Proper Voice Care

[Maynz]

That's all pretty interesting in all honesty. How did you conduct that experiment? What a clever idea....

[Margo]

Just wondering... Are these for always, or when sick? (Sorry, if it's totally obvious, or was already mentioned @.@)

[Azure]

This is for allways I believe, if you don't do any warm up and you do something strenious you can damage your voice.

[NG]

Yes, this is for all the time (it's really hard to follow all the rules, trust me. >.<)

[Yoda117]

Yep, tough to follow all those rules, but you've gotta do your best

As for the milk and nut experiment. Dairy is not your friend when it comes to anything vocal related. Dairy products coat your throat just like they do a glass, and it makes life a lot harder on the VA. Try to have moderate amounts of dairy products, and to avoid them alltogether 4-6 hours before recording.

That said, you are the only one who knows your own body, you know how it reacts to things, so you have to keep that in mind when you have some milk with your cereal... if it takes longer for the dairy to get out of your system (aka, stop coating your throat), then you need to be aware of it

[caat]

Yes, you should have to pee all the time.

But if you did that, how would you ever get your lines done? XD

I'll keep that part about the milk drinks in mind for future recordings though =3

[Jiffy]

This is some good info, but unfortunatly...I REALLY love milk...

Many times, if your voice isn't taken care of properly, it causes calluses and tumors inside the larynx.

I was also wondering, how could you tell if you had calluses or tumors? That seems pretty serious.

[Lone Peanut]

Having been in theatre a few years there area a couple of things I'd like to add, alcohol is also bad and I know caffeine has been mentioned but to those brits here that is both tea and coffee. Caffeine and alcohol dehydrate. Water with a bit of lemon juice is (from what I heard) best though have not researched the lemon bit.

Also try to avoid dusty areas and building sites etc. without a face mask/filter as this aggravates the vocal chords and lungs.

Here's a tip for singing (from a friend who has had operatic training), take or leave, after the vocal warm up breath in deeply to expand the chest area and then breath out using the stomach only keeping the chest expanded. This helps train the diaghram (muscle at the bottom of the lungs that you breath with) to be in more control than the chest muscles and over time should allow better overall control in breathing giving a more even performance.

Take regular breaks, same as everything, you need refreshing as your vocal chords do

...oh yes and a thing on temperature, reason cold = bad (drinks, room temp etc.) cold things contract, become more tense. Cold tense elastic band pulled quickly snaps easier than warm relaxed elastic band. Your vocal chords as with other muscles react better with warm hence no cold water if possible and cold milk with nutty chocolates really bad.

[Azure]

Milk coats the throat so it stops it getting properly hydrated. Some drinks so it too, Monica Rial told me they sometimes drink Sprite near the end of a long session. It coats up the throat ( not as badly as milk) so it means she could get soem extra use out her voice. She also told me you can use milk to make sick sounds though >3

[Yoda117]

all respect to Ms. Rial, but that's not a good practice IME.

I've never been in a booth and been offered a nice bottle of Sprite by a producer, client, engineer, or casting rep. Carbonated drinks aren't good for the voice, caffiene is worse, and dairy is just a killer.

Room temp water is the best, or if you must have something sweet, decaffinated tea with just a touch of honey (although many people in musical theatre also swear by using slightly warm water with lemon).

For me, water at room temp. It was good enough for Thurl Ravenscroft, and it's good enough for me