If you’ve only ever experienced vocal strain when you sing and want to get out of that hell, then you’ll first need to understand how your voice really needs to travel…especially when you sing. Normally we speak from the throat, and when we shout (see some politicians), we usually also feel the tension in the throat. So let’s stop talking and yelling for a moment. Let’s say you now want to use your voice to sing. Now, since we don’t mumble when we sing, your natural reflex would be to yell because you want to be heard. This article will aim to show you how to retrain your voice to avoid vocal strain when you sing.
The more you think about the sore throat caused by your attempts to sing like a pro, the more you realize there has to be a better way. Have you ever wondered how the stars do it? Well, it all comes down to training your voice so that your laryngeal muscles stay relaxed when you sing, which brings me to my next point: the top 3 ways to prevent vocal strain.
You’ll be surprised how effective a small, simple training exercise can completely transform the way you use your voice, so pain and strain are a thing of the past. Some experts say that until you have applied speech-level singing technique to your vocal training, total control over your voice will always be an illusion to you.
I’ll start by recommending that you do the lip roll to start with. It involves gently placing your fingertips on your cheeks (perhaps with a little pressure) and then creating a sound with your lips closed, like a bubble. My next recommendation is the tongue trill, which is basically placing your tongue on the roof of your mouth and making an ‘RR’ sound. These two exercises have one thing in common. Because they are lighter, they will allow you to navigate your range with much more ease and flexibility. My third and final recommendation is to do the humming. For all 3 exercises above, keep in mind that they can all be done with almost any scale for the piano.
I wonder if you have realized just by doing the exercises above how simple and easy it is to prevent vocal strain when you sing. Now let me tell you how your voice should travel, so that when you are doing your exercises you pay special attention to this fundamental element. First, you should feel your voice in your chest area, and the higher you go, that voice should feel like it’s traveling through the back of your neck into your head, hence the term head voice. If you’re the kind of person who needs to avoid vocal strain, now you know exactly what to do to prepare your voice to sing like a pro.