Preparing our voices for singing is as important as warming up before exercising. When you sing without having prepared your voice before, you are putting your vocal cords at risk, and as a consequence, you may end up with a sore throat or even nodules on your vocal cords. As singers, we must avoid this at all costs, as our voice is our instrument. With the experience I have as a singer, I have learned that simple things such as good hydration, breathing exercises, and a daily vocalization session can help you maintain a healthy voice and be prepared when it’s time to sing.
First, you should drink a glass of natural water half an hour before starting your breathing exercises. This is to avoid a dry throat, which contributes to the famous “gallitos” or cracked notes. You may be wondering how I discovered this. Well, before I started the glass of water, I always wondered why I felt too much coughing when I vocalized. One of my uncles, who is also a singer, advised me to drink a glass of plain water half an hour before singing, and the very next day I put it into practice. Since I was very attentive, I noticed the improvement right away. I didn’t feel the urge to cough, and even a feeling of relief in my throat was present, so since that day, before starting to warm up my voice, I always drink a glass of natural water.
Now, breathing exercises will help you relax and prepare your face, throat, and diaphragm for successful vocalization. When you feel ready to begin the breathing exercises after drinking the glass of water, find a quiet place and a timer. There are guided breathing exercise videos on YouTube, but I’ll leave you with my little daily breathing exercise routine here.
1. Set your timer for 30 seconds. Take a deep breath and make a small hole in your mouth, which is where the air will come out. It should feel like you are pushing for air to come out. This is to increase your air capacity.
2. Set your timer for 1 minute. Cover only one nostril and inhale and exhale only through your nose. After one minute, start the timer again and do the same procedure with the other nostril. At the end, you will notice that your nostrils have cleared.
3. Inhale deeply, hold for 10 seconds, and exhale.Try to increase the seconds little by little.
Do this short routine about three times, and you will be ready for the next step, the vocalization.
Now that we have finished the breathing exercises, we are ready to start vocalizing. Having a good vocalization session will help you prepare to hit those high notes that you struggle to hit, as well as those that are too low. Practicing vocalization also helps you perfect your chest voice, your mixed voice, your head voice, and so on. All of us as singers should practice this to avoid throat injuries and, obviously, to improve our voices and make them sound really good when singing. Here, I will leave you a video of one of my favorite vocalizations, since it is complete and it is just the right thing to do.
Finally, carrying out these practices will help you maintain a healthy voice, and if you are consistent, you will notice improvement as the days go by. Now you tell me, what do you do to keep your voice healthy?
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