It turns out, I have two things going on with my voice.
1) I have been experiencing laryngopharyngeal reflux disease (LPRD). If you don't know what this is, check out my blog from last February. It is quite common among singers and can cause many of the vocal symptoms I have been experiencing. To help combat this problem, the doctor prescribed some medication and we outlined ways I can adjust my diet and lifestyle to reduce the occurrence of reflux.
2) The other issue I have been experiencing is significant vocal load or vocal dose. Essentially, it means I have been using my voice more than is good for me.
As a professional voice user (which, as actors and singers, all of you are, as well), we have to constantly be conscious of how much we are asking of our vocal muscles. Even athletes who are using their muscles efficiently will run into occasional issues or injuries from overuse. It is the same for singers.
The speech-language pathologist at the clinic helped me outline some areas in my daily routine where I can reduce my vocal load.
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| Sometimes you just gotta go see the doc. |
- Demonstrate less while teaching (if the students know what I'm asking, I don't have to sing it for them first).
- Don't practice to the point of being vocally fatigued. Stop singing or transition to cool-down exercises before getting to the point of fatigue.
- Be aware of loudness in conversation. Louder sounds require more vocal fold collision. Use only as much volume as is needed for the situation (this includes loud laughing).
- Be aware of loudness levels while singing. Vocal practice should not always be at ff. Balance in dynamics is key.
- Encourage a CT-dominant (head-voice) sound in singing whenever possible. Limit TA-dominant (chest voice) singing.
- Use more airflow while speaking and singing, especially if the voice is tired.
- Take time throughout the day for vocal rest and for straw phonation to reduce vocal fold swelling.
Examine your own daily vocal load. Do you have any habits that could be adjusted to make sure you aren't overtaxing your instrument?
And how has your practice been going?
Now go practice.
At this time in my life, or at least for this past month, I don't feel too much overuse or overload on my voice- however I can think of many scenarios that could put my voice at risk. This season my work does start to pick up and because of this higher volume of clientele, I do tend to speak louder, as well as take more phone calls and attend more meetings. I notice that during these times, it can become painful to speak if I've had a day full of use. I tend to combat this pain with speaking softer and in a higher/head voice. It is challenging to maintain, because when I get passionate about something I revert back to a lower/chest dominant sound. My pain is the reminder that I need to settle down. After a family party or even a long night with friends, I can sense this same pain. It would benefit me to conscious of my volume levels- I love to be loud and to entertain people and have loud conversations, etc. All not so great for my voice. This news is kind of a bummer! But it is important for me to keep in mind so I can maintain longevity. Practice has been going fairly well! I've been practicing a little lighter this week because I have a bit of a cold or something of the sort. It helps so much to have a private voice instructor that I am meeting with weekly. Keeping me focused!
ReplyDeleteThese are really helpful tips, thank you for sharing! I've been dealing with vocal issues since the beginning of the year. It was a combination of vocal fatigue and a prolonged sickness, but after bringing more awareness to my vocal habits and the sickness and fatigue subdued, I realized it wasn't getting any better. I'm finally able to diagnose it as reflux and have taken further protocol to minimize it (I blame the new blonde espresso from Starbucks.) Because of this new awakening of just how easy it is to have our voices affected, I now treat my practicing and initial singing with much more caution and attentiveness. I have stopped eating past 7:00, I steam much more frequently, I'm more conscious about warming up my voice before singing or speaking everyday. Practicing has been going pretty well now that I'm almost back to full vocal health. Instead of working new pieces of music, I've been focusing on finalizing past songs and prepping for auditions.
ReplyDeleteOver the past month I have definitely felt as though I was taking on a heavy daily vocal load. Rehearsals for Beautiful Game every night with my own daily vocal work along with acting class, work, etc has left me feeling fulfilled but also fatigued. Last week I had the flu, and the cough I had left my vocally sore and exhausted, so I have been resting my voice as much as possible. I like that you mentioned loud laughing! I’ve never considered how my rather outrageous laugh could be too much for my vocal folds.
ReplyDeleteThis week I’m really focusing on getting my voice back to a healthy place so that I will be feeling great for opening next week!
I am definitely pushing my voice to new heights and strengths this year to see what my voice is capable of, but sometimes I end up not doing it in the most health conscious way. I also have a lot of vocal assignments now that I have studio, voice lessons, auditions, and MTE to worry about which can leave my voice tired at the end of the day. I could be more proactive about it and not tax my voice through talking excessively or raising my voice around my friends, yet I still do that. I do a lot of other steps to make up for that, such as lemon, homey, tea and keep my caffeine intake to a minimum.
ReplyDeleteThis week, practice has been really great. I can feel my vocal chords growing stronger in the technique that I have been training them in. I don't get as frustrated with my mix, but I do feel my more legit voice starting to slip away. I just need to add a little more of that type and a little less time on mixing now that I have it where I want.
I definitely catch myself pushing my voice to a point where it gets tired and starts to hurt a lot in my own practice. Instead of singing through the whole song at my full volume and potential multiple times I should limit my practicing duration or my volume so my voice doesn't have to get to the point of straining it. I should also add in the cool downs because I always seem to forget to do those at the end. Practicing staying in my head voice more has also been helping. It takes a lot longer for my voice to start feeling tired in head voice than it does when I am in chest dominate.
ReplyDeleteIn the past, mainly high school, I constantly felt vocal overload. And this was due to not knowing how to use my instrument properly and what was comfortable for my range. I had a chorus teacher who would always push those who were considered altos, or in the lower range to reach notes more comfortable for sopranos because she believed they made the music sound prettier. With this, many of us were straining to reach those notes, even though it wasn’t where our voices comfortably sat. So many times, after 2 or 3 days of performing in the musical, my voice was absolutely exhausted and I would have to deal with the consequences of that. Which mainly consisted of a sore throat and swollen uvula, so that was fun. However, since starting your class (and ignoring that chorus teacher anytime we performed) I haven’t had any vocal overload. Sure, there are times when my voice is tired, but I recognize that and know not push myself. I think it’s incredibly helpful to really understand your body as well as how your voice really works. Its great in preventing long term damage or recognizing when you need to take a break. Really now the only time I know I overload my voice is when I’m at work in customer service and chose to be bright and high to seem friendlier. But other than that, I seem to have better control of it thanks to the tips and in class lessons.
ReplyDeleteI haven't experienced a lot of vocal overload in the past, and as I'm new to singing I appreciate learning this tips early so I have the best chance of reducing problems. However, on Friday this week in our Voice and Speech class we were practicing projecting our voices, and I don't think I'd ever made sound that loud before, at least not at a sustained level. I could feel my voice and my throat were kind of aching. I'm not sure if I "should have stopped sooner" or not but it was interesting to feel because it was new. I think the reason this kind of tired voice felt so different for me was because I went into class with a rested voice, and then pushed it to the max for 45 minutes. So I went from nothing, to extreme vocal use in a short period of time. Another thing I'm watching out for is not getting sick! Practicing has been okay. It's coming a little easier to me I think because you advised me to focus on head voice and transitioning from chest to head and head to chest, and since I've been focusing on that I've really had to make myself jump in and just do it. Just live in that higher voice, which I don't like because I'm not strong there. I'll cringe when I sing and that definitely impedes on my practice, because I don't have everyone else's voices in class to hide mine! But since this realization I've been able to pretty well address the problem and have seen some improvement.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the advice. I have been debating on going to an ENT. Ive also been debating on getting my tonsils removed because they are always swollen and taking up a lot of space in my mouth. Anyways, I have this thing where I always feel like something is wrong with me but I'm getting through it. I have been so busy that practicing has been tough but I've been squeezing it in wherever I can. I've also been focusing on learning the musicals for next season. But I'm working my butt off trying to get it all in.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that I've found helps me a lot in making sure I'm not overloading my vocal folds is finding different places to resonate and direct the sound that I'm producing in an attempt to utilize my full instrument. This has also allowed me to discover different vocal qualities and sounds that are less tiresome on my vocal cords. It can also be difficult because at this point in our training, we're using our voice so much and experimenting so much in different classes on our connection to voice and breath. All of that experimentation Is required and expected in the classroom and it can be difficult moving from vocally taxing class to vocally taxing class. I'm still making attempts at connecting the dots and the different things taught to us in each class to build a more solid, focused compendium of information and tools for better vocal health.
ReplyDeleteI have been doing a lot more singing on the daily during this rehearsal process than I have previously. Or, at least am more conscious of it because it's only my voice and it's not supported by other voices all the time. I can make sure that while warming up and practicing earlier in the day to not get to the point of vocal fatigue. I have found the straw to be helpful just to use throughout the day. I also try to keep the dynamic level quieter, especially while warming up.
ReplyDeleteI too just had an appointment with an ENT and it was super eye opening for me. I was very very scared to see what was going on in my voice because i was experiencing more fatigue and strain than i ever had before. Just knowing now what is actually going on is allowing my muscles to compensate less than they think they need to. I was using extrinsic muscles to try and balance out tension at the fold level which was really making my problems worse. I've also gotten medication for my LPRD which has already made differences for me. I love seeing these tips for vocal fatigue, they're definitely things that i dont typically think about, especially when laughing or talking in public. I've found that I don't feel so exhausted at the end of each day now. It's still not perfect, but I'm getting better at understanding when to quiet down, when to stay in for the night, when to stop eating at night. And also i'm honestly a little bit excited to go forward with this new challenge in my voice, because i'm learning how to deal with my specific instrument and what its capable of right now, whether or not its different than before.
ReplyDeleteI've been going in and out of sickness for a while so I've been really struggling to find a balance of letting my voice rest and properly heal but also trying to keep up with everything I need to be doing and working on. its made me take a lot more time using the straw and just focusing on warm ups and simple voice exercises. Ive found taking that step back and staying simple has helped me overall in my voice I didn't really take a break at all over Christmas being so busy with my show my voice has just been non stop action but working so much on these simple warm ups and straw phonation has been able to give my voice a little lighter load while still allowing me to work on my technique.
ReplyDeleteSo, this makes sense. And I think this might be what's going on with my voice right now. I'm experiencing similar things, and maybe this is it. I know I have reflux issues, and a few years ago when I didn't have nearly as much reflux, I wouldn't get as vocally fatigued at the rate I do now. It's not a particularly huge change, but it's noticeable. I've been more careful in practicing, lately. I'll continue that for now.
ReplyDeleteAnd sometimes I get really excited and wanted to sing a somewhat challenging sing before I warm up. I have to remember that's probably not ideal. I wouldn't sprint full-speed right after I wake up in the morning.
When I most notice vocal fatigue is when I push myself too far in A Capella Choir. I find it oddly easier to overexert in this group setting in comparison to when I'm singing alone; which may seem counter intuitive given that the more sound being created collectively should mean I don't have to work as hard in some ways. However, I've found that I exert myself a lot (usually during larger dress rehearsals) trying to produce the desired collective sound. I also feel like more is asked of me vocally in these situations in general. I think it's worth noting for myself so I can consciously balance how much I work and how much I should watch myself vocally on those days, particularly if they're to be filled with other vocal use in CCM music as well and/or acting and speech work.
ReplyDeleteI am definitely guilty of singing to the point of fatigue and then not cooling down. I find that I mostly do that to myself when I am singing for fun rather than singing to practice. Moving forward I think I can prevent any damage or strain to my vocal muscles by warming up in the morning so that I am at least ready to speak or sing when I feel like it, as well as being cognizant that I should not be pushing myself to sing things that require more effort when I haven't done a full warm up or when I can't do a full cool down.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes think I over-rehearse certain songs without resting to the point of vocal fatigue. Or I'll notice that because I was singing in the car, or talking too much, or after working that I've also tired out my voice. I've been trying to be more conscious of how I'm using my voice throughout the day to ensure that I'm not making myself unnecessarily tired. This past week has been particularly hard because I've been sick, and my voice is already weakened. I've been doing my best to rest when I haven't been in class or at work.
ReplyDeleteThis has always been a struggle for me. I tend to over do it because I get into getting a song just right. I feel like I definitely experienced this before my UPTA auditions. We were both noticing air slipping into some of my note where it shouldn't be and I am sure that was from overuse. Then you reminded me that tI have done th song a million times and I really didn't need to keep practicing it. Which was true. I think that is a good reminder as I go out on my own next year. To make sure that I am practicing and skill building but to also cut myself a break and know that I do not need to sing at my fullest for the full practice session (or longer!)
ReplyDeleteI think this is where i really need to use phonation, because If I am feeling nervous about a song I can always go through it with a straw and release some of the negative tension while still allowing myself to go through the rep!
Man, this is my biggest problem as a vocalist. I consistently want to keep going, to the point of vocal exhaustion, and on occasion even past there. Maintaining healthy vocal habits and reminding myself that my vocal folds are a muscle just like any other tends to be a difficult pattern to get into. Something to continue to try to experiment with
ReplyDeleteThis has always been an issue for me. I constantly feel like my acting and singing go utterly hand in hand, so in my stubborn mind, I should be able to practice both as much as I want right? Obviously no. This struggle has become even more pronounced now that I have really discovered my head tones as opposed to belting everything. While this is more efficient, my voice still needs rest and as someone who finds vocal rest to be the most stressful punishment, this is a habit I need to break. This problem is also exacerbated by the fact that I am a kinesthetic learner, so the way I learn almost anything about my pieces is repeated practice.
ReplyDeleteI had a huge problem with this last semester. That entire semester my vocal load was bigger than it had ever been previously in my life. This resulted in my voice being immensely fatigued for the entire last month and a half of that semester. I never really did anything about it, but this semester I think my voice is stronger, and my vocal load is not as intense, so I have been having an easier time. In the future, however, I will certainly apply some of the methods outlined in the block to heal my voice should I exceed my vocal load again.
ReplyDeleteIn this particular moment in my life, I haven't had many issues with too much vocal load. There do come times when I do a lot of talking and laughing during the week. Sometimes I'll just happen to be extra loud where I can feel a bit of strain in my voice, but nothing that doesn't solves itself quickly. I think a good reason for this may be due to my excessive obsession with water. I am always drinking more than my daily needs of it, and I definitely pride myself on that. In addition, I am very aware of the connection between my neck and head. I think making sure my eyes and chin stay parallel to the horizon, has helped with giving my voice an easier pathway out the mouth.
ReplyDeleteI remember talking about this in class. The idea of thinking of your voice as investment or money, how much are spending daily? I never thought of my voice in that way nor have I ever taken it into consideration. I think this semester I have taken this concept into account. I have also never been more conscious about vocal health in my entire life before coming to your class and I am so thankful. I rarely raise my voice, cough unnecessarily or scream just for the sake of screaming (don't judge me haunted houses are fun). I think moving forward it will benefit me having this concept in mind.
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