Nechama Leah: 0:18

Hey, y'all. Y'all. How you doing? Welcome back to the Jewish Singer Podcast. Where we discuss all things singing related to helping you become a more actualized Jewish artist. In today's world. And today we are talking about something super duper important, vocal health. People always ask me about tips and hacks and all the things to keep their voices healthy. So today I'm going to tell you all the things that actually matter when it comes to keeping a healthy instrument. But first, please grab your phone. Open up your app where you're listening and rate the podcast, follow, like, subscribe, and don't forget to share this episode with a singer friend. It's going to be really important for all singers. I might say some things that you already know, you know, like drink water, but there's going to be a lot of things that maybe you have not thought about. And like I said, this is a very important topic and one that I get a lot of questions about. So. Let's dive in. First things first, there are no hacks when it comes to vocal health. Okay, just, I said it, be very clear about that. The most important tenet of vocal health is what's good for your body is good for your voice. I'll say it again. What's good for your body is good for your voice. So there are going to be some super obvious things like water. I don't need to tell you this. You have to drink water. Okay. Your body is made up of, what is it, 98%, some some crazy percentage of water. Okay. So you obviously need water to function. And you may not know that your vocal cords. Have a thin, watery mucus on them, and they rely heavily on water in your body to stay lubricated and vibrate smoothly. So as your vocal cords are coming together, and they're woot, woot, woot, as they're vibrating, that lubrication keeps them from getting tired, or, you know, getting nodes or anything. Like that. If the body as a whole is dehydrated, then the vocal folds will get tired faster and they will recover more slowly from heavy usage. So if you're singing a lot or you're talking a lot, or you're talking loudly, that kind of thing, we really need all that hydration to keep the vocal cords lubricated. It's very important. Okay, the next thing, it's a little less obvious, is that healthy food is important. Keeping your body healthy with proper food intake is very important, because like I said, healthy body, healthy voice, And more specifically, it's important for you to know what is right for you to eat. There's that age old saying that dairy is bad for your voice, it gives you mucus, and some people will tell you, nope, that's a myth, that, that doesn't happen to me, okay? And both are right. And both are wrong. We'll stick with both are right. Um, Dairy affects different body types differently. So it's important for you to know your body type and your constitution and what affects you. And isn't there a joke about Jews and dairy and lactose intolerance? I'm not even sure. I'm pretty sure all Jews like have some issue with dairy, but a lot of us ignore it. We have, we literally have a holiday around eating dairy food, you know? So it's like. It's not something that you're ever probably going to completely rid yourself of, but it's important to know if it does affect you so that you can be mindful about when and how much to eat it. It's not my place to tell you that you can't eat dairy, right? Because you may find it doesn't affect you. However, even if you are someone who thinks that it doesn't, I would challenge you to like not eat any dairy for a few days and see how you feel and then maybe also reintroduce it and see like if you have any symptoms that show up. I noticed that having dairy in my diet regularly affects a lot of things. It affects It affects my digestion, it affects my mood, I'm more tired, I'm more irritable, I'm more emotional. It's, it's weird. I've noticed a very clear correlation between my mood and when I've eaten dairy. And It just makes me lethargic, you know, and for sure I have noticed more like mucousy flummy stuff. So that's definitely a reason for singing. But even on a deeper level, even if you're not seeing a direct correlation of okay, I had a coffee with milk and then I was coughing up phlegm. If there's any other symptom of like, maybe your stomach hurts or maybe you're just feeling tired afterwards, okay, well, that's not the way that you want to live your day, especially if you're going to have a gig or you need to sing later, like you want to be energized, right? Food is meant to energize you. And if you're feeling lethargic, or generally unwell in any other regard, then that's not going to help you with your singing either, you know. So you've got to get to know the foods that work well for you and which ones don't. What foods make you feel alive and happy and energized? And our fuel versus garbage in your body. Okay, I won't go as far to say that dairy is garbage because it's, it's not, but if it, if it doesn't work well for you, then, then you might think about, um, keeping it to a minimum because it is tasty. I love pizza. I get it. I love the pizza. I love some camembert or brie cheese, and so I have to be very careful about, you know, how much I take in. So, on the topic of what to eat, almost all she does out there recognize that different body types need different types of food. Uh, a long time ago, I read this book called perfect health by Deepak Chopra. Based on the Ayurvedic Indian Ayurvedic system and talks about like different, um, makeups, basically they call it doshas. Doshas. I'm not sure exactly how it's pronounced, but it talks about the different constitutions and different ways that, physical qualities and also, um, personality characteristics are at play in how you are in the world and therefore the type of nourishment that you need. So your homework is to figure out for yourself, if you haven't already, so, even just listening to your body, you know, figuring out, like, after you eat a certain thing, okay, how am I feeling, just checking in, you know, reading books, I have an acupuncturist that I also talk to these types of things about, and she can tell me, like, oh, my Your body is needing a little bit more of this right now. So whatever floats your boat, start to get really self aware about these things because it matters with regard to your voice and just your overall happiness. Am I right? Um, so in addition to the different types of constitutions, we also have fluctuating seasons. So, as the seasons change, our food intake needs can shift a little. So, in cold months, our bodies need warm, nourishing food. There's a reason why they call it catching a cold. literally, our bodies are affected by the cold and things that we put into it can either counterbalance. or add to the cold. And some people anyway, have a colder dispositions or constitutions and should be eating warm cooked things like year round. Um, but I'm pretty sure most everyone, I believe, according to, you know, like Chinese medicine and Ayurveda and like all of these things. Um, they say that during the winter months and in the cold things, we have to counteract that cold with warm, nourishing foods, you know, so think like soups and, and stews and things like that. My acupuncturist is big on a bone broth. She's told me about that and that's really nourishing. I've enjoyed. That's the times that I've actually prepared it. Okay, so the next thing on the topic of eating, I'm not here to, uh, pretend to be a dietitian or anything like that. I'm sharing with you the things that I have learned and the different modalities that I have dabbled in. And. Also the things that I've learned as a voice teacher in my certifications and just over the years of working with students. So another really big thing is avoiding foods that are going to give you heartburn. Acid reflux. Okay. Acid can actually come all the way into the voice box and cause erosion. And you don't want that, obviously. And that's, could be a more on the extreme side. You know, some people have really extreme acid reflux and it's like something they live with. Um, and it's a great way to, um, you know, what you're dealing with on the daily. And some people, you know, like here and there, they know that if they eat spicy foods, they're going to feel heartburn later. So it's about being aware of that. Is that something that you want to deal with in that particular time? Um, but in general, even and especially if you are a regular acid reflux sufferer, then you want to make sure that you're doing what you can. in terms of your eating to mitigate that because acid reflux can cause excessive muscle tension because there's all this acid coming up and the muscles want to squeeze and like hold, you know, squeeze down the, the opening so that it can keep it down. Right. Cause We don't want it to come all the way up. It's trying to protect the vocal cords and you know, everything else that we have here that going to be negatively affected by all that acid. So that can obviously cause discomfort and feeling of like a lump in your throat. You may have felt that if you've had, you know, heartburn and it can affect the quality of your voice. In addition then all that muscle tension that's trying to avoid it is, is going to, going to cause strain to your voice. So, it can for sure affect the freedom and the clarity of your sound. And I've had a couple of students who have had chronic acid reflux, and it was very frustrating for them because it really affected their voice. And there's only so much that working on. on it from a technical perspective can do because there's really just something, you know, happening physically to that area of the body. And so we do what we can, but like, if you can avoid and, you know, mitigate those symptoms as much as you can, then you are much better off vocally. So another point about food is limiting your alcohol intake and other drinks like caffeinated drinks, coffee, you know, high caffeine tea and things like that, that can dry you out. Okay, so I know a lot of people are like, I'm in my third cup of coffee of the day. Okay, I get it. And if you feel that it is, there's literally no effect to you, then more power to you and make sure you're drinking lots of water, obviously, because those drinks can be very drying. I know when I have one cup of coffee, I feel dry afterwards. There's no mistaking it. If you're going to have a lot of caffeine, make sure you're drinking a lot more water to make up for it. We just want to be replenishing and staying balanced in the body in that way. And I'll just tell you, so it doesn't sound like I'm up here on my soapbox and I'm perfect and I've got it all figured out. I really struggle with staying hydrated. I, for some reason, for some reason I don't even really like drinking water that much. And my water has to be cold most of the time, for most times of the year. Or if it's cold outside sometimes I'll even just drink straight up hot water. Or like a little bit warm water. Um, I'm like very finicky about my water intake and it's a problem because I often find myself dehydrated. So I can speak from experience that when I know that I'm dehydrated, my voice does not work well. It just doesn't. I can feel it's like, you know how when a. A rubber band gets all brittle y and old and it's like starts to crack and it's like, it doesn't, it's not stretchy. It's not bendy. That's almost like what's happening to your vocal cords. Like they get dehydrated, like they're not going to stretch as well. And then when you're, you know, they're trying to vibrate, it's not going to make, it's not going to make a nice clear sound. You know, there's like a, there's a raspiness there. There's, it's just, you hear, you hear when someone has a tired voice, um, and if you can avoid that by drinking more water and staying healthy, uh, you know, in your eating and otherwise, that's, it's really a huge percentage of taking care of your voice. Really, really. Okay. Onto the next thing that everybody knows about. We're going to get to the juicy stuff too. The next thing obviously is sleep. And this one goes underestimated and not because people don't realize maybe how important it is, or maybe they don't, I don't know, but people find it very difficult to make a change in this arena. You know, we. We only have so many hours in the day and we have too much, too much stuff to do. And our lives in today's age, they go, at the speed of light and sleep sometimes falls to the bottom of the priority list somehow, because we just say to ourselves, well, I have coffee. That's fine. A little sleep, more coffee. What can go wrong? You know? Anyway, there are, there are so many negative health. therapist. Effects to sleep deprivation. And somehow we're all just walking around perpetually sleep deprived. And I, I'm, I'm speaking to myself again. I'm not perfect. I have lots of things that keep me awake and I often go to sleep way, way too late. And I, like I said, speaking from experience, I see how big of a difference it is in the morning. My voice, when I've had eight hours of sleep versus when I've had six hours of sleep or five hours of sleep, it's night and day, But we all are still perpetually sleep deprived. It's kind of insane if you think about it. And the world is moving so fast, like I said, and for me, you know what it is? Like I haven't fully come to terms in my adult life with how many things I can actually get done in a day. I'm in denial most of the time, and I want to do more than is sustainable. Sometimes, and so part of this sleep thing is letting go and having faith that everything that you did today is good enough. It's enough. Go to bed. That thing that's looming on your to do list, that thing that's staring you back at your screen, it's going to be there tomorrow. You'll see your to do list in the morning. Go to bed. Talking to myself here as well, really. And I'm getting a little better about it. And I'm noticing not only is my voice in a better state, I'm in a better state emotionally, physically, I don't feel like I'm snapping at my children as much. Like There's just so many reasons why getting as much sleep as you need is important. And again, the, how much sleep you need is also kind of an individual thing. I know there's like generally like an eight hours per night, uh, prescription, but some people need less. And I think also I've heard and read that later in life as you age, with hormone shifts, we do see that our constitutions can kind of shift as we age and different life stages. You might need less sleep. When you're young, you need a lot of sleep. I'm pretty sure that women in their childbearing years need a pretty good amount of sleep, eight to nine hours. So keep that in mind. And it's so hard, right? Because we need all that sleep, but then kids are keeping us up or, you know, we just have a lot on our plate with small children or, or big children and we're not getting to sleep before midnight, but if you can just slowly incrementally, Making your bedtime a little earlier can really help the state of your voice. I'm not going to harp on that because I think you get it. Oh, one more thing I wanted to say about the sleep thing though, is that I've learned too, that we need more sleep and less sleep at different seasons. So like I said, with the food also, you know, we need to take in. In the winter months, we actually need a bit more sleep too right? The days are shorter, the nights are longer, and it's designed for us to sleep a little bit more versus in the summer. We don't need as much sleep. The days are longer, and you could probably get away with a little less sleep than in the fall or winter months. So just keep that in mind too, as we're entering the fall and winter months that you might have to, schedule that in for you somehow. How are you going to honor that need for a little bit more sleep this season. OK the next thing... I think I'm on to like the third thing. Right? We talked about, food, and then we talked about sleep. And then number three is stress relief. So again, it might seem a little bit obvious, but maybe a little less obvious in terms of its effect on your voice. I have students that come into their lessons and their voices are like Massively different from one week to the next based on how much stress they have going on in their lives and stress makes your muscles tighten up, you know, like when you're having a really rough week or whatever, and you're like, Oh, I need a massage. You know, you feel it in your, in your shoulders, you feel it in your neck, maybe in your jaw, if you're like a jaw clench person and all of that affects your voice. Directly, ok? so The tension in the neck, the jaw tightening, it just will, it'll, it'll lock down, it'll lock down your voice. Okay. So finding ways to relieve that stress, whether it's from, you know, getting a massage or moving your body or just. meditation or finding ways to actively decrease certain stress triggers in your life. Okay. That's a big one. And so I kind of mentioned this already under stress relief, but I also want to. Let's talk about movement. So movement is a really important aspect of physical wellness, obviously. And, and health for your voice, because not only is it stress relieving, but movement keeps the, the chi moving, the energy moving in your body. So you can have physical energy to make sound. Singing is an athletic activity. Really, you are a vocal athlete, so if you are tired, lethargic, depressed, very low in muscle tone, particularly in your core, you might experience more difficulty singing or just it. Yeah, just a little more effortful, especially if you're working on more demanding repertoire. You know, high stuff, belty stuff, that kind of thing. I mentioned in one of my earlier episodes that it's been a process for me recovering my voice after a few pregnancies and weight gain and a C section. And it's still something that I'm working on and I've seen how important it is. For me to be in shape and what a difference it makes when I feel like I can hold myself. I'm, I'm, I'm present. My body is energized versus when I'm like lazy and lethargic and my core is shot. So singing is just a little easier when you move your body and get yourself active. Um, in fact, a really good way to even just warm up your body when you're getting ready to sing is to jog around the room a little bit, jog around the room, get energized and even. Do some vocalizes while you're running to get yourself that feeling of, um, like adrenaline and, and activating. And it's a good practice for performance prep. Also getting yourself nervous. It, it mimics the feeling of being nervous when you get your heart rate up and run around. So just a little tidbit to throw in there. Okay. The next thing, number four. Mental wellness, I'll call it. For lack of a better term. Um, this is like, you know, optimism. Optimism goes a long way when it comes to the voice. So obviously I mentioned earlier, like if you're feeling depressed or something, that's really going to have a toll on your, on your, on the way that you are using your body physically. Um, and so that's like its own thing. You know, that's, that's a component of mental wellness. Are you working on yourself to become a resilient person? Um, are you working through, you know, what you need to work through so that you can be functioning in, um, a positive way in your life? So that's one aspect that can maybe take a bit longer. That's a bit of a process, right? Especially if you're, if you're really working through Something that's more long standing for you. Um, but also I just find that people tend to get really negative. This is separate from the depression discussion, but some people are just really negative about their voices, they get into. A habit of thinking and speaking negatively about themselves and their voice and being optimistic and saying, okay, like, Hey, I have this, this gift and yeah, it's going to be great. And I can learn a new thing. And, you know, just, just being curious and optimistic. It can go a long way when it comes to singing because the opposite, when you're in that space of, I don't know, and doubting and judging and worrying. That leads to tension. That leads to coming in on yourself, you know, playing small, everything's a little bit like ughhhh versus optimism, keeping yourself open, keeping your ribcage open, being, you know, bright eyed and bushy tailed, you know, I don't mean to sound cliche, but really like that openness will make your voice sound more open. Okay. And it will also help you to avoid any, straining and getting hoarse and it'll help you to avoid any pathologies that might come from using your voice in a very tense way. Another thing related to this is trusting yourself. Okay. So approach your singing from a place of trust. I trust myself that I can make this note. I trust myself that I have something worthy and valuable to give. And share and ask your inner critic to leave the room. Okay. That your inner critic might be a very present character in your life. And if she is when you're singing, kindly ask her to leave because she will mess all kinds of things up. Okay. Being too hard on yourself will make you tense. It'll shut your body down. It'll make you afraid to reach for high notes and you'll hold them back and you'll strain. It's just, that's not. That's not good for you because the whole reason we're talking about this in terms of vocal health is because all of that strain and that tension can lead to hoarseness and Chas Vashalom nodes or polyps or whatever, right? You need to use your voice in the most free way possible so that you can keep it healthy and it's a sustainable sound for you. Okay, so staying open mentally and physically is really important. All right, so I have a list of some other random tips that are important for me to mention. Most everything that I already talked about is kind of just like a general upkeep, right? This is the being proactive and holistic about your voice and not just treating something once it's gone wrong, right? Like, how do I deal with a hoarse voice? Okay, hopefully you avoid getting a hoarse voice. And you can't always avoid it if you're like very sick and you develop a cough and things like that, but, um, Um, in general, these things that I've talked about so far are the way that you should approach your general wellness in order that you can be a sustainable, active singer. So the other tips that I have here are if you do notice dryness and fatigue, okay, so you've gotten yourself a little out of balance, a nebulizer is a great way to get some more surface hydration onto the vocal cords. And what do I mean by that is. We have sort of like systemic hydration, which I mentioned earlier, drinking water, getting hydrated by intake, and just the level of water that you have in your body. That's like internal systemic hydration. And then as an added bonus, if you notice that you're very dry or your vocal cords are tired, you can use a nebulizer to get more hydration directly onto the surface of the vocal cords and a nebulizer also involves most of the time using a saline solution. And that can also help clear out any mucus that you might have. It's, um, it's also, I've been told by my voice teacher that it's also a little bit safer to use than doing steaming, which is hot water into the mouth And on to the vocal cords, which, some say could be a little risky and dangerous. the vocal cords themselves do not have nerves on them to say like, ouch, hot, that's too much for me. And so we don't really have any way of knowing, uh, if the steam and the hot water is too much for it, or if it's going to cause some inflammation or damage in any regard. So I have done steaming in the past and it feels really good. Um, and you can even add some like essential oils to it, people say to do that, but I've gotten, uh, direction from my voice teacher that nebulizer is a bit safer of an approach. Next tip is be aware about how certain medications can affect your voice. And this is something we don't often think about and we're not aware of, and we're just like, Hey, I have this medication I need to take because the doctor told me blah, blah, blah. And it could have adverse effects on your voice. I know for me, I started taking ADHD medication, uh, a while back and I noticed immediately that I was so dried out and my voice, there was a period of time when I was so hoarse and I couldn't sing very well. I couldn't sustain my singing for very long. Um, And I finally figured out it was, it was related to this medication that I had started. And it eventually like ironed itself out. And I, when I spoke to my voice teacher who also takes a ADHD medication, I was told that it kind of like eventually works itself out. And I, I had to make sure that I was really compensating, uh, with more hydration because this medication, davka does dry you out. So if that's something there's no. So there's no way around it, meaning you're taking a medication and that's just it. Then figure out if there are ways that you can compensate for any reaction that it might have. I've also heard that heartburn medication can have negative effects on the voice or people have noticed that their voice gets different when they're on it. And in one regard, it's supposed to help because it's supposed to help the heartburn, but then it's detracting in another sense. So these are things that are difficult. It's hard. So just getting to know. Yourself and your body really well and understanding how you can can make tweaks to, to be the most functional that you can be. Okay, the next tip I have for keeping your voice healthy is don't cough or clear your throat excessively if you can help it. You guys have probably heard this already and to be honest, it's a bit frustrating of a tip. It's not wrong. It's not wrong. It's absolutely true. Excessive coughing can really just wreak havoc on the vocal cords. It's basically just slamming your vocal cords together. It's not great. Really not great. Will your voice recover from all that coughing? It's not. Yeah, probably, you know, actually I saw a video, Natalie Weiss, if you know her, she's like a very famous, uh, vocal coach and performer and she, I just saw a video, I think on her, one of these pages that she once got like some type of hemorrhaging or something after she sneezed. Too loud, like on the voice kind of sneezing. And so from now, like ever since then, she does not sneeze that way. She will not sneeze on the voice, kind of off the voice sneeze. And I thought that was really interesting. It's like crazy. It's like, you think people injure their voices sometimes. Oh, cause they're, they're doing things incorrectly. They're not singing right. Or they're singing too long. She sneezed, right. It's kind of crazy. Okay. So to the point, yeah. The coughing can affect your voice negatively, especially if you've got one of these, like, really long, prolonged things. So, with the coughing, I know if you have, a lot of phlegm, the cough is literally there to, Dispel the phlegm from you. I'm pretty sure it's, physically there for a purpose, but, if you really need to cough that you do it with like, like an expelling of air rather than like, you know, like getting your vocal cords to come slam together. Okay. So that's one way to avoid that. Same goes for like, It's like the, if you need to clear your throat cause you have something like tickling you, you can do that kind of aspirate, like blowing air, also drinking water, that kind of thing. So this is one thing, that's always been difficult for me to actually avoid doing, especially if you have a cold, you have a cough, but it's something just to keep in mind. You might not be able to avoid it every single time, but you can at least being aware of it can help you hopefully to minimize some of its negative effects. Okay, this next tip for keeping your voice healthy is really important for really all vocalists, but I know in particularly teachers, I speak to a lot of teachers that are telling me that they are feeling like they're yelling all the time. You know, they have to talk over a group of kids and it's causing strain. So if you need to talk loudly, make sure to use your support muscles. and breath as you would in singing. And don't tighten your throat. Don't go, uh, uh, hey guys, uh, you know, Hey, yo, right. You can, you can approach it as if you're about to sing out there in that kind of like belty chest voice. Okay. You are a vocalist in whatever way you are using your voice. So don't forget that the breath and the support is an important part of that mechanism. And, and the next thing, which is related, if you are a vocalist in whatever way by profession. So you are a teacher, you're a speaker, you're a singer, you're, you know, what, you use your voice a lot in your. day and in your work, make sure that you take sufficient breaks and warm up and cool down your voice after a long day of voice usage. So you know, five minutes in the morning, even just two minutes, you know, do some lip trills, do your vocal eases. And then at the end of the day, also some very. Low impact, say low impact, like a, you know, like a cool down after your workout, same idea. Really? Like you can just do some like, or some lip trills again, or humming, um, something that's not loud. You're not trying to, you know, produce a lot of sound. Cooling your voice down after usage. Okay. This next one is an important one that sometimes we lose sight of singing with proper posture is very important so that you don't cause excessive tension and also so that your breath can be managed and used efficiently. So I noticed a lot of the problem comes in with regard to the core, you know, just like activating your core a little bit, meaning standing up straight, that, that is sort of the basis of this whole like alignment and standing up straight. Right. Even as I'm sitting here, I'm like slouching cause I'm trying to put my face closer to the microphone, but ideally, okay, I should be engaging my core. And my spine should be in alignment, my neck, back of my neck should be straight and long. And what happens I see is that people, their sternum kind of drops, right? The, then the core kind of deactivates could be the, the, Core deactivates first and then the sternum wants to drop, but those two are connected, right? The sternum is down and dropped the core deactivates. And then the neck cranks, the neck folds. And then we're in this, like, we're putting a lot of pressure on the larynx here. Uh, and then we're wondering like, why can't I reach the high note? Ah, it's like, well, look at your body, right? You are not setting it up for success. So, right. Engaging the core, lifting the sternum, like as if someone has a string by it and you're lifting up to the sky. Also a string by the top of your head, lifting up to the sky. I hope you're doing this as you're listening, standing tall, allowing your ribcage to swing open, and then as you are exhaling and using the breath for the singing, What's happening is that the abdominal muscles are slowly engaging and bringing in, and it's not what you don't want to happen is that your sternum and your rib cage all collapse for that exhale. That's not what should be happening. The exhale is happening via the. Abdominal muscles pulling in and up to, to help that exhale to happen. Okay. And then of course your rib cage is going to be coming in slowly, slowly, slowly, but it shouldn't be that your whole, um, that your whole torso sort of folds over to make that exhale happen. Okay. The next thing goes without saying, but I had to add it to the list. Don't smoke. Okay. Vocal health 101, not great for the voice. Really not great for the voice. Um, these vaping things that they have today. I mean, hopefully this, it could be, this doesn't apply to any of you, but I think the vaping stuff might be slightly better, but as I understand it, any of that, like dry smoke inhalation to the vocal cords is going to dry it out. So just avoid it if you can. It's not, it's really not going to help you in your vocal journey. So, all right. I've gotten to the end of my list. I hope that you heard some new things today, or you got some food for thought here and I bless you that you should always have a really healthy voice. And use your instrument for good out in the world. And thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful day. Happy singing.