How to Get Your Singing Voice Back in Shape

It’s really annoying to lose your voice. It can happen for so many different reasons. It may just be from simple inactivity or it may be something more serious. Either way, what you want to know is how to get your singing voice back in shape in the quickest and easiest way. So that’s what we’re going to do here. I won’t go through the causes; I’ll just cut to the chase and get straight to the solutions for you.

Ready? Let’s go!

Step One – What’s Actually Wrong with Your Voice? 

The first thing we need to discover is what precisely is wrong with your voice. Have you simply lost it and damaged your vocal cords? Or is there something else at play here as well. Let’s go through a simple checklist to see if we can work out what the problem is:

Posture

Are you standing correctly? Stand with your head up and your shoulders down. Imagine that there is a piece of string attached to the back of your head and is slowly lifting you up. It’s untangling your body and just opening everything up. Think of it as a full body stretch where you are getting taller. For more details on how to do this check out this post where I’ve gone into more depth about your posture.

Body Tension 

Do you feel that your body is tense? That’s the first step. However, it’s not enough. There are so many different parts of your body and it’s important that you are ready to sing with your entire being. You’ll very often find that your jaw is clenched when you are trying to get your singing voice back. You are often trying too hard and this is affecting your ability to sing negatively.

Breath Control

This is pretty easy for your to diagnose. Is your chest rising and falling when you are singing or is your stomach? If it’s your chest then you have a problem and we’ll discuss how to fix these things a little later on. Do you feel that your voice is floating on a cloud of air? If so, then you are doing great. If not, then we’ll have to fix it.

Vocal Cord Pain

Are you in pain in your throat? Do you feel that it’s a bit sore to sing? I very much hope that there is nothing serious there such as nodules but you do need to know that if you have a lot of vocal cord pain then you will need to get seen by a specialist, not a voice teacher.

Resonation

When you sing do you feel that your voice is reverberating around your mouth or not? You will feel it vibrating in your mouth if you are doing it properly and that is what you need to feel.

Tiredness 

You cannot start to put your voice back together again if you don’t get enough sleep. Eight hours may be a pipe dream but seriously, try and get as much as you can so you are fully rested when you start building your voice back up.

Step Two – Fixing the Problem

Now that you should know approximately what the problem is, let’s go through the steps to fix them.

Stress and Body Tension

In order to deal with stress in your voice and body, there are a number of different methods you can try. Some of these cost money and others don’t.

Sauna: Get to the sauna and just sit and relax. You’ll be surprised by how well this works. In fact, there is an added benefit, especially if it’s a wet sauna and that is that you will find that your voice will be nice and lubricated to help you sing.

Massage: a massage is a nice way to relax. The only thing to bear in mind is to let yourself go into it. Don’t worry about the stresses of life whilst you are having a massage. It doesn’t really matter what type of massage you get. It could be a real professional one with a masseuse or it could be a friend. There is no need to spend money on the real thing for this. If you want one, be my guest, but definitely don’t feel that it is a must. This is just a suggestion.

Have a Drink: it is true that you shouldn’t be singing when you are drunk and that alcohol can dry out your vocal tract, however, to get started I don’t feel that it’s a bad thing. If you just use it to loosen up a bit then you’ll be fine.

Body parts one by one: This is my favorite one. I mentally go through each every part of my body and relax it. I start with my toes and work my way up. Think about how your toe feels like. You don’t need to touch it, just feel that it’s there with your mind. Now let it relax. Do it for every single body part, your toes, your ankles, your feet, your calves, your thighs, everything. I’m telling you that this will really work!

Deep breathing: Another thing I like to try is to do some deep breathing. You can go through some guided meditation on YouTube or anything else you can find. It really helps.

Breath Control

Let’s get your breath under control. It’s a hugely important part of singing, whatever method or style you are singing in. Whether it be Opera, rock and roll, blues, pop, or anything else. You need to be able to breathe properly in order to give yourself the best chance of success. This is possible only if you are in control of your breath.

There are many different levels of breath control. Some are more expert than others but since we are just trying to get you back on track let’s just try the following:

1. Stand up straight
2. Breath in deeply and ensure only your stomach is going in and out
3. Keep your shoulders in a neutral position and don’t let them go up and down
4. Take a breath in for as long as you can. Ideally you should be able to get to five seconds
5. Hold that breath for 10 seconds
6. Slowly let it out. Try to get it to take at least 20 seconds

Keep repeating this exercise and you will feel an increased strength in your lungs, and you will get better breath control.

Vocal Cord Pain

It may be that when you are singing you are in pain. I’m not talking about pain in your lungs or anywhere else on your body. You may feel that your vocal cords are really scratchy. First of all try and sing through it and see if it goes away. It may be just that you are just very out of practice.

However, it may be that there is something else wrong and that could have caused the problem in the first place. Don’t worry but you definitely have to get it checked out by a doctor. A voice teacher will help you diagnose the problem, but you will need help to get it back to normal, quite possibly with medication. Please go to a specialist, not just your family doctor but a specialist.

Resonation

In order to get your resonation back to where it should be try and hum with your mouth closed (obviously). I want you to really feel what that is like as it is similar to what you want to feel when you are resonating with your voice.

Think about your soft palate and try to raise it when you sing. If you want to learn more about how to do that then check out what I’ve written about it.

Step Three – Extra Tips & Exercises to Help

These are some popular exercises that you can do in order to get your voice back to where you want it to be. Before anything though, and I know that this is perhaps infuriating, try and warm up beforehand.

Sing Every Day 

Make sure you sing every day without fail. Even for just a few minutes. You have to get back to being used to using your voice. This doesn’t happen overnight so it’s important that you try and ensure that you are singing something every single day.

Sing Whatever you Want

At this stage it’s important that you enjoy singing. Therefore sing whatever you feel like. If you love country music but are an opera singer, then sing country. If you are a pop singer but feel like some rock music, then do it. Just make sure that you sing within your range.

Sing Easy Songs

At the start your voice is shot. So don’t push it. Sing within yourself and don’t try anything fancy. We are just at the building stage right now. Don’t go over the top.

Maintain Your Vocal Health 

There are some things that you can eat when you are aren’t singing that play havoc with your system when you want to sing. If you have loads of phlegm then you may be able to sing just fine, but you won’t be able to get the voice out. There are many good foods and many bad foods for singing. You can check out what I’ve written about how to cope with a cold in that post.

Don’t Shout

Believe it or not, I get a lot of teachers asking me how come their voices are always shot. The simple answer in almost all these cases is that they are shouting at their class. Not necessarily because anyone is being naughty, but because they are trying to project their voices but are simply unable to do so. Therefore they resort to shouting.

It’s a common mistake that people make so make sure you aren’t shouting when you are singing. Sing quietly to begin with and be as gentle as you can. When you are more warmed up and ready to take it to the next level, then go ahead and start adding volume. But not in the beginning.

Steaming Your Voice

Using steam is a great way to increase the lubrication of your vocal tract and get you singing with a little less pressure. If you want to find out more about the different types of steam you can use, check out this post. 

Make Sure You Are Drinking 

You need to drink a lot of water to get your vocal cords nice and loose. Everyone needs a different amount so just make sure you are getting lots of it. More than this though, try and ensure that you drink room temperature water and not cold water. Cold water retracts your vocal cords and makes them less supple.

Stay in One Register for the Time Being 

At the moment, as you start trying to put your voice back together again, keep it simple. Stay in one register at a time. You can practice the different registers for sure. However, don’t try and cross the border at the moment.

Descending Hums

Don’t go up a scale, go down it and do it as slowly as you can. Concentrate on every single note and try and ensure that it is a clean as you can make it. This is important as it is literally the stepping stone to regain that voice that you had but lost.

Slowly, carefully, and clearly. Think about the physical aspects of where the sound is coming from. Make a mental note of it and as you continue day to day, note the changes and feel good about how far you have come.

In Summary

Learning how to get your singing voice back in shape is easier than doing the exercises and putting in the work. However, if you want to get your voice back, you have to get going on the path. Relax, breath, sing carefully, take care of your body. And repeat day after day. You should feel and hear an improvement in less than a week if you really go at it. Just remember, please don’t push yourself too much. I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and if you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below. Till next time!