How To Sing Tired… When To Cancel Vocal Performance [UPDATED 2021]
![How To Sing Tired... When To Cancel Vocal Performance [Updated 2021] &Raquo; Manyawning](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bBslK_-abw0/ULOwmhFzDsI/AAAAAAAAAJg/mx0aobBoqvM/s1600/Man+Yawning.jpg "How To Sing Tired... When To Cancel Vocal Performance [Updated 2021] 1")
How physical exhaustion can hurt your voice:
7 wise things to do when singing tired:
- DRINK UP!
Take extra measures to be well-hydrated. Dehydration of your vocal tissues can put the nail in the coffin as far as your voice is concerned. Steaming your throat in a hot shower is a great idea because it gets water into your throat tissues immediately. Water at your performance is, too… maybe with either a little pineapple juice or cayenne-pepper-plus-lemon-juice added to keep throat tissues lubricated. Herbal tea with honey is fine, but stay away from black and green tea (which are dehydrating).
- EAT UP!
Raise your immediate energy level: Before your performance eat something simple, easily digested and full of nutrition…especially protien. Maybe add a good vitamin/mineral supplement. But don’t use sugar to do this! I once ate waaaay too many M&Ms at a recording session and got all my tracks too fast to sing later. Trust me… if you try to pump your tired self up with surgery snacks you’ll get hyper and then crash. Oh, and chocolate can create phlegm your voice will have to deal with. Hold the chocolate celebration til after your performance.
- DON’T NUMB YOURSELF!
Alcohol or other mood-altering drugs are really bad ways to try and get through. They can numb your alertness and can mask pushing, straining and dehydration of your voice. You won’t sound nearly as well as you think you do, and your voice will suffer the consequences.
- WARMUP and COOL DOWN!
Make sure to use mindful, well-executed vocal exercises to warmup. It’s extremely important to know how to ‘pull’ instead of ‘push’ your voice as you sound it. In fact, consider doing a warmup with your vocal coach by phone or webcam before your performance. Then when your show is over, do a short series of gentle vocal exercises such as staccato scales, lip bubbles, tongue trills or sirens especially in your head voice, to cool your voice down. Cool-down exercises can help your voice recover a lot faster.
- SUPPORT YOUR VOICE!
It doesn’t work to ‘just relax and sing’. Something has to give. Something has to provide power. For your voice that should come from the pelvic floor, which along with good posture will help give your voice the balance of breath support and control. Even (and especially) when you don’t feel like it, you must make your big muscles work! They won’t like it, but the intricate instrument of your voice sure will.
- DON’T SLUMP!
While singing, you must keep yourself flexibly tall… avoid like the plague the typical slumped posture of tiredness that will sabotage your breath control. Don’t freeze to conserve energy either, remember – the voice wants access to movement.
- USE CORRECT TECHNIQUE!
Bad technique plus singing tired is a recipe for vocal disaster. The use of correct vocal technique for breathing, keeping an open throat and communicating authentically becomes all the more necessary when you’re tired. And yes… all this takes MORE energy!
If you sing tired but wisely:
- You should notice that after your performance your vocal cords don’t feel strained at all. In fact, you should be able to sing even better at the end of your performance than at the beginning.
- You should feel even more physical (instead of vocal) exhaustion… and you’ll probably be hungry!
- Your voice should feel and sound great the next day, instead of trashed.
Here’s when you should cancel your performance:
- You will guard.
You may start the ‘guarded stance’ habit. This is a fear-induced inward crunch that tries too hard and can become a spiral downward to terrible vocal technique and real vocal dysfunction.
- You will push.
You will end up pushing too much breath through your cords to get them to work, you will experience less vocal ability and problems with notes and passages you can usually easily accomplish.
- Your voice will suffer.
I’ve done this wrong. I’ve sung when too exhausted and have set my voice back as much as three weeks. You see artists in the news all the time with vocal damage that started with vocal fatigue which I believe for busy artists is linked to physical fatigue. I don’t take chances anymore.
– Either be able to summon the energy needed to be capable of supporting your voice and applying good vocal technique,
- Need a good vocal warmup? Contact me and book a lesson; I’d love to help you!
- Want more vocal health tips? Sign up free and get 5 pages of them.
Originally Published on https://www.judyrodman.com/
