Take Care of Your Body and Your Instrument- It May Be Allergies or a Cold or Stress

Take care of your body, it is your instrument as a singer!  

As the spring rapidly creeps in, so too do the problems of allergies (thank you budding trees and flowers) and colds (thank you germs and fluctuating temperatures).  It is so important to take care of your body as a singer at the first sign of a sniffle. You can stop it from getting worse with some preventive measures.


It may be allergies.  If you are prone to spring allergies due to the budding trees, flowers, and fresh cut grass, start taking your allergy medicine. Wash your hair before you go to bed or regularly change your pillowcases so you don't sleep in the allergens.  

It could also be the start of a cold.  If it has been going on for a few days, it may have started as allergies and gone to a cold.  Go to bed earlier and drink some more O.J.  

You may be feeling some stress in the full swing of school, rehearsals, and start of spring sports! Stop and pay attention!  The best thing you can do is respond to what your body is telling you! What are some specifics?

10 Top Things to Take Care of Yourself and Your Singing Voice 

1.       Good Hygiene- Wash your hands and don't touch your face

2.       Drink 8-10 glasses of water (or non-caffeinated beverage) a day

3.      SLEEP  at least 8 hours every night!

4.       Exercise 3-5 times a week to keep up your immune system 

5.       Reduce Medicines - Use nasal saline spray first, medicines last, but take allergy medicines

6.       Sing Well - good posture, breath support, and sing in correct range       

7.       Speak Well - Support your speech as if you are singing, minimize talking, don’t

          yell over loud noise!

8.       Practice Everything in Moderation (Singing and Speaking and Activity Level)

9.       Pay attention to your body signals.  If it doesn't feel good, don't do it!  

10.   Find time for a little relaxation and de-stressing time!

     Your body knows what it is saying.  If you take care of it and listen to it, you can make it through the allergies and stress and not get sick thus preserving your wonderful singing voice!  Keep singing! 

Musical Performance Anxiety and How to Overcome it!

Musical Performance Anxiety and How to Overcome it! Accomplish that Goal.  

Performance Anxiety:  It is a high emotion this time of year as many of us prepare for performances in schools for musical theater productions and auditions.  Maybe you have never been the lead role before or are nervous about that duet you have.  Maybe you have an audition coming up for a solo in the spring concert or a voice competition.  You or your student is very nervous about the upcoming performance.  Memory lapses are happening, technique is suffering, music and the enjoyment of it stops.  How do you deal with this? How can you control it and turn anxiety into performance excitement?

Try to identify what is the problem. 

What happens to you physically, emotionally, and mentally?  Take the time to recognize when performance anxiety really hits you. What happens to your body? What is your brain saying to you?  Then talk it through with your voice teacher.

Physical:  Do you get butterflies or actually feel like you are going to faint? Take a deep breath and relax. Work backwards a little bit first.  When does it happen? Only at the actual performance or even when you are just thinking about a lesson?  Are you nervous about not knowing all of the notes and words or is it more than that?

Emotionally:  How do you feel emotionally?  Are you scared?  Are you excited with a little anxiety?   Get a feeling on what your emotions really are.

Mentally: Are you psyching yourself out even though you are prepared?  Do you fear what you can do is not good enough? Think about how you can improve your mental state and empower yourself with positive thought.

In preparation, learn the piece thoroughly.  Know the notes, rhythms, words, meaning of the text.  Just learn it without the concept of performing it.  If you get worked up for the first couple of days, walk away and come back.  Identify what frustrated you and get help from your teacher.  The second week if you get worked up, force yourself to ‘get back on the horse’ and keep going.  Your teacher can help you with this.  Have patience with yourself.

Once you know the nuts and bolts of the piece, put yourself into the character of the song.  Paint the picture of the scene you are describing in your head or imagine you are truly telling your love of your commitment.  Connect to the meaning of the piece and put yourself in the scene you create.  Try to forget that anyone else is out there listening.  You are that person. The more you connect with the text, the more your body and your mind may just remember what to do and you create beautiful music.

If it is not working, to calm you down, explore yoga poses and deep breathing.  Center yourself with a few yoga poses such as Tree Pose and Mediation Pose.  Visit a blog on yoga. 

Pull together your resources above and identify if your anxiety is more physical, emotional, or mental and approach it from that angle.  Regroup and give it a try.  YOU GOT THIS!!