IN PRACTICE
Get your voice back in shape If you’ve been on an extended hiatus from rehearsal and performing, you may not be able to jump right back into your usual vocal workout right away. If your voice is getting fatigued easily, try starting with five to ten minutes of vocal exercises four to seven days per week. If you tolerate this amount well, add five minutes per day, including repertoire, until you’re back to your usual routine, or practice five to ten minutes at a time two to three times per day.
Never had a vocal exercise routine before? Tis might be a good time to seek training with a singing teacher. Many are now teaching online. Make sure to look for a teacher who has experience teaching in your singing style. Remember, if you’re experiencing any of the symptoms above and they don’t resolve within two weeks, get help from a vocal health team.
Here are some additional general guidelines for approaching your vocal exercise routine:
Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTE) Partially blocking the airflow at some location in the vocal tract helps create back-pressure on the top side of the vocal folds, which helps the vocal folds close with less muscular effort and collide with less force (Kapsner- Smith et al, 2015; Titze & Verdolini Abbott, 2012). Start your practice with SOVT sounds: lip trills, humming, or singing through a straw. Practicing repertoire on these sounds is a great way to learn new music.
Structure your exercise routine Start in a comfortable middle range and gradually expand to pitch extremes. Pitch glides are beneficial for increasing vocal flexibility and control. Include both sustained exercises as well as exercises with moving notes. Stepwise motion and downward pitch contour are generally easier to do than large leaps. Start with scales and progress to arpeggios, increasing the complexity of the pitch pattern as your skills increase. Include a variety of vowels, consonants, and combinations (syllables, words).
Make sure you’re using your speaking voice in a healthy way Record yourself speaking and listen to the recording. Does your voice sound gravelly? Creaky? Strained? Hoarse? Raspy? All of these are reasons to seek the care of a vocal health team. You may need voice therapy to work on speaking, too.
Optimize your voice use in the virtual world Warm up your voice before meetings (SOVT exercises work well). We tend to speak louder on the phone or in video meetings—consider investing in a quality external microphone, headphones/earbuds, or headset and try facing a wall or corner for optimal acoustics. If you’re leading a lot of meetings and/or teaching online, schedule breaks between meetings to rest or do a few recovery exercises.
Speaking/singing with masks Te masks that protect us from COVID present significant communication challenges because they muffle our voices and eliminate the visual input we rely on when speaking unmasked. Make sure your mask fits your face well (including close, contoured fit over the bridge of the nose). Tis is not only important for infection prevention, but also to help avoid creating tension in the jaw and other articulators to compensate for a poorly fitting mask. If your speaking partner has trouble hearing you, don’t just speak louder—try speaking more slowly, articulating more, and using gestures and inflection. If you are in a setting where you wear a mask for long periods of time, hydration can also be challenging.
Two years of global pandemic have been hard in so many ways, impacting our financial, professional, social, emotional, and spiritual health. Te pandemic has also had a significant impact on the health of our voices. However, this doesn’t mean you have to resign yourself to a deteriorating instrument. By practicing good vocal habits, ensuring your voice gets a good balance of exercise and rest, and seeking evaluation and treatment from a skilled vocal health team for problems lasting more than two weeks, you can revive and maintain your best vocal self.
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