Recovery – well step number 1 is . . . . . STOP singing.

Also – STOP talking. Let your voice have some true rest.  I know this is pretty basic but sometimes we feel our singing and our talking voice is not the same thing or somehow not connected. Well, it is one and the same. Through much use and over-use, the muscles and ligaments controlling your vocal folds (“chords”) become very fatigued, and the folds (“chords”) themselves become very red, dry, and swollen. The only way for your physical vocal apparatus to rest is to NOT use it. So yes, this means no talking or singing for hours and days as needed. As in the case above – if you’ve sung all week and weekend give yourself until Tuesday to sing and limit your talking until then as well. Tip – when you need to talk try talking at a bit higher pitch. This can really help put less strain on your vocal folds. (Avoid the low vocal growl – I’m tired – my voice is fried – vocal fry register)

 STOP clearing your throat – PLEASE!

Essentially every time you choose to do this you are banging your vocal folds together and causing further irritation. This can actually cause a build up of more mucus – which you then feel you need to clear even more and a vicious cycle begins. Yuck. Try lightly coughing instead and drinking water to clear this away. You can also just sing through this phlegm until you are able to clear it effectively with a cough. After much singing your vocal folds are irritated and perhaps slightly swollen. This can make it feel like there is something you need to “clear” but really it’s just rest that is needed. For those of you who have a “clearing your throat habit,” be kind to your voice and try learning a different way to clear your throat or just let it be for a bit.

DRINK – lots of water (and water with electrolytes as needed).

This is a recovery and preventing vocal injury tip. Are you drinking ½ your body weight in ounces per day? You can actually take in even more water than that because a lot of it is escaping through your mouth while you sing! If you are doing a lot of recording and/or have a typical week like the one listed above most weeks then try adding an occasional bottle of water with electrolytes too. There are several on the market – at health food and regular grocery stores. I do get teased for drinking Smartwater by Glacéau because it’s a “smart” choice for my voice but it’s better than “dumb” water which I haven’t seen marketed anywhere yet. J  Tea is helpful in soothing irritated throats – not scalding hot though. Organic Lemon Echinacea Throat Coat by Traditional Medicinals is a nice tea that has throat coating herbs.

REST

Sleep is a huge benefit to vocalists because we are finally truly resting our voices. The experts say that our bodies need 8 – 9 hours per night. This is the time all your muscles can relax around your throat area. Try getting some adequate rest during and after some of your busiest weeks and notice the difference. Plus as an added benefit – you will be mentally alert too and able to accomplish more!

 OTHER OPTIONS

there are many things that various singers do that may or may not help you individually. Some ideas: I’ve make use of a pot of boiling hot water with a towel over my head to breathe in some steam when fighting off an upper respiratory issue or cold. This helped to get moisture where I need it faster. Many singers regularly find relief using a Neti Pot or NeilMed sinus rinse system to clear out sinus passages. Others find throat sprays helpful to sooth sore or dry throats – although be careful to not use anything with alcohol (drying effect) or numbing agents in it.

Tips for preventing vocal injury:

TAKE a BREAK – After practicing or rehearsing before the service starts take a break. Let me suggest a 20 – 30 minutes after a rehearsal prior to starting a service or “gig”. This will give your voice a brief time to recover and rest. IF during this time you can LIMIT your talking, then this can be effective. This can also be used as a time to become mentally, spiritually, and/or physically prepared for the songs you are about to sing. Use this break time to drink more water and/or tea, have a light snack, and fix any music that keeps falling off the stand, etc.   

RE-WARM-UP lightly before singing again. Take 5 minutes to do a few easy warm-up exercises. This could be humming up and down a short scale, doing the “lip-buzz” warm-up (see Basic Warm-ups. . . . for details), or other simple exercises with basic vowel sounds. By doing this, you get your voice ready for the workout that is about to happen on the stage/platform.   

WATER – drink lots of it (see DRINK tip above). Your voice needs proper lubrication to function. Without adequate water your body is dehydrated and singing will only zap more water from the throat area where you need moisture the most. Drink water hours and days before you sing so it has time to work in your system.

 TEA – drinking very warm tea (notice I did not say scalding hot) can help to sooth the throat and even help to reduce the buildup of unwanted extra mucus. I’ve known many singers to keep some warm tea with them on the platform/stage to sip as needed. Note – don’t spill drinks on the sound equipment as this tends to hurt the sound engineer’s feelings plus the equipment.  :-)

THE BIG TIP – become a regular vocal exercise person. By this I mean develop a habit of always warming up 10 – 15 minutes before you endeavor to sing. Why? – Because you are warming up your voice. You are allowing your vocal folds time to gently stretch and relax. You are working on individual vowel sounds and getting their placement to sound correct. You are warming up your physical body as well, preparing your mouth to pronounce words correctly and your breathing to support your sound. As I’ve written about many times – this means having a routine and exercises that you utilize EVERY time before you practice, rehearse, minister, or perform. Here are two links if you want more info on warm-up exercises:  Warm-up exercise (scroll down to last paragraph),  Warm-up CD. I realize that I have yet to write an article on warming up and list several exercises to work with - perhaps next time.

Happy Vocal Recovery!

 - Kris -

Expression = what body language you are using, how you convey the emotion of the song, and your overall vocal tone. This seems to be a topic I’ve been emphasizing a lot lately while teaching at various vocal clinics. How a singer handles his/her physical body during a song can either greatly distract me or greatly encourage me to enjoy their song. If I’m greatly distracted I just find myself praying for them to “make it through” the song and don’t get the chance to really be ministered to by the lyrics of the song. If the singer is conveying good expression I find myself pulling for them and wanting to join them on the song. So if you are a singer on a worship team, back-ground vocalist, or choir member let’s talk about how you can make me feel more comfortable if I happen to be in the congregation or audience that day. :-) Well actually, I’m not concerned about “me” but really the Body of Christ you are serving or whomever you happen to be singing in front of that day.

Smile! This is huge! – Are you having fun singing :-) or is it a chore? If you don’t enjoy it – maybe it’s not for you. Oh ouch. We all need work in this area – I did a whole blog on the topic. (See Singing and Smiling for even more details.) Even on harder notes, parts, or harmonies at least THINK smile. :-)  This makes a huge difference PLUS it helps your tone and intonation (whether you stay on pitch or not). Usually in vocal classes, I will have ½ of the group turn and face the other ½ and simply add a smile as much as possible the whole time through a chorus. Yes, they all may feel very weird but the observing half notices a huge difference. We will then repeat the exercise with the other half smiling and singing. Wow – I also cannot fully tell you (you have to see it) the difference it makes when the entire choir or ensemble looks happy when they are singing. This can add such a positive dynamic to the church worship atmosphere and really encourages the congregation to participate!

Move – really it’s ok. Yes, it feels totally awkward when you first make this a habit and yes, people are watching you. In my opinion, if you are not moving you become even more of a distraction and look super stiff. Ok so how do we move on the platform/stage? How about clapping, raising your hand/hands, keeping the beat by a knee bend, taking a few steps here and there, and even jumping around. Now if people usually jump around at your church then great, if not you might want to keep it a little more low-key. :-)

Clapping can be a great start – if you are cool you will also clap on beats 2 and 4 and not 1 and 3 if you know what I mean. Keep in mind not to slap or abuse the microphone nor clap directly into the mic, unless directed by your leader. You can also clap your arm or leg/thigh if holding a mic. Choir members should clap lightly or “fake-clap” as the overhead choir microphones are usually turned up quite a bit and that many people clapping can become a sound nightmare. 

Take a few steps occasionally. You might want to move up during a chorus for emphasis, slowly move back as another singer moves forward. It may feel very odd but looks quite natural to the viewer. If you’re brave then learn to jump around – keeping in mind that eventually you need to sing. So don’t wear yourself out if you are not an aerobics champion. It’s very hard to sing and jump at the same time. Sometimes though the song just demands a lot of action and we can get excited. You can also keep the beat by bending a knee and bouncing a little – it’s much easier to sing this way then actually jumping.

Raising your hands – This is so biblical and is a sign of praise and surrender all at the same time. Practice moving the mic easily from hand to hand and keep in mind that you can raise both hands, one hand, put your hand out to the side, raise it half-way, etc. Let’s be real and free to express genuine adoration to our Lord.

Tone – humm better save that one ‘till next time. I want to discuss how to vocally express a song by singing smooth, loud, soft, or with a breathy tone.

Remember the bottom line in all expression is serving the congregation by being an example and encouraging them to praise, worship, and join in! Ok, so enough WORDS about expression let’s just WATCH:

1. This clip is from New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Talk about happy and having fun – yes! Check out the choir shots too – they are swaying and smiling.

New Life Church link  (this will open the video) 

2. Here is another song video to check out called, “Power of the Cross” by Ricardo Sanchez. The verse lyrics are a story and their content not smiling material but rather need to be pronounced well – as they are. Each singer is moving and expressing the song’s intensity. A couple of times you can see a singer purposefully take a few steps forward. Plus this song is COOL!

Free Chapel link  (this will open the video)

So happy EXPRESSING!  :-)

The whole idea behind having decent posture while you sing is to allow your diaphragm and rib cage more room to breathe as well as creating a look of confidence. Try this – plant your feet shoulder width apart with one foot slightly in front of the other. Bend your knees ever so slightly. Next, stretch out with your hands over your head then lower your arms slowly to your sides. Do this stretching a couple of times. Well – you just gave yourself probably about 15 – 20% more room to breathe. Huge other advantage – you now are taller, plus your head and neck are more in alignment and upright! 

Tip – check out your posture in the mirror and pretend you are someone else in the audience or congregation watching this person sing. As you look at yourself, slump your shoulders slightly forward and lower your head and neck a little, also put your feet closer together, oh and put your arms in front of you with your hands together. Does this person in the mirror give any indication that you would want to hear them sing AND be relaxed while they sang? No way! Yes, I just did this to test this out again too - scary, no confidence, not good.  Now head back to the mirror and get into good singing posture – tall, upright, head and neck in alignment, hands by your sides, plenty of room to breathe. Wow – what a difference! Aim to sing with this posture all the time. 

There is another bonus to you but mostly to your audience - they can relax and listen to you when your body position is not a distraction to them. Really. When I’m visiting various churches, attending my own church, at a musical, or other performance and I’m watching/listening to singers, I am either made comfortable or distracted by the way they present themselves. Do they make me feel like I need to pray for them constantly so they will make it through the song? Can I receive what they are singing and let the Lord minister the words of the song to me? Can I enjoy their performance and have a good time listening? Better question – do they allow me to get past the way they look so I can hear what they are singing?

So even if you are, “shaking in your boots”(for those of you not familiar with this expression – it means super nervous!) get your body to help you out. Stretch and find a positive, effective posture that allows you to appear confident. Hint – this will actually help your confidence too.  By the way, this doesn’t mean that you have to stand there the whole time you are singing and never move (please move and express the song!) but that’s another blog post down the road on expression.

A quick note on neck and head alignment – try talking and keep going while you lift up your head and look to the ceiling. Now keep talking and look way down, now over to one side and then the other side. Did you notice that it was harder to talk with ease when your head and neck were not straight forward? If you didn’t, try that again because it definitely ads strain to your vocal folds and whole neck area if your head is not properly forward and in alignment. So much for tenors trying to raise up their head and neck to hit higher notes. J It may look like they are trying but this is actually NOT helping them sing higher, in fact it’s hurting. Instead learn to raise the inside of your mouth – your soft pallet needs to be raised to help higher notes resonate and not sound pinched (more on this at some point down the road).

I regularly practice good posture when I’m warming-up and going over a song. If you choose to work your posture, just like you would your breathing and the timing of phases on a song, then it will become a habit for that particular piece of music. It will become normal for you to appear confident AND have more room to breathe – such nice benefits!

Happy singing and great posture,

Kris

Ok – well maybe you don’t feel like you ever ask that last one. :-) 
I’ve just spent some time thinking about questions that singers ask a lot like the ones above. It’s that time of year – getting ready for Christmas programs, musicals, special services, and many vocalists find themselves preparing to sing solos or duets.  Here’s several suggestions and action steps you can take which can greatly reduce the impact of nerves and help you sing with confidence!

Do you look confident? Good posture is HUGE in conveying that you are not nervous (even if you are). So make sure you are standing up and giving your diaphragm as much room as possible in order to breathe effectively. Put one foot slightly in front of the other and try and keep feet about a shoulder’s width apart with a very slight knee bend. This helps you have more energy when you sing and as an added benefit – can help prevent fainting. :-)

Breathe low and use all your air! When most people get nervous, they tend to breathe very high and may raise their shoulders and sigh several times hoping to calm down. Unfortunately, this has the opposite effect and they are actually breathing quite shallow. You have the command over your breathing no matter how many butterflies you are fighting. So about 10 minutes before you sing that special part (or whenever needed), when the jitters may really try to kick in, make yourself breathe low and slow. Here are a couple of methods:

1. Use all your air then breathe or as my friend has renamed this the “Use It or Lose It” breathing method- I described this on the Basic Breathing blog post so you can click on that link to read more details if you would like.  As you are sitting in your chair preparing to walk up and sing that solo, or as you are singing in choir about ready to sing your part, kick in some “use it and lose it” technique. Make yourself breathe low and push out all remaining air before you breathe in again. You will have to force yourself to do this despite an increasing heart beat due to nerves.

2. Breathe in through your nose for two counts and then out using four pushes of air. Keep doing this slowly as you continue to wait for your cue to prepare for your solo AND do this as you walk up to take the microphone.

Practice! If you know your song and can sing it memorized well before tech and/or dress rehearsals then you will be ahead of the nerves game. Mark where you will breathe in your music and actually breathe in those spots each time you go through your song.   

Use your music or cheat sheet.  Remember I said above to memorize your music? Well do and then if it’s possible, and if it will not be a distraction, then go ahead and have your music near you. You can also take a 10 page song and type out only the lyrics with a few personal cues on a single page. Place this on a nice music stand or even on the floor. IF you should have a panic moment and forget your place you will recover quickly. Should your church or group have a way to project the lyrics on a back wall then this can be used instead of having music on the stage with you. Consider the importance of ministering the song and not creating an uncomfortable feeling for the audience/congregation by having forgotten your lyrics or place in the song. By the way this is especially true if you are asked to sing for a wedding or funeral. In general, if you are not accustomed to singing solos/duets often then I don’t feel there is anything wrong with having a little help on stage.

Be aware of God’s grace upon you to sing. There is a famous older movie called Chariots of Fire. Most of you will remember Eric Liddell, the main character and competitive runner in the movie. Eric says, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.” Wow, gotta love that line! So when you are singing remember that it is the Lord who gave you the ability to sing in the first place. Why not use this gift to the full extent possible? How sad would it be for a loving father to have given his child a beautiful present but the child to never open or truly enjoy the gift? If you have a talent for singing, then use it! Consider that one purpose in giving you a voice may be to minister to others through song and another may be for you to actually feel His pleasure as you open His gift to you.  

Happy singing (and singing in front of people too)!
- Kris -
As usual, if you would like me to address a certain question or area of vocal technique please email and let me know. :-)

1. Open your mouth. :-) This should be obvious, yet many vocalists need to practice opening their mouth more when they sing. Without a larger mouth shape, the sound can become quite muffled and even the ends of words become lost. Think about hearing a country singer – now I like country music occasionally so don’t hit me – this style can be mimicked by creating a small mouth size and not opening your lips much at all. Not all country singers use this technique; this is just a quick way of imitating a style. Some of us have smaller mouth sizes and need to concentrate on this even more.

2. Check that you are using low breathing techniques (check the Basic Breathing post for one idea). The best support for your sound comes from proper breathing – the lower you can breathe and effectively use your air the better! Hint – your shoulders should not move up when you inhale. If you are hearing a “gasp” for air sound (or any noisy breathing) then this too is a sign of something off in your breathing technique. Learn to support your tone and use your air efficiently so as to not run out half way through a phrase. Breathing is about 70% of singing, in my opinion, so this is a topic I’ll blog about more in the future.

3. Placement of tone – this is huge and can take some singers a long while to figure out how to use this tool. Really good technique is when a singer can focus their tone in the “mask of the face” keeping open vowel sounds. This is like shooting an arrow somewhere kind of ahead of you OR shooting the arrow directly toward a bull’s-eye. The mask of your face is generally the middle front of your cheek bones, about one finger’s width on either side of your nose. Try placing your fingers on your face as described above and concentrate on making every vowel sound focus there. Focusing tone uses all the reverberation in a person’s face and throat and aims it effectively. What used to be an “ee” vowel that was slightly airy and didn’t carry much energy or volume now becomes clear and can carry much farther even w/o a microphone.  Think opera w/o lots of vibrato – the singers acting in operas don’t use microphones yet their voices carry extremely far. So we aren’t going for that classical style, but rather some of that most helpful technique.

One warm up to use is humming up a scale (1,2,3,4,5) and coming down the scale (5,4,3,2,1) on one vowel sound (e, a, oo, oh, ah). (This warm-up is exercise #5 on the Vocal Warm-ups CD) Concentrate on the “humm” sound which is naturally almost fully focused in the mask of the face. Try this warm-up with all the vowel sounds. By the way the Warm-ups CD is now finally downloadable! You can check this out at the Singers’ Resource Store if you are interested.

That’s a few thoughts anyway. Let me know how it goes and what technique may have helped you. :-) 

Questions for your consideration:

1. Are you drinking enough water?  8 – 10 glasses (8 oz. each) is the starting point for singers. If you are singing more than a couple of hours in a day then try and drink more that day. Please note that I mentioned “water” not coffee, tea, cola, or Starbucks. If you are consuming other liquids, and most of us do, then try and not count this as part of your “water” intake – because, well, it’s not. J 

2. Do you have a humidifier going?  Mine started running about a month ago. It is a high capacity humidifier and it runs 24/7. Colorado is super dry, emphasis on super. We need moisture any way we can get it! By the way – make sure and keep your humidifier filters clean or replace them often. Dirty, humid air doesn’t sound so good to breathe.

3. Are you sleeping? There are people I know that just “sleep off” any symptoms of an illness. In other words, if they aren’t feeling 100% they just nap, go to bed early, and give their body time to recuperate. Hmm, that’s a great idea for us to remember. Let’s not run our bodies, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, into the ground so to speak. We need them to run around and it sure is good to feel healthy.

4. What are you eating? Ok, yes I admit it, I’m kind of a health nut. Let’s just say that I’ve read a lot about good foods and supplements. I won’t bore you here with recommendations on what to take – besides I’m not a nutritionist or doctor and cannot give medical advice. I will say that I personally try and eat healthy foods besides taking high quality supplements (beginning with a really good multi-vitamin). During the fall and winter, I’m sure to also have on hand some immune system building supplements to take whenever I feel physically “off” or am around a bunch of people who are sick. A visit to your local health food store or some basic online research can give you a good start on what might be a benefit to you. Along this line if you have a big weekend, conference, or production that you are participating in – think about really feeding your body good meals/food (not just a bunch of quick sugary snacks) during and before that event.  Ok enough, for now, about “health nut” issues. :-)

5.  Are you keeping your voice WARM – inside and out? Have you thought about caring for your vocal folds by planning to warm up before singing? A planned and methodical warm-up time can REALLY help your voice immediately and help to prevent vocal injury over the long haul. It’s my number one recommendation to all singers. (This is also why I took the time to record the Vocal Warm-ups CD.) As far as keeping your voice warm on the outside – wearing a scarf over your mouth and around your neck in any kind of cool weather is a great idea for singers. Plus as an added benefit, scarves are really fashionable right now! Cool! (I mean Warm!)

6. Most importantly, remember that it is the Lord who made our bodies and it is He who gives us strength and health. I would encourage you to do even a quick study of what God’s word has to say on “health,” “healing,” and “well.”  It’s quite encouraging!

Here’s to staying vocally healthy - have a happy fall season!        – Kris -

Practically, a slight grin will help your tone focus in the mask of your face – more on this in a future blog post. Your pitch will become more accurate as well. One other added benefit is not only for you but also for whoever is watching you - it now seems that you are enjoying singing. Imagine that!  I’m sure you do like singing, so now you will just appear that way too. :-)

Smiling is also and instant quick-fix to get an entire choir on pitch. This is remarkable but really works. When I’ve been directing and it seems a choir’s energy level was just down on a particular song, causing the over all pitch to be a bit off, I will simply give a big smile and encourage everyone to do the same. The pitch pops right back up, the overall energy level picks up, and now all the singers seem happier.

Humm, this reminds me of the proverb I read a couple days ago, “A cheerful look brings joy to the heart…”Prov. 15:30   It seems that smiling has other benefits as well! So here are a few singing jokes to get you smiling. Now just carry your joy over into your singing for practice. :-)

Singing funnies:

Q: How many lead singers (or sopranos) does it take to change a light bulb?
A: One. They hold the bulb while the whole world revolves around them.

or there is – Q: How many lead singers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They get the drummer to do it.

Q: How many altos does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. They can’t get up that high.

Q: How many tenors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Six. One to do it, and the other five to say, “It’s too high for me.”

Q: Why are soprano jokes all one-liners?
A: So tenors can understand them.

Tenor story:

There were two old men sitting on a park bench talking to each other when one of them asked, “Can I sing you a song?” The other man replied, “Sure, but only if can you sing tenor?” The first man asked, “What is tenor?” The other man replied, “Ten or eleven miles away!”

The story of the Signing Fish:

Jimmy:  “Hey, Mike! How’s your new pet fish doing?”
Mike:  “Well, I’m really disappointed in him. The guy who sold him to me said I could teach him to sing like a bird.”
Jimmy:  “What? Let me get this straight… You bought a fish because you thought you could teach him to sing like a bird?”
Mike:  “Yeah, because he’s a parrot fish.”
Jimmy:  “Now listen, Mike, while you might be able to teach a parrot to sing, you’re never going to get anywhere with a parrot FISH.”
Mike:  ”That’s what you think! It just so happens this fish CAN sing. The real problem is he’s terribly off-key and it’s driving me crazy. Do you know how hard it is to tuna fish?”

credits – some jokes taken from www.ahajokes.com, www.opera.suite101.com, and www.basicjokes.com

This way of thinking about breathing works well for many singers and can be a sort of “quick fix.” Basically you just need to use all your air on every phrase you sing. Before taking your next breath be sure you try and push out any remaining air from your lungs. This is best used for awhile by marking up your music as to when you will breathe – check marks work well. 

You can practice this and “warm-up” your breathing by inhaling on a certain number of beats then exhaling with a “sss” sound on a certain number of beats. Try this – inhale with a sipping sound for a count of 4 medium tempo beats, then immediately start to exhale making a steady “sss” sound for 8 beats. Do this 3 or 4 times in a row. Keep in mind to exhale ALL of your air on the “sss” sound or you may find yourself light-headed. :-) Now try and inhale on 2 beats and exhale on 4 beats. Do this several times in a row. Now try a longer phrase – inhale on 2 beats and exhale on 12 beats or more. Basically you are teaching yourself to moderate your air use and planning ahead.

Now that you have “warmed up” your breathing transfer your technique to actually singing a song. You probably won’t be using the sip breath but will need to moderate your air use for each phrase of the song. For short phrases and more up-tempo songs you may not need to take in tons of air. You will need to plan ahead for longer phrases. If you have practiced this way with your songs then most likely when you get ready to sing in front of a group, you will actually do what you worked on. Most singers also will inhale more deeply as they work with this method a bit. Again, it’s vitally important that you use ALL your air and push out any remaining air before you take in another breath.

By the way, this works great for running and hiking too. Jim and I love to hike at higher altitudes and this is a form of compression breathing. So I get to practice it while I’m not singing too!

Well, let me know how it goes. :-) Happy singing AND breathing,

- Kris -