Most people think that singers with good voices are born with them. Yes, although some people have better voices than others, most, if not all good singers undergo voice training to improve their voices. However, most of the training is done through specific vocal exercises to achieve certain effects such as singing powerfully, getting vibrato in your voice or even expanding your vocal range and singing higher notes. Unfortunately, this article cannot do that as the exercises must be physically demonstrated. So instead of learning how to get a good voice, this article will show you how to protect your voice because your voice quality can be destroyed by bad habits.
Your voice is produced by a delicate mechanism when used properly, it rarely gives you any problem. So take good care of your precious voice and it will serve you well for your lifetime.
How To Maintain And Preserve Your Voice
The first golden rule to having a good voice is not to take up smoking and if you are a smoker, quit smoking before the habit destroys your singing voice further.
The thousands of irritants and chemicals in cigarettes damage your voice and will certainly shorten your singing career unless you are a rock star and need to have a raspy and coarse voice.
Always stay hydrated, so you need to stay away from caffeine, alcohol and other substance that dehydrates you. The vocal folds must be hydrated at all times to stay healthy. So drink plenty of drink as much water everyday to keep them hydrated.
If you are on medication, check with your doctor or pharmacist whether the medicine you are taking is dehydrating. As a general guide, your body is well hydrated when your urine is clear.
Everyone's voice has its own limitations. So get to know yours. Talking or singing is damaging to your vocal cords, this is sheer common sense, but many singers still abuse their voice this way. So don't shout. Some people think that to sing powerfully, they have to shout. You don't have to. You can develop a powerful voice with the correct vocal exercises without having to shout. Your vocal cords collide with each other more than a million times everyday when you produce a sound and so, any extra harsh activities like shouting puts further strain on the already overused vocal cords.
When recovering from a coarse voice like say, from a sore throat, avoid any unnecessary conversations or phone calls to let your voice fully recover. Otherwise your recovery will be slower and even then small permanent damage may occur.
You need to know that your vocal cords are muscles and therefore like any muscles, they need a thorough warm up before it can perform at its best when you are singing. By the same token, they need to be cooled down with vocal exercises after your performances. Just because you get away without warming up or cooling down now does not guarantee that you will not damage your voice in the future.
Next on the list is to avoid late night eating because this may end up with your stomach acid spilling into your larynx when you lie down to sleep and causing a hoarse voice and over over the long term, permanent voice damage.
These are just some of the many things that you should not do to preserve and maintain your vocal producing organs so that you can have a good singing voice.
