We all know that in order to have a good singing voice, you must have good professional coaching and practice with a myriad of vocal exercises to achieve the voice and singing techniques of a good singer. However, the development of your singing voice will not assure you of being a good singer if you do not take care and protect your voice and your voice production mechanism.

Unfortunately many aspiring singers think that if they are not performing regularly they do not need to take care of their vocal health. If you want to be a good singer, then you have the duty of care to protect and improve your singing voice. If you don’t do that, sooner or later your voice will deteriorate and you may even sustain vocal damages which sometimes can be permanent.

Your voice tone is created when air flows through the cleft created by your vocal cords and vibrates it. To create a clear sound, your vocal folds need to come together neatly to vibrate healthily. If the membranes and surrounding tissues are swollen or damaged, then the sound produced will be hoarse and unclear. Although the damaging effects of infrequent hoarseness are not usually permanent, it is certainly is a clear sign of vocal abuse and if left unattended to may cause permanent damages to your vocal cords.

So how do you protect your singing voice to prevent hoarseness and damages? Here are some guides you may want to adhere to.

First and foremost, and this is being ignored by many singers is to warm up and cool down your voice before and after singing. There are numerous vocal exercises in which you can do this effectively. Any good singing teacher will insist that you must do this.

Warming up will render your vocal folds more flexible, pliable and relaxes your singing muscles such as your diaphragm and of course, helps to prevent injuries to your voice. Cooling down after singing will take away the tension from your singing muscles and restore your vocal cords to its original relaxed state as tension in your voice can last a long time and can take its toll on your vocal folds.

Next, be aware that vocal hydration is very important to a singer and therefore it is crucial to have your vocal folds properly lubricated. So drink lots of room temperature water daily and before and after singing. Drinking hot or cold water may shock your vocal cord because cold water tenses it up and hot water relaxes it too much or may even scald it.

One common mistake many singers do is to try to sing notes that are beyond their vocal capability such as too high or too low. If you want to sing higher or lower notes, gradually train your voice to be there with the right vocal exercises. By doing sudden voice gymnastics, you can damage your vocal folds such as developing lumps and nodules on it.

The next tip may be sheer common sense, yet many people are unaware that they are abusing their voice by talking loudly over noises, shouting, screaming, talking too much or simply whispering too much. All of these things are very stressful to your voice and can cause vocal fatigue.

So if you want to be a good singer, not only must you develop your singing voice in a proper way, you must also take care and protect it to keep it brilliant and agile and away from vocal damages.

Author Bio: Chris Chew is a music consultant and the resident author at Sing better singing lesson and How to sing professionally

Category: Entertainment
Keywords: vocal cords, vocal folds, singing voice, high notes, low notes, protect, take care