Healthy Tips for Every Night Singing
I sing and perform almost every night and it took me a few years how to learn how to do it without physically hurting my chords, keeping my stamina up while really connecting to the crowd. One thing I try to do a lot now is sing softly. Granted this isn’t for all parts of all songs but it has helped me hit higher notes and keeps my larynx relaxed through out the night. To do this when I am in front of a crowd, I literally imagine I am singing in my bedroom alone and this has helped me not to over strain my vocal chords because of excitement. It helps me relax, connect with the song and the surroundings. Sometimes I will pause in certain areas of a song. When I am quiet, the crowd is usually more intently listening. Then I can really capture them. It is like fishing, If you go into the lake rocking your boat with the motor running full blast it scares all the fishes away. The crowd is the same way. If I pause on certain parts or quiet the song down their curiosity and ears open up more. Than I can really hit them. I also sing better when I look people in the eyes while I am singing. I imagine myself singing to them not at them and not to myself. This helps my pitch and connection with the audience. Granted there are times when loose myself in my music and am just focused in my sound bubble and usually end up looking at the guitar. But that not all the time.
Now those are some performance tricks. I now want to get into some of the health and stamina tips I have learned. As a singer, I absolutely don’t drink anything carbonated before performing. Carbonated drinks will make me sporadically burp for a couple hours after I drink them. Honestly, I hate it when I have to burp and I am in the middle of a chorus with an audience watching me. I have been trying to stay away from dairy to keep my sinuses clear. Having tissues to nearby Is very beneficial. Anything blocking my sinuses and hampering my air intake during a performance will make me reach for higher notes instead of blending into my head voice. This in cause will raise my larynx, and once my larynx muscle is used too much, my voice is out and takes a couple days to recoup.
I do singing warm ups for 15 minutes every day. I highly recommend this. I have noticed that when I go on a vacation for a week and I don’t do the exercises, when I come back and jump into performing my voice is out. Out of tune, out of blending etc. And it take two nights or so to get it where it should be. So now when I go on vacation, I do the best I can to do 15 minute warm ups every day. I recommend the speech level singing warm ups by Seth Riggs. I just put them on my phone and warm up in a private area.
I work late nights usually, and sometimes I take a nap before I perform. Well I have noticed that it takes about 2 1/2 hours before my voice is ready after I awake. I used to wake and go but it just doesn’t work. With that said there is a lot to say about SLEEP. Sleep helps restore vocal chords. When I don’t get enough sleep on a nightly basis my voice will suffer and my larynx will reach to hit notes. And again, as I said before, once my lyrnix goes out, It takes a couple day to heal. So I suggest a good nights sleep for a better vocal performance. I usually don’t perform longer than three hours a days. I used to play six hours or so but, It is too physically damaging. I have really hurt my guitar hands and vocals from over performing. So I want to pass this down. Don’t over do yourself physically. You can really hurt your body over performing. I had to learn the hard way. So now, I try to attend the quality school rather quantity school. This keeps me excited and more focused when I perform. So there are my singing tips I have learned over the past few years by singing nightly.
I was inspired to write this blog this morning by listening to this podcast – Sound and Substance. Please check it out if your an independent artist or producer, songwriter. He mentioned how much blogging everyday is a great practice to learn more about yourself and share, connect and help others. I hope I could have help you in some little way and please leave a comment if you have any other singing tips.
Things to check out: