Vocal Tips For Keeping Your Voice Fresh

Introduction

In this tutorial about vocal techniques, I'll talk a little bit about the best ways to keep your voice fresh and how to get the most out of your voice.  This is never easy and everyone is different, so please keep in mind that these are just ideas from my personal experiences and are techniques that work for me.  Please also keep in mind that this is more about health tips for your voice rather than getting the best sound from your voice...Enjoy!

Step 1

First, let's talk a bit about everyday tips for your voice.  There are a variety of things that you can do to insure that you don't wear your voice out.  The first thing that I suggest is that no matter when you are singing, whether it is for a practice or for a performance, always warm up!  This means doing scales for a few minutes spanning your entire vocal range.  It is also a good idea to sing a full song or two in addition or even instead if you don't feel comfortable doing only scales.  This if crucial because you can definitely damage your voice if you go too hard out of the box without warming up before hand...

Step 2

Another thing that you can do to keep your voice fresh is to not overdo it on a day to day basis.  While you should be keeping your chops up everyday by practicing, don't sing for too long in a day where it wears you out.  The worst thing is to not be able to sing for a few days because you've overdone it.  While I feel this happens more with rock singers, it definitely applies to everyone.  Getting horse can be avoided, its just a matter of controlling your voice in your own unique way to insure that you have total control over your vocal chords.

Step 3

Next let's talk about some techniques that you can use while you are actually performing or practicing.  The hardest thing for a singer to do can be to find a happy medium between singing hard and exerting all that you have without over singing.  Over singing is a problem that a lot rock singers have, especially during performances.  Energy can be high but it is important to remember not to overdo it and to keep your vocal at the place that you normally would.  This isn't an easy thing to do and is a battle that a lot of singers face...  As long as you are consciously thinking about what you are singing and not getting lost in the moment, you will have a much easier time with this.

Step 4

When it comes the day for the actual performance, it is important to stay relaxed and to keep your voice in the best condition possible in the hours leading up to the show.  It is best to not eat right before a performance and the best thing that you can do is to drink room temperature drinks to keep the moisture up rather than cold drinks as cold drinks aren't the best to drink before a performance.  Drinking tea and salt water can also loosen up your voice.  The more relaxed you can make your voice and body, the better off you will be overall.

Step 5

While it may take a little bit of time to figure out your voice and what works for it, everyone is different and each voice is unique.  Of course drinking and smoking are things that will not help your voice and you should limit these in takes as they can really do damage over time.  Over time you should be able to develop your own techniques, but it definitely doesn't hurt to have a starting point and I hope that these steps have helped to do this.

Conclusion

While these tips can definitely be helpful for singers, since I'm a rock singer I imagine that most of the things on here would be best for rock and pop singers.  These may or may not work for you, but the main thing is figuring what will work for you and your voice and body.