Incorporating healthy speech in your singing
Your speaking voice directly affects your singing By taking good care of your voice while speaking, you ensure better vocal health. You can improve your speaking habits by: When you're at parties, clubs, or sporting events and want to be heard, speak at full volume without screaming. Anytime you speak, use a reasonable volume, not a loud one. Watch your articulation while speaking in order to prevent tension – speak with no tension in the jaw or tongue. When talking on the telephone, apply your knowledge of breathing. Don't talk so long that your voice hurts from lack of breath support.
You are What You Eat
It's not a problem for everyone, but being too lean may lead to problems with stamina while singing and sustaining higher pitches. To improve your stamina, make sure you're giving your body the nourishment it needs. Many singers wait until late in the day to eat, but your body needs something to get it started. Try to get yourself into a routine where you eat something early in the day so you don't find yourself snacking late at night because your body feels hungry.
Keep Yourself Properly Hydrated
The human body is composed of 50% to 60% water. Your lungs depend on water to keep the tissue moving easily. Muscle tissue contains up to 75% water. So keeping your body well hydrated helps your singing voice work better.
Some people get bored just drinking water. You can drink other liquids to keep yourself hydrated, but remember that drinks that are high in sugar won't help your waistline and caffeine can really dry you out. Since caffeine is a diuretic it makes your body shed any excess water which means that cup of coffee in the morning isn't going to help your voice.
Get Plenty of Shut-Eye
When you don't get enough sleep, your throat tissue has no time to heal. Depriving yourself of sleep only makes your voice feel sluggish. You need to allow yourself to regenerate and recoup during the night. Allow yourself to sleep more for a few nights in a row and see the difference it can make in your singing.
Proper Nourishment is Critical
Always maintain a balanced diet. By following the basic nutritional guidelines, you will eat balanced amounts of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy products, and meat. Within this balanced diet you find proper amounts of protein, carbohydrates and fats. Because singing often requires extra energy, you may want to add some extra protein to your diet to enhance your ability to last through long rehearsals.
Prevention of Sore Throat or Infection
Keeping a few basic remedies on hand can make a huge difference for the times you feel a bit of a tickly coming on. My favorite is a bottle of nasal saline spray, which is just salt and water. By spraying the salt water up your nose, you can wash out germs that are lingering waiting to attack your immune system.
You can also gargle with warm salt water. Adding a few teaspoons of salt to a half cup of warm water and then gargling helps wash away any germs that can lodge in the back of your mouth. Simply mix about a half cup of warm water with a few teaspoons of salt and gargle, washing away germs that are lodged in the back of your mouth. People that get frequent infections around their tonsils find that saltwater is a good friend. When you swish the saltwater around in your mouth, you can stop any painful canker sores in their tracks.
I hope you found this vocal health information helpful. To learn to sing like a star and discover more about maintaining the best posssible vocal health, I recommend checking out the Bristow Voice Method from Per Bristow.