I’m a 25 year-old woman. I’m just trying to get back into singing on a regular basis, but my voice gets very tired and weak and hoarse-sounding after about 20-30 minutes. So, if I practice before I actually perform, I am already tired, and my voice sounds tired and not in control.
Good questions Lynette! There are two questions and so I’ll answer in two parts.
Answer: Part of the answer is captured in your question. One of the keys to getting back into vocal shape is by starting a little at a time – EVERY DAY. Since your voice gets tired and weak, even hoarse-sounding after about 20-30 minutes, I’d suggest that you
a) start your warm ups and singing in the part of your voice’s range where you find singing most easy, and
b) break up even your warm up period into smaller increments, say 10 – 15 minutes at a time with at least 30 minutes before resuming vocal use.
You see, what you’re aiming at ultimately is something like: being able to sing within your range, comfortably for a long time – say even 60 – 90 minutes – with just a few short breaks thrown in. To be able to do that – like other muscle groups – there has to be stamina training (repetitions) and strength training (extending the range and the strength of the voice). Until you have achieved your goals, any time you are called upon to perform – let your vocal warm up be brief and well in advance of the performance time so that your voice has had a chance to rest before singing. Do this any time you’re planning to perform. On the day of performance warm up just sufficiently that you know “things are working fine” then let your voice continue to rest for an hour or more until performance time. In this way you’ll have saved your energy and concentration for the time that you need it.
When you get back into daily practicing and you find that there are days when you want to expend your energy and make demands on your voice (strength and range work) – treat that day as a day in the gym when you’re “pumping iron.” The end of practice on this day may make your voice feel a bit ‘weighty’ even ‘gratey’ for a short period of time. The next day vocalize easily without any pushing – give your voice a break – allow the voice a day to recover and ‘heal’ itself. When your voice gets tired and sounds ‘gratey’ – it’s needing a rest. Over time – with daily practice, those periods of rest will get shorter and your strength and stamina will increase.
Having said that, however, if the feeling of hoarseness that ends one day’s practice continues to the next day – then there is the possibility that you are misusing your voice or making too-strenuous demands on it and either need to allow yourself to sing more easily (lightly) - or have a trustworthy voice teacher listen to you. The voice is typically very resilient. When the voice is “in shape” it is often the case that the singer will tire before the voice will.
By the way, allow one little anecdote: I am aware of a tendency in me that I should warn you about - in case it could be true of you. When I’m out of shape - and then make a decision to “get back in shape” and start playing tennis or running or something else - it’s fairly typical of me to over-do it all at the beginning - and then be so sore or so bruised or injured that I lose hope of ever resuming training and getting back in shape. The same is possible for us singers. It is possible in the effort to “get back into singing” to overdo the practicing at the beginning. Start slow - and allow your voice to tell you when you need to stop - and then do. In time the stamina will return, and you’ll enjoy singing more for having started slowly.
I trust you find success on your road back to singing. All best wishes.
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on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Warming up the voice.
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