Every singer has good days and bad days, just like every performer. But how can you keep your voice healthy in order to keep the bad days to a minimum? There are a few tricks and things to remember in order to keep your voice in top condition.
First-drink plenty of water! Water will keep your vocal chords loose and lubricated and will make the air travel easier, and make your chords move more easily. For me, I always have at least 1.5 liters of water with me at all times.
Don’t smoke! I know this is like a no brainer, but even broadway performers sometimes forget this and light up (Susan Egan confessed to needing to smoke to get the harder edge to her voice for when she played Meg in Hercules. Performers believe it helps with their rocker or harder edge. It’s not worth the risk!). You don’t want anything to potentially damage your cords.
It’s alright to have soda and coffee occasionally. And by occasionally I mean, maybe once a day, twice at most. And always follow it with water! Soda and coffee and even juices have the potential to dry out your throat, making it harder for the cords to move. Always follow those kind of things with a lot of water, to minimize the damage done.
Never underestimate the power of a good vocal warm up! Would you work out before stretching? Of course not! Singing is a work out for the cords and muscles in your throat-always warm up before you try to sing!
When you get up in the morning, the general rule of thumb is to give yourself three hours from the time you wake up before you do anything harsh like singing to your voice. Just like you, your vocal cords don’t want to work that early in the morning and they need some time to settle for the day. If you need to speak, try a few vocal warm ups before you try singing. It really helps.
And finally, try to avoid clearing your throat. Drink water to quell that feeling instead. When you clear your throat, your cords rub together and can cause friction. Enough of that can lead to real vocal damage!
Above all, just treat your voice nicely, and it will do wonders for you! Sing out and break legs!