Question: How can you stop your mouth and throat from severely drying when singing?
Hi, I’m singing I Dreamed a Dream for my acting class final, and I have a really good voice, I really do, but my mouth always dries to the point where I can’t sing as well as I’d like to because I can’t hit the notes I want. I don’t think it’s a case of bad breathing or anything as much as it is nerves because I can sing fine at home, but it never happened to me until now. How can I stop this?
Answer: You hit it on the nose: dryness in the mouth is due to nerves. We sometimes refer to it as “cotton mouth.” Performance nerves are things all performing singers have to reckon with. Let me suggest a couple of things to help ‘keep things moist.’
1. Avoid caffeinated drinks just before singing, because they are mild diuretics – they actually help to ‘dry out’ membranes, affecting vocal cords that need to stay lubricated and saliva glands that need to provide moisture in the mouth.
2. Keep a bottle of water handy to swish around in your mouth just before singing.
3. Swish your tongue around the outside of your teeth and up by your upper gums to stimulate your saliva glands. This will add moisture to your mouth even in interludes between vocal phrases. Practice doing this first so you know what you’re up to.
4. Be sure you’ve breathed deeply and slowly several times when you feel the adrenaline kick in, so that your heart rate comes back down to a manageable tempo.
5. When you’re singing, “lose yourself” in the song, that is, express it from the heart. “Knock e’m dead.” Thinking and expressing the song–instead of thinking of technique or your audience–will also help maintain normalcy in your mouth.
Hope you find this helps. Best wishes.
Tags: cotton mouth, dry mouth, Performance Nerves, singing nerves, stay hydrated