Jae, 16, asks about Phlegm and singing
I want to ask about the phlegm that I’m feeling especially during the first 3 minutes, even with just the low pitch D after the middle C. Can you tell me about how avoid this phlegm? I think this is a disturbance in singing. Are there any exercises to avoid this?
ANSWER: Jae, some day I’ll answer this a little more thoroughly … with some of the medical distinctions made between the various oral secretions sometimes all lumped into one designation of “mucous”, or “phlegm”. I should tell you at the outset that such a generalization irks some folk in the medical profession … but I’m willing with this disclaimer to take the flack on this response.
Indeed, phlegm is a “disturbance” to singing.
An accumulation of heavy secretions on the vocal cords early in the morning is not unusual. Frequently warming up the voice will make the presence of this obvious, heard and felt, but frequently the warm up process dislodges this “goop” and clear tone can then easily be produced and heard.
This “phlegm” can impede the process by which we make sound by settling on, or passing through the opening of the glottis. There may be several causes.
- An upper respirator infection often accompanied by a cough.
- A sinus infection or common cold in which there is drainage from the nasal passages down the back of the throat.
- Allergies to various air-carried organisms like dust, pollen and mold spores produce cold-like symptoms.
- Allergies to various foods.
- Dairy-heavy diet.
Obviously, any time a person has an infection, one has to do what is necessary to gain health and maintain a strong immune system.
Allergies to dust, pollen, mold, mildew, animal dander, etc. may require medical assistance to become desensitized to those things.
Food allergies can be pinpointed either by the help of an allergist, or a systematic process of elimination and discovery of what foods cause allergic reactions.
The simplest thing to deal with is to alter one’s diet – and make sure that dairy products (milk, cheese, ice-cream and foods with these products in them like pizza) and a lot of red meat (hamburgers, beef, sausage, pork) and sugar (desserts and sweetened drinks especially) are either eliminated from the diet or reduced and avoided during the evening/night meal. All those things named contribute to the body producing in large quantity the “stuff” that clogs the nose and throat by early morning.
Vocal exercises are not the answer when dealing with “phlegm.” A change in eating lifestyle is often the answer.
Be sure that you have a routine in which you gargle and brush your teeth and tongue when you arise in the morning. That helps to get rid of a lot … down the drain.
Tags: Phlegm and singing, singing and diet, Singing and Health