Why is my voice fatiguing?

Mixdown Monthly

I hear this a lot from singers and performers that I speak to and new students that come into Vox Singing Academy say ” Half way through my live performance my voice is fatiguing, halfway through rehearsal my voice is fatiguing, I’m singing a handful of songs at home and my voice is fatiguing, after a big night my voice is fatigued and has no stamina”

WHY?

There are many reasons. But right now I am going to give you the top 6 reasons why your voice is most probably fatiguing and how to prevent it!

1. Vocals stamina and fitness

By far this is most probably why your voice is lacking stamina or fatiguing whilst singing. The bottom line is that your voice is a MUSCLE! And you have to train, strengthen and take care of your voice as an athlete would train and strengthen their body to perform to the best of its ability.

A lot of singers out there are only singing when they are in rehearsal or performing live. This is exactly the same as you jogging 10 km once a week. You are not going to build any resistance, fitness or stamina by doing this. And guaranteed, the next day after your jog you will pull up very sore and it will take you a few days to fully recover again. If you keep on jogging with this regime sooner or later you will cause yourself a serious injury and exactly the same goes for your voice.

To gain stamina and vocal fitness and with any physical regime that you are doing, you must start off slowly but surely. And practised singing and scaling at least 5 times a week. I highly recommend getting some good quality singing lessons. So as a minimum, your teacher will show you how to correctly warm your voice up and give you some skills and scales to go home and practice to. Then once your voice is correctly warmed up and you have done a few skills and scales I would then recommend singing your songs for as long as you wish. But never push your voice if it is starting to feel tired or fatigued. Immediately stop and come back to it later on in the day or the next day.

2. Technique

If your technique is incorrect you can forget about singing for any length of time.

The most important factor regarding your technique is to do with your proper breathing and diaphragmatic support of all notes when singing.(Refer to April’s article regarding breathing) You should not be using or pushing down on your throat to sing. Your voice should always be flowing out and forward like a river.

When doing scales and singing please do not feel any strain, horsiness, scratchiness, irritation, pain or discomfort. If you are please stop and focus on the right technique. Do not continue singing when you feel your voice fatiguing!

After you finish your scales and singing regime your voice should feel invigorated and your body energised. Your voice is a muscle and should feel like it has had a workout, the same as if you had worked out a muscle in the gym or had gone for a jog etc.

It is very important to warm up and cool down after you do you scales or sing. Just like you would stretch, limber and warm up before and after you play sport, the same thing should be done before and after you sing.

3. Sleep

Know it sounds strange but a sleep deprived voice is not going to last as long as a voice that has had a good rest. When you are asleep, this is the only true time when your voice is resting and recuperating. As you know during the day we are always speaking. We are using the same chords to speak as we do to sing. So they are always being used. So I recommend getting a good night’s sleep especially before a performance, rehearsal or recording session.

4. Misuse

Try to avoid yelling or shouting over loud music or background noise excessively for long periods of time. This will fatigue and wear the voice out very quickly.

Excessive amounts of Alcohol will dehydrate your voice and make it more difficult for you to sing and maintain control. Alcohol also gives you a false sense of security, confidence and brings your pain threshold down. Meaning you can abuse your voice or body for longer periods of time without realising that you are causing serious damage.

Smoking is just plain bad for your voice and general health, especially if you have been smoking more than 5 to 6 years. After this time it will start to diminish your range and change the tone of your voice.

The bottom line is that the better you feel physically and mentally the better your voice will naturally sound.

You will only feel as good as the food and drink that you put into your body. If you are putting bad things into your body, that is how you will feel and how your voice will react and sound sooner or later.

5. Singing in the wrong key

When you 1st start to sing you obviously start singing to other people’s songs or along with your favourite artist or band.

This can be detrimental for 2 reasons.

1. You could be mimicking the person that you’re singing along to.

2. You could be singing in a key is not suitable for your voice.

If you are singing along to other people’s songs please sing the songs in your own voice and personality and do not try to mimic or sound like them. Be yourself and let your natural personality and tone come forward.

The most important criteria when singing is to sing in a key or vocal range that best suits your voice with out sounding strained or causing your vocal chords to fatigue.

Singing should be fun and feel good. It should not be a burden where you have to over think what you are doing or feel vocally, mentally or physically drained after singing.

The bottom line is that we all sing because it is fun, others and ourselves get pleasure out of it and it makes us and others feel good! So please feel good, relaxed and sound natural when singing!

Till next month, sing your heart out!