Hang in there. We’ve all been there. You have a big rehearsal coming up, maybe a recording session, or even worse, two or three gigs in a row. Then you wake up one morning and your voice is gone. You can barely speak, your throat hurts, you’re hoarse all day long, and your mind immediately starts racing. “How am I going to sing tonight?” If you’ve been singing for any length of time, chances are you’ve experienced this exact scenario.
The first thing I want you to do is take a step back and ask yourself what caused it. Were you using poor vocal technique? Were you singing too loudly because you couldn’t hear yourself through the monitors? Maybe you were out with friends at a club or watching another band and spent the evening shouting over loud music. It could even be allergies, a cold that’s coming on, or simply vocal fatigue from overuse. The cause is important because preventing it from happening again is the long-term goal. I’ve covered many of those topics in other blogs, so today I don’t want to spend time talking about why you lost your voice. Instead, let’s focus on what to do right now to give yourself the best chance of getting it back.
The very first thing I would do is complete vocal silence for the next 24 to 48 hours if at all possible. That means no talking, and it also means no whispering. A lot of people think whispering is giving the voice a break, but it often creates even more friction across irritated vocal folds and can actually make things worse. If you truly want your voice to recover as quickly as possible, let it rest. I know it’s difficult, especially if you’re teaching, performing, or talking with family, but this one step has probably helped me more than anything else over the years.
While you’re resting your voice, start sipping hot water throughout the day. I don’t mean drinking one giant bottle every few hours. I mean frequent, small sips that keep your throat feeling comfortable. The heat feels soothing, and helps expand vocal tissue in a healthy way, that allows blood flow...and staying hydrated gives your body what it needs while it’s trying to heal.
One thing I’ve used for years is what I call my “Fixer Elixir.” Mix together eight ounces of warm water, one tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar, one-quarter teaspoon of lemon juice, one-quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper, and one-quarter teaspoon of sea salt. Gargle the mixture thoroughly and spit it out. The vinegar helps create an environment that’s less friendly to bacteria, the cayenne stimulates blood flow, the lemon juice helps increase salivation, the salt helps loosen mucus, and gargling itself often helps clear away stubborn phlegm. If you’d rather not make your own, there’s a product called Gargle Away by Nature’s Jeannie that contains very similar ingredients.
The next thing I focus on is moisture. Many singers swear by nebulizers, and they’re excellent. Personally, I tend to use hot facial steaming or simply stand in a hot shower for about twenty to thirty minutes while breathing in the steam. The goal is the same either way. You’re surrounding your vocal tract with warm moisture, which often feels incredibly soothing when your voice has been overworked.
Another thing I don’t think enough singers do is gently massage the front, sides, and back of the neck. When we lose our voice, the muscles surrounding the larynx often tighten up because they’re trying to protect an already irritated area. As well, there are nerve bundles at the back of the neck on each side of your spine that are connected to the front. You often find sore spots at the back that relate to your sore throat. Use your fingertips and lightly massage and press & release those muscles. Don’t press hard and don’t make yourself sore. You’re simply trying to encourage the muscles to relax and release unnecessary tension.
Above everything else during that first day, stay quiet. This is where most singers make their biggest mistake. They start feeling a little better after several hours and immediately begin testing their voice every fifteen minutes. They sing a few notes, clear their throat, talk to someone, sing a little more, and end up irritating the tissue all over again. Give your body a chance to do what it’s designed to do. Sometimes the best thing you can do is absolutely nothing.
If, after about twenty-four hours, your voice feels noticeably less painful, then I’ll begin introducing very gentle exercises using a DoctorVox. One of my favorite recovery tricks is setting alarms on my phone every hour. For example, I’ll set an alarm for 10:00 and another for 10:01. Then I’ll repeat that every hour for eight to ten hours throughout the day. When the first alarm goes off, I vocalize through the DoctorVox for exactly one minute. When the second alarm sounds, I stop. Then I don’t touch my voice again until the next hour.
During that one minute, I’m not trying to increase my range, improve my tone, or see if I can hit high notes again. I’m simply making comfortable sounds. Sometimes I’ll sustain a single note. Other times I’ll perform slow, gentle sirens, allowing my voice to glide only as high and as low as it naturally wants to go that day. I never force it beyond those limits because that’s not the purpose of the exercise.
Think of the DoctorVox as giving your vocal folds a gentle massage. The bubbling creates back pressure that allows the tissue to move efficiently while encouraging the surrounding muscles to relax instead of fighting each other. It’s almost like gently kneading a sore muscle after a workout. You’re not trying to force anything to happen. You’re simply encouraging your voice to move comfortably again.
One of the biggest mistakes singers make is assuming that because the pain is gone, they’re completely healed. That’s rarely the case. Even if your voice comes back quickly, ease back into singing over the next couple of days. Don’t jump into a three-hour rehearsal. Don’t start belting your highest notes. Don’t try to make up for lost time. Give your voice a chance to rebuild gradually so you don’t end up right back where you started.
Over the years I’ve recovered from demanding performances, long recording sessions, teaching marathons, and days when I honestly wondered if I’d be able to sing again the next morning. If there’s one lesson I’ve learned, it’s this: the faster you stop abusing your voice, the faster it usually recovers. Rest it. Hydrate it. Reduce unnecessary tension. Then gradually reintroduce gentle DoctorVox exercises before returning to full singing. Your voice will almost always reward your patience.
Your VOX Coach,
Jaime Vendera
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