Singing Exercises

duanejudo said:

before i went on stage for open mics...

i used to drink hot water to relax my throat...
and stood away from oily foods...(any foods for that matter)
lose anything cold to drink or eat...

much more...idk..

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Too much of any temperature will ruin your voice temporarily. A good throat-clearer is a few DROPS of lemon juice or two or three sips of black coffee to clear the phlegm; but alot of cold or hot will dilate/contract the vocal cords and cause issues. I always make sure not to eat at least an hour before the performance.

GrumpyCoyote said:

I usually just smoke a couple of cigars the night before and knock back few scotches into the wee hours.

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I think Tom Waits followed the same strict regimen and it has worked well for him!

Thanks for all the tips! Honey, although sweet, has an entirely different pH from sugar. It is neutral, not acidic. Lemon also as an alkaline pH. "www.killcancercells.com" has very interesting stuff about body pH and health. Whether it affects vocal chords I don't know, but I no keep sugar sugar in the house.

menthol cough drops tho...yesterday I must have REALLY dried out my vocal chords. Honey and lemon from now on! A professional singer told me drink pineapple juice before singing to clear the vocal chords without "stripping" them of all mucus which isn't good for them. (I forget whether it was vinegar or what that he said would strip the mucus off.)

Let the singing commence!

tklansek said:

another thing, to get rid of the phlegm and whatnot on your chords, stick your tongue out and vibrate it while humming a pitch. do it to your favorite song or w/e. your tongue should vibrate which will in turn vibrate all around your vocal chords, loosening up all the junk

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This reminds me a bit of a flute exercise called sing play that I used to do to clear up my sound when it was airy. It completely cleared my throat. What I did was play like I normally would on the flute, but sing, or more like hum a low tone along with it.

I suppose the vibration part takes the place of the air stream in the throat for this exercise.