Aubrey Parsons - Taking care of your voice
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Taking Care Of Your Voice

Vocal Techniques

Written by Aubrey Parsons

The following article appeared in the March 2008 edition of Performing musician:

If you don't routinely warm your voice up before a gig, you're just asking for trouble. We explain how your voice actually works and pass on some basic techniques for looking after number one.

Most singers are sinners. Many singers commit the crime of self-abuse every time they open their mouth, not because of the tone that comes out, but because of the damage they do to their vocal cords due to lack of training, not looking after their voice, and worst of all, not bothering to warm up. I've been singing for 30 years, but it was only after I turned professional five years ago that the penny dropped that I needed to look after my most important asset — my voice — because without it I couldn't pay the mortgage. A series of colds and chest infections led to me cancelling gigs, thus losing money, and it was only after I visited an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist and paid for some singing lessons that I realised the damage I could have done to my voice. I was lucky, because I hadn't caused any serious damage, and I was amazed to hear the difference in my voice with just a few singing lessons. I don't expect you all to rush for the Yellow Pages and sign up with a teacher, but following some of the simple pointers in this article could mean the difference between ruining your voice forever and a long and prosperous singing career.

Vocal health

Air from the lungs is pushed up the trachea to the vocal cords when you exhale, vibrating them to create a tone, which is amplified and modified as it travels through cavities above. Air from the lungs is pushed up the trachea to the vocal cords when you exhale, vibrating them to create a tone, which is amplified and modified as it travels through cavities above. The voice box (larynx) is a collection of muscles, cartilages and ligaments that function as a single unit, and is located at the top of your windpipe (trachea). Vocal tones are created by vocal cord vibration and resonance. When you exhale air from your lungs, the sudden release of air pushes your cords together and outward thousands of times per second, creating a tone. That tone is then amplified and modified as it travels through the cavities above the vocal cords before leaving your throat, nasal passages and mouth. Everybody has a unique vocal quality thanks to the interconnected cavities in your mouth and nasal areas. These spaces augment sound waves of certain frequencies and at the same time dampen others. The whole process is called resonance. The vocal cord is a muscle and it needs to be warmed up, just like athletes warm up their bodies before vigorous exercise. Going hell for leather on a cold vocal cord (and, let's face it, we've all done it) can cause a build-up of scar tissue that leads to vocal nodules or polyps. Once these have formed, resting the voice for a long period of time or surgery is the only way to remove them. A vocal fold nodule reduces or obstructs the ability of the vocal folds to create the rapid changes in air pressure that generate human speech. Symptoms include hoarseness of speech, painful speech production, and intermittent vocal breaks and reduced vocal range. A number of high-profile singers have been down this road, including Rod Stewart, Robert Plant and Freddy Mercury. Whitney Houston developed polyps on her Bodyguard tour 1993-1994. She was unable to rest her voice due to the touring schedule, and although she still sings, her voice has taken on a deeper, more hoarse tone than before. Warming up

During her Bodyguard tour 1993-94, Whitney Houston developed vocal polyps, which have left her with a deeper and more hoarse tone. During her Bodyguard tour 1993-94, Whitney Houston developed vocal polyps, which have left her with a deeper and more hoarse tone. Dave Lee Roth, Stevie Wonder, Pavarotti, Kelly Jones and Madonna all have one thing in common: along with nearly all other high-profile singers, they warm their voices up before performing. There seems to be some stigma attached to warm-ups in the music industry; people feel foolish running through scales because it's not quite rock & roll. The fact is by not warming up your voice you will lose it or damage it forever. A minimum of 10-15 minutes working your way through scales will improve your voice and empower you with greater singing stamina. It's no use thinking that your voice will warm up halfway through the set; without warming up, the damage has already been done the moment you start singing. To prevent damaging your voice, you need to find a quiet spot (or even in the car on the way to the gig) and run through a warm-up exercise like the one shown below. Watch your breathing. When you sing, you need to pull the air into the pit of your stomach. Place your hand on your tummy just below your solar plexus and breathe in. You need to feel your tummy pushing out against your hand as you breathe in. This is the point where you need to sing from. It's called your 'diaphragm'. Run through simple scales, gently at first. You don't need an instrument to get your key (although it helps), just make sure that you feel comfortable with the scales you sing. Start with a simple eight-note scale within one octave. Try to ensure that each note is as loud and as clear as the last. Use a simple 'mum mum mum' to start with. Now jump up one note and start the scale again, forwards and backwards. Keep going, jumping up one note at a time, but don't strain your voice trying to hit the high notes. Once you get to a comfortable pitch, do the whole thing backwards. Now repeat the exercise with the following: 'guh guh guh' 'gee gee gee' 'koo koo koo' 'ohh ohh ohh' 'ahh ahh ahh' 'la la la' 'me me me' When hitting the higher notes, you might find your voice kicks into falsetto. This is known as 'Head voice', and the sound feels like it is travelling out of the back of your head. Lower tones are called 'Chest voice' and feel like they are travelling directly out of your mouth, and a blend of the two is known as 'Middle voice'. None of these exercises should be forced in any way; the idea is to give the vocal cords a gentle workout using various tones and speech segments that the voice will use when singing for real. It's not rocket science and it will make all the difference to your stamina and performance. And most of all, warm-ups will save your voice for the long term.

Professional training

Gravelly voiced rock singer Rod Stewart underwent surgery to remove a growth from his throat in 2000, and has had to work hard to get his voice back on track. Gravelly voiced rock singer Rod Stewart underwent surgery to remove a growth from his throat in 2000, and has had to work hard to get his voice back on track.
I cannot stress how much of a benefit it is to even the most seasoned of singers to pay for a session with a singing coach. I managed to increase my vocal range by almost half an octave after just two sessions with a professional tutor. Check out your local Yellow Pages or search the Internet to find a teacher near you. When you speak to them, explain what styles of music you perform and ask them if they think they can help you improve your voice. Some teachers work in specific areas, such as musicals or opera, but even an opera teacher can bring a whole new world of sound to a heavy rock singer — Justin Hawkins is a classic example. A good singing coach will record each session with you onto Minidisc or CD, so you can take the lesson away with you and use the exercises over and over again. Lifestyle effects

Warm-ups are not the only thing that will help your singing. Looking after your body will ensure your vocal cords get the attention they need. Late nights, too much booze, spicy food, smoking, caffeine drinks and hotel air conditioning are all synonymous with the rock & roll lifestyle — and they are all killers for the vocal cords! Try to get a good eight hours sleep every night. If, like me, you have kids who wake you up at the crack of dawn every day, try to find some time in the day before a gig to get a good rest or catnap. It's amazing how quickly your voice will lose its energy when you are tired. There are certain drinks you should avoid before a heavy gig. Anything alcoholic will dry you out. If your voice isn't on form, don't be tempted to drink Rum & Black or any other so-called miracle spirit to coat your vocal cords. It will only work for around five minutes and the alcohol will cause inflammation. The same goes for citrus drinks or even slices of lemon or lime. Citrus acid actually strips the vocal cords of their natural lubricating mucous, whilst both orange juice and milk can cause a build-up of unwanted mucous, which will hinder a performance. Too much unwanted mucous will cause you to constantly clear your throat, which is a shortcut to the land of vocal cord desiccation. Spicy food can irritate the vocal cords, so save the curry until after the gig. It's also best to avoid eating for a few hours before a gig. Singing on a full stomach is uncomfortable and will hinder your breathing. Dave Lee Roth used to avoid eating for around nine hours before a gig, but this is not recommended, as it affected his blood sugar levels to such an extent that he would collapse off stage and have to be revived with a drip! It goes without saying that smoking affects your voice. The action of warm smoke passing over your vocal cords dries them out and affects the tonal quality of your voice. Singing in this condition will cause long-term damage. Since the smoking ban came into effect, I have noticed my singing stamina has increased significantly. Before the ban, my voice would sometimes struggle at the end of a two-hour performance if I was in a smoky atmosphere; now my vocal cords do not suffer the desiccating effect of passive smoking. I have been a smoker in the past and the difference to my voice after giving up for just a few weeks was amazing. Stamina increased, tonal quality cleared and I found I had more money at the end of the night for a pint and a curry! It is recommended by some experts that we all drink around eight glasses of water every day. I tend to drink around 10 pints of water, starting when I wake in the morning. It sounds like a lot, but keeping your vocal cords hydrated is one of the most important factors of singing and speaking. It's no good pouring two pints of water down your throat five minutes before the gig; the vocal cords won't have time to hydrate before you start singing. Spread the intake throughout the day — tea, coffee, orange juice, lager and so on do not count. Your environment can seriously affect your voice. Dry air caused by air conditioning is a big culprit. If you are driving to a gig, try to avoid using the air con. Sometimes you cannot avoid the dreaded A/C — for example, if you are flying to a gig or staying in a hotel. In those instances, it is really important that you regularly sip water to compensate for the dehydrating effect of dry air. Look after your voice by watching what you drink, watching what you eat, getting some decent sleep and, most importantly, warming up. Be kind to your vocal cords. If you have a cold or sore throat, it is best to avoid singing altogether. If you really must sing, then gently work through some vocal exercises and try to avoid pushing your voice too hard. Look after your voice and it will look after you.

How do they do it?

After Kelly Jones, lead singer for the Stereophonics, suffered vocal problems, the band started to include warm-up sessions before each gig. After Kelly Jones, lead singer for the Stereophonics, suffered vocal problems, the band started to include warm-up sessions before each gig. Internationally acclaimed opera and now pop singer Charlotte Church told us how she warms up before gigs. "Obviously, I had a lot of professional training in my younger days, and I still visit a vocal coach from time to time. It's my most important asset and the last thing I want to do is damage my voice. I have been taught various warm-up techniques and usually spend around 20-30 minutes giving my voice a gentle workout before performances. The technique involves working through scales. I also spend around 5-10 minutes panting like a dog — it sounds weird, I know, but it loosens up the larynx and warms up the vocal cords. It's a bit like passing white noise over your vocal cords, so your full vocal range is exercised. You have to be careful not to do it for too long and you have to be well hydrated to do it, otherwise you can dry the cords out. Then there are the obvious things like getting enough sleep, avoiding alcohol, smoking and spicy food before a gig, but that's just plain common sense!" It's not just opera singers who warm up vocally before gigs. Welsh rockers The Stereophonics also have a routine. I visited the band when they performed at the Cardiff International Arena for a series of three sell-out dates and was surprised to find them backstage in a fully equipped rehearsal room. Bass player and backing singer Richard Jones explains "We started doing this a few years ago. Kelly obviously has to look after his voice and the nature of his vocal range means he can't cane it too much. He had a few vocal problems a few years back and was advised to get some singing lessons, but instead we decided to have a full band warm-up about an hour before each gig. It means me and Kelly can work through the songs we're going to perform that evening. It's not like sitting working through scales; the way we do it means that we're only using the range of vocals that we will use in the gig." I asked if there were any specific routines that the band went through to ensure their vocals were kept in tip-top condition on tour. "Kelly always has a glass of sherry before a gig. It's more part of his religion now than an actual medicinal treatment; he's done it since he was a teenager. He's always got a box of Vocalzones in his pocket, but I think that's just because he's become addicted to them. Obviously, we have some late nights on tour — it's inevitable in our business — but we've learned to realise that late nights are OK, providing you still get at least eight hours sleep before a gig. That means if we don't get to bed 'til 5am, we don't raise our heads 'til way after lunchtime. Sleep is really important for the stamina of your voice and, obviously, your stage presence. The more sleep you have, the better it gets. We also found that the time you have to be really careful with your voice is when we're not actually touring. It's easy to get out of the routine of warming up, and jumping in a rehearsal studio to write songs can be dangerous if you don't warm up. In fact, the longer you go without performing, the more important it becomes to warm up properly."

The vocal exercise mentioned is just a small example. If you do not want to visit a singing teacher, then there are plenty of books and CDs on vocal techniques. I recommend Singing For The Stars by Seth Riggs (ISBN-10: 0-88284-528-4) and Set Your Voice Free by Roger Love (ISBN: 0316441791). Both books include CDs containing warm-up exercises.