5 Tips to Prevent Vocal Strain

I get a bunch of people asking me, “How can I stop straining my voice?” Maybe they are a voice actor who is working on challenging character voices, or an audiobook narrator wanting to record for the industry standard of six hours, or maybe a business professional giving presentations and finding themselves hoarse afterwards. Well, my friends, read on for 5 Tips that will help you avoid the strain and record for longer! 

Hydrate

Drink more water than you think. I start drinking 3 hours before work. I drink a whole 32 oz bottle and then keep drinking throughout the whole recording session. 

Warm Up

Everyday. Without fail. Your vocal folds are like any muscle. Imagine going to the gym and immediately trying to do your best squat! Ouch! You are going to pull a muscle! Your voice is the same; give it some vocal lunges and jumping jacks to warm up!

Start slow and simple, gentle humming or ‘sirening’. 

To siren make a ‘ng’ sound, like the sound on the end of the word ‘sing’ and gently go up and down your whole range. Nice and gentle, about as quiet as a normal conversation volume. 

Have Enough Breath

This tip is the reason 95% of the people who come to me are straining their voice! They are continuing to speak when they are running out of breath! 

We often try to continue speaking to get to the end of our thought or the line, but as we start to run out of breath, we add tension and begin to strain our voice. 

By improving lung capacity, we can get through longer thoughts or lines. Try this! Breathe out on a long Ffffff sound. Ensure to take a new breath before you feel any type of ‘squeeze’. Try to breathe out a little longer each day!

Avoid the squeeze! Now you’ve got more breath, you need to add the voice on top! Make sure you are never speaking as you start to run out of breath. Make sure you take a new breath before that ‘squeeze’ feeling. Your voice should always feel like “oh yeah, I’ve got loads of breath for this!”

Stop When It Hurts

As soon as you feel any tickle or hoarseness, stop. Build up slowly, and as soon as you feel anything uncomfortable, stop, rest, and come back to your work later. 

And when you are sick… rest! Drink some nice honey and lemon tea, steam and watch a movie instead! 

Safe Practice

All this is fine to say. But as soon as we get a job, we get excited, and all technique goes out the window! Be strict with yourself. Drink. Warm Up. Practice first. Know where you are going to take a breath. Make sure you have enough. And if it starts to hurt… rest! 

Conclusion

There are a bunch of other things that help. Getting good, solid vocal training is super important if you are going to regularly work using your voice. 

I record for 6 hours every day. Weird monster voices, efforts, all the crazy things we do for a living. No vocal strain, no change in vocal tone. It is all about technique, and you can get there too!

I have a video that teaches more of the fundamentals, and should give you a bunch of knowledge to avoid vocal strain and start strengthening your voice. You can check it out here: 

Other than that, warm up and go drink some water… yup… bit more… nice…