Dealing with Sickness

Recently I’m recovering from being sick, and for a singer it’s a depressing time.  Rarely can anyone sick can sing at 100% with a sore throat.  The minute I go into the practice room and try making it work like usual, the more it aggravates me.  Here are some tips that I’ve learned for throughout my years singing at a conservatory everyday.  

         1.)  If it ain’t workin, don’t force it.   

This is a crucial part of vocal health.  Sometimes singers can warm up through a small sore throat or a tired voice and be fine.  Other times, just stop.  This was a hard lesson for me to learn and I still struggle with it.  For anyone that strive to be the best, these people will often take on any vocal challenge and believe they should overcome it.  Wrong!  Yes, there are singers that sing at the Met sick.  However, it depends on the severity of the sickness and when it started.  If they just started getting symptoms the day before, their throats might be fine to sing that night, or it would be decent enough shape where a steroid can help decrease the inflammation so they can sing that night.  But, this is if you need to sing for one night and then your on vocal rest.  If singers realize they are sick and their voice isn’t working the same, just stop.  It’s just going to make the recovery period longer and the singers voice worse by trying to sing through it.  A quote by Pavarotti stated that in the morning he would try begin vocalizing.  If it wasn’t working he would stop after ten minutes and try again three hours later.  If it wasn’t working after ten minutes again he would try again in a couple of hours.  After the third attempt if it wasn’t working, he knew he needed to go on vocal rest.  I would suggest this method for all singers.  

           2.)  Take a day off at least

If you feel your voice is sick, just take as must rest as you need.  Don’t sing for at least a day.  If you come back after that vocal rest day well, then you are good.  But if you take that day off and its still not good, just take a number of days off.  Although singers need to be singing often in order to be at their best, it’s no help singing on a swollen throat.  Honestly, the singers that take too many days off while sick sound way better than the ones that try to singing on it while sick.   Voices aren’t going to disappear because of sickness.  It will come back.

          3.)  Try not to cough or talk to much

Coughing can wear out vocal chords unnecessarily.  Take cough medicine.  For years, I’ve been to many camps where ENT doctors go crazy over taking medicine and tell how most medicines have blood thinners and it’s terrible for the voice.  No, it’s terrible if you’re singing on blood thinners constantly because it’s more likely to pop a blood vessel on the vocal chords.  It’s different if you’re on vocal rest because you are sick.  Take all the medicine you need to get better.  If not taking medicine makes the symptoms and repercussions (bronchitis,etc) worse, that’s worse because that could make it two weeks longer.  Mignon Dunn once told us that if we are sick, see a doctor.  She was an upcoming singer at the time and she wanted to save money so she didn’t go.  Because she didn’t deal with the sickness right away, she stayed sick and sang a role sick.  This caused her to go through a small, temporary vocal crisis.  Her biggest recommendation is to see the doctor right away because a few bucks in the pocket might cost a singer there entire career.

             4.)  If you have to sing

If you have to sing for a show and you have a small sore throat, I’ve heard children’s tylenol is the best answer.  It doesn’t contain any blood thinners and basically it will diminish the pain signals down so you can sing.  Also, stay very hydrated though out the day, plenty of rest, natural cough drops or caramels to suck on throughout the day.  Don’t talk much or vocalize to much either.  If it’s worse and you need the cash, plenty of singers use a steroid to get through one performance, but it comes at a cost where those singers probably need to take double the amount of vocal days off. 

             5.) Try covering a bit more

If I’m singing on a sore throat, it might require a bit more covering to get through it.  Usually sickness might make the voice go down a half step.  Singers might need to cover a half step lower than usual.  Or it’s too inflamed where the voice doesn’t want to cover on the passagio, so opening might be the only way.  It’s really experience and intuition, and singers will need to adjust on the fly while in a performance.  

        6.)  “It’s not by might, nor by power”

In the end, there is only so much individuals control in there lives.  Sickness duration and recovery period are not the same every time and they can come out of nowhere.  For me, I put my faith in God.  As the Lord said, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit”(Zechariah 4:6).  Talk to Him with all your worries and He will guide and take care you.