad for your throat. You will almost certainly come across singers who say that smoking makes their growls lower and helps them achieve tone, which is ultimately true, but they’re still doing damage to their throats. You can achieve the same sounds without damaging your throat by just practicing. So if you want to smoke, do, but don’t do it to achieve tone or when you’re supposed to be singing imminently.

Hydration- Hydration is the biggest part of maintaining vocal hygiene, and can aid in solving most common problems. Water lubricates the vocal folds and allows them to slide together more smoothly and reduces the amount of friction on your throat when the folds hit together. The implications for singing are obvious. So it’s always good to drink lukewarm water (cold water will shock your vocal chords and cause them to contract a little- the same as any other muscle) before, during and after performing. This prevents swelling, damage to the vocal chords and helps to maintain the throat’s mucosal lining, which can be interesting to experiment with in terms of vocal tone- but do it at your own risk.

Eating 2-4 hours before singing- Eating before you sing can also be a contributing factor in vocal hygiene. If you need to sing, ideally you should have a meal 2-4 hours before you perform so as to both have the energy to sing and let your digestive system work and process the food before show time. This is because the diaphragm, because of its placement at the bottom of your ribcage, can be affected by your gastrointestinal tract working. Practically, this results in less projection and power in a vocal. Also, singing bloated is hard work and just takes away the enjoyment from a performance.

Sleep-  Always try to get a sufficient amount of sleep before you perform. Your entire body relies on you getting regular sleep, and this includes your throat. Sleeplessness usually causes difficulty for the insomniac in terms of both muscular and metal fatigue, which means that both your larynx and the parts of the brain that control it aren’t functioning as they normally would, which can lead to a loss of control whilst singing as well as vocal damage. So always try to get at least 4 hours if you’re going to be performing.

Posture- It’s important to maintain good posture as much as possible whilst singing. Take a look at the diagram below:

(http://0.tqn.com/d/np/singing/21-1.jpg)

Good posture allows the airflow to be maintained throughout your torso, with a number of benefits. The first is increased breath capacity- because the chest is expanded and can incorporate more air in the space around the lungs, which means you can hold notes longer and finish difficult phrasing without having to stop for a breath (for more information, see- http://confessionsofadeathmetalvocalist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/lung-capacity.html) . The second is that it naturally encourages you to breathe from your diaphragm which develops good technique as well as breath support.

So, what is good posture for singing? It’s normally referred to as correct ‘alignment’ because it’s reliant on getting the correct alignment of your body. Place your feet slightly apart, perhaps by a foot (ha!), placing one of them slightly forward. Make sure that your knees are in line with your feet, your legs straight and fully extended,  and that your hips are in a comfortable position. Then lift your chest so that it’s facing straight up, most people have to push their shoulders back slightly to achieve this, but the main idea is to keep the torso as straight and open to air as possible. Then put your neck straight up, face forward and raise your chin. You should now look a lot like my turtle-necked colleague above.

Realistically, it’s impossible to maintain this at a metal show all the time and look cool. So what I tend to do is revert to it when I feel myself struggling for air, or when I get the chance (standard foot on the monitor poses are great for this). So use it as you see fit, but always be aware of your posture.

Temperature- If you’re going to be singing and it’s cold or really hot outside, remember that this affects your larynx like it would any muscle. If it’s cold, wear a scarf or stay inside for the hour before you perform. If it’s hot, don’t wear any additional clothing around your neck if you don’t have to.

Volume control- Always remember that what the audience is hearing (both live and recorded) isn’t what you’re singing. It’s an artificial recreation of the sounds that are picked up by a microphone and run through the PA, effects units, computer etc. Let that sink in. It’s just an artificial replication. This means that if you don’t naturally sing very loud, you shouldn’t push yourself to. It’s pointless and it just damages your throat when you can get the exact same sound by altering the settings on the Sound Desk. Always make sure to have a soundcheck if at all possible and make sure to sing at your natural volume- don’t let a sound person tell you that you’re being quiet. Ultimately, it’s their job to get whatever sounds you make to the audiences’ ears.

Furthermore, volume control is also a factor in vocal hygiene in your day to day life. All of your waking life, you’re surrounded by a Noise Floor. Wikipedia, the king of reliable sources, defines it as “the measure of the signal created from the sum of all the noise sources and unwanted signals within a measurement system, where noise is defined as any signal other than the one being monitored” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_floor). This is a very exact way of saying that a noise floor is any background sound or interference that is occurring around a sound input at any one time. What this could be depends on the power of the microphone- if you’re using a dynamic microphone, it’ll be things within the immediate range of the mic- e.g. people speaking behind you or the live band playing behind you or if you’re using a condenser, it could be trains near your house, people in the street, the possibilities are endless. This background noise causes us all to adjust our voices to be heard over it, like when you’re in a pub with loud music and you’re talking to your friends. This happens both consciously and unconsciously, and if you do it in a live situation you’ll be raising your voice far more than you need to and end up damaging your throat just to be heard. So remember that this can happen and regularly think about how loud you’re actually being as it’s not always necessary.

Warm up- If you have a warm up or pre-show preparation, do it. More on this topic can be found here (http://confessionsofadeathmetalvocalist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/warm-ups-starting-rituals-pointless.html).

Quick Solutions

Milk/Honey/Pineapple juice- Whilst I wouldn’t expect drinking any of these to immediately repair your throat, drinking them a few hours before you need to sing (though ideally the night before) can vastly improve your throat if you’re having a rough day. This is due to either in the case of honey, lining your throat and protecting the folds as well as acting as extra lubrication and in the case of milk and pineapple juice, they contain vitamins and bacteria that aid your throat in recovery as well as hydrating it.

Sound Person/Effects- As I mentioned above, it’s totally false but ultimately useful that sound people and effects exist. If you’re struggling, you can solve the issues with your tone by affecting the vocal whilst it goes through the signal path. So if you’re quiet, you can be turned up. If you’re lacking low end, you can double track or pitch shift or hide it in reverb. The possibilities are only as limited as your imagination.

Lozenges/vocalzones/Chloroseptic spray- All of these can be helpful when you’ve got a sorethroat and need to power through a set. Whilst they do help your throat recover, 99% of them weren’t designed with singers in mind and will affect your throat in some way- usually excess mucus or a numbing sensation, which has obvious implications for singing. So just be aware of what they do to your throat before you rely on them ten minutes before a crucial show.

Steam treatments/Shower- It’s possible (and often faster) to hydrate your throat without drinking. Breathing in steam is a great way of getting your throat ready if you’re in a rush. Just boil a kettle, pour the water into a sink or heat resistant bucket. Then once it’s cooled a little, place your face over the top of the bucket and breathe in the steam, slowly and regularly for a few minutes. It’ll do wonders. You can also multitask, as this happens in a less dramatic way by proxy when you’re taking a shower.

Medical Attention/ENT- Find an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist that’s good and see them regularly if you have any issues and always seek medical attention if you have any effects that last for more than a day.

Gargle salt water- This will help fight any infections you have in your throat

Silence- Often the best way of recovering your voice is just not using it. It’s often really inconvenient but can be necessary if your voice is on the edge and breaking during normal use. The time will allow your throat time to rest and recover somewhat, even if it’s not wholly back for the show, it’s still going to be in far better shape than if you spend the day chatting away.

Conclusion

These are all things that will help any singer to recover in a crisis situation and hopefully never get in one in the first place. All these remedies and habits are things that I’ve picked up over the years and some of them will obviously be different for different people. Experiment with them and see what saves you in a sketchy situation, I’d love to be able to discover a few more tips and tricks, so if there’s anything that you think’s missing, please do suggest them.

And so I leave you, until the next post. Hopefully it’ll be less than a year this time.

-E.