How To Prepare Your Voice For A Great Musical Performance.

You are all set to give that great musical performance this weekend. However singing is not all about sounding good but also caring for your voice, which you already loved to make your performance memorable. Yes, knowing about it gathers all the more importance on a day like World Voice Day 2010, whose theme for the year is “Love Your Voice”.  

The first tip that could help you as a singer to protect the voice you love is to not talk much on the day of your performance. You could fulfill your need for communication by using text messaging, e-mail, pens and papers. Talking can cause greater damage than singing to your vocal chords. Hence it is best to talk only just before the performance when you have to warm-up your voice for a great performance.

The next step of warming up for the performance would require that you start talking softly about 3 hours prior to the performance. Yes, just like any other activity or exercise your voice has to be stretched and built up to give a good performance on the stage. Having a hot shower, inhaling from a voice steamer or ordinarily can be very helpful if done a few hours before the performance. Make sure you do not overdo it and do practice a few up and down notes for a few minutes to make your voice energetic.

The diet of a singer influences how one performs or looks after ones voice. Avoid dairy, chocolate, pasta and citrus fruits. They could harm the vocal chords and throat. Apples, oily things, tea and soup are great to create wetness in the throat. Soups slide in easily leaving no residues in the throat. Do have something to eat before you warm up giving the food adequate time to settle down before the performance. In addition, having a light meal before performing will help make you sing and breathe better.

 
Yes, hydration by water and other liquids do play a vital role in keeping the throat wet. Every singer needs to have a lot of water. It is very important to hydrate yourself especially on the days prior to the performance to allow our bodies time to adjust and prepare it. However water can dry people out when they drink it during a performance. So do drink a lot of water on the days leading the performance and even on that day, but not during the performance.

The tip to a tired-free voice lies in having adequate sleep in the comfort of ones house or room. You can never perform best in a performance when your voice is tired. In addition, singing when your voice is not rested can harm your vocal chords and sometimes can even create vocal nodes. Yes, sleep and water are very essential to keep your voice and yourself healthy.

Physical, mental and emotional fitness is paramount to be a good singer or a performer. It is essential to learn to control ones breath and helps to gain control over your body and voice simultaneously. A singer’s fingers, arms, legs all need to be in shape to act in co-ordination while singing and performing. The physical body is as important as your voice.

Kick the habits of smoking and drugs if you wish to care for your voice as a singer. Yes, love your voice and say “No” to these habits that can greatly damage your voice and your overall performance. Smoking and drugs are also injurious to health and could affect your longevity as a singer. Singers should also stay away from second hand smoke and third hand smoke caused by contact with a smoker’s belongings.

Do consider investing on earplugs if you are going for a loud musical performance. If you are going to be at a concert where there is going to be loud music, wear earplugs. If you are going to a place where there is a lot of noise then wear it too. Yes, it would affect your ability to perform well because hearing loud sounds would affect your ability to hear well and would affect your ability to find your wrong notes. You need to take care of your hearing too and I am sure you would not like to experience ringing in your ears or damage to the eardrum.

To conclude, do seriously take care of your voice, ears, body, mind and emotions. Yes, your voice is unique, sweet and beautiful in it’s special way, so do take care of it before you give that masterpiece performance, that is your own.