How to Protect Your Voice

So, where do we start? Every good voice coach will tell you that before any drills or techniques should be considered you must make sure you know how to behave with your voice mechanism. First, let's not do it any worse then, let's try to make it better.

Who needs Vocal Hygiene? EVERYONE does!

There are a couple of ways to approach Voice hygiene teaching...One of them, which I like the most is the:

"10 commandments":

1.Do not shout ! No !

2.Do not whisper ! No !

3.Do not eat salty/hot/spicy food ! No !

4.Do not drink Alcoholic beverages ! No !

5.Do not talk much over the phone ! No !

6.Do not sing - unless you have to ! No !

7.Do not smoke ! No !

8.Do not clear your throat ! No !

9. Chew chewing-gum, candy (could be sugar free). Yes!

10. Drink (8 glasses per day) water, Juice, etc... Yes!

"Yeah...! Right...I almost can hear you say....Although, undeniably truth, Most people will have some problems obeying these rules in full! Well, I am aware of that...But, then again, this is the way your vocal mechanism will be working at his best! Each of these rules has its own virtue in protecting your voice. I have observed numerous times where as only by implementing these rules as a daily routine made such a great change with my patient's voice.

If you are performing (singer, actor, professor, teacher, presenter, reporter...etc) you will have 3 more commandments on top of these to obey the night before your performance:

11. Sleep well for 8 hours at least. Yes!

12. Sleep high on 2-3 pillows. Yes!

13. Stop eating 3 hours BEFORE bed-time! No!