7 Habits for the Healthy Singer

Right about this time in the school year, teachers in classrooms all over America would be wealthy if we had stock in Kleenex! I, for one, can't keep them in my own chorus classroom long enough before my students are begging me for more. The majority of my high school chorus students seem to be sick right now, and the culprits tend to be the changing seasons, allergies, and the rampant spreading of germs from one human to another.

I have been very lucky this school year in that I've only been sick once, and only had to miss work for one day while I was recovering. I've been told that first year teachers' immune systems are especially compromised that first year because our bodies are not used to coming in contact with the amount of germs that get passed around at schools. However, since I was anticipating this problem, and also because I am constantly trying to practice good health to be the best singer I can, I put together seven habits that I am consistent to follow, and so far, they are helping me to ward off those nasty germ-monsters lurking in every hall way and on every doorknob (fingers are currently crossed!).

These are really in no particular order and could most likely apply to any normal person in any profession, not just singers. Here are my Seven Healthy Singing Habits:

1. Water is your best friend! Oh, yes it is! Ok, so I know this is common knowledge to the whole wide world, but have you seriously ever stopped to think about what a miracle-worker water is? Your body depends upon it to thrive, and more importantly, to live and perform all functions necessary to a healthy body. Water flushes out bad toxins in your system. Aside from that, water is an incredible thirst-quencher with a whopping zero calories. You cannot do any better than room temperature water to hydrate your vocal cords when singing.

The downside to consuming the recommended amount of water (8 servings of 8 oz per day) is the initial onset of having to use the bathroom all the time, but I've been assured that your body will adjust over time.

The other downside would be the major use of plastic bottles (for those of you going green), but that is easily fixed with one of my favorite new products on the market, the Brita reusable water bottle with a filter built right in. Fountain water stood the test in my Brita bottle and tasted just as fresh as any bottled water.

So, not only should water be consumed as much as possible all the time, but even more so if you feel a cold coming on.

2. Invest in good vitamins! I learned this lesson the hard way because I just couldn't see shelling out my hard- earned money on a daily multi that cost more than $10. However, those $10 and under vitamins just weren't doing their part to get me through the grueling school day. So I finally invested in some GNC vitamins, and almost immediately noticed a difference in my energy level. The real shock came when I compared my new GNC vitamins to my old cheapies: the cheap ones didn't even come close to the GNC ones I was paying triple for. Experts also say that your body doesn't even process those cheap vitamins the same way it does a more expensive one. Take it from me: good vitamins are worth the investment, and I think they are the single smartest thing a health-conscious singer can take.

3. When you feel a cold coming on, fight back! There are definitely several different actions to take when you feel like you're getting sick. The first thing is to immediately go wash your hands and continue to wash them thoroughly throughout the day to stop the spread of even more germs. Guzzle water like it's the end of the world (see Habit 1), take your multi (Habit 2), and then have a nice glass of EmergenC (can be bought at any supermarket or drugstore). I like EmergenC better than Airborne because it comes in tons of yummy flavors and dissolves into water a lot easier. Finally, get some rest and see if that cold doesn't leave before it gets started!

4. Go easy on the medication when you have to sing. This is something that many of singers don't think about, but it is unwise to take a pain reliever before you have to do a lot of heavy singing. The reason being is that a pain reliever's primary job is to block nerve receptors from receiving the pain signal (thus doing its job by alleviating your headache, cramps, or whatever else), but it also causes you greater risk of over-singing because you can't tell when you're straining too much. Also, decongestants are great for their original purpose, but if you try to sing while on one, again you can risk over-singing, and also do damage to your cords because the decongestant has dried up all the mucus in your sinuses.

5. Know when to stop singing. This is a big one! I wish I were Superwoman when it comes to singing, but I'm not. When my throat gets irritated or I've just done a ton of singing, I try to take some time off, even if it's just a couple of days, and I don't sing a word. It's really difficult to do, but worth the recovery time my body needs. My goal is to maintain a healthy voice all my life, so it's not worth blowing it out over any single thing.

Your body will usually tell you when it needs a break! Listen to it, take the break, and you'll be much better off in the long run, vocally and otherwise.

6. Exercise should be a priority. I see so many correlations to exercise and singing, but what I'm noticing more and more is that people who don't exercise or are overweight tend to sing flat and/or have trouble with breath support, which is a MAJOR component to being a healthy singer. When you do exercise, you are allowing more oxygen into your body on a regular basis, and your lungs love that air! You will notice as your endurance in exercise increases, your breath support also gets better. Also, I have to specifically recommend yoga just because the focus is on breathing, continuously inhaling and exhaling, and becoming more aware of the breath. This translates directly into singing and can help you become more adept at mastering control of your voice.

7. Minimize your stress. I'm kinda laughing at myself as I type this right now, because my life is just about as stressful as it's ever been. But, I realize that stress does have far-reaching, long-term effects on the body, and likewise on the voice. I do not sing as well when I'm stressed. So my solution is to employ my own ways of stress relief every single day so I don't allow myself to get too overwhelmed. I actually have a written list of things to turn to when I'm feeling blue. A few of my stress busters are taking a bubble bath, walking my yorkie outside, turning off the television and cracking open a book, and writing or journaling. All of those things tend to return me to a healthy, happy state of mind for the time being, so I use them often. If I can't alleviate a stressor, at least I can forget about it for a while. Make your own list of stress-busters and vow to do a couple things on the list every time you're feeling sub-par. Your body and your voice will thank you for it.

Well, that's my list of healthy habits! Hope you get a chance to try one or all of these and they help you gain your best voice ever! As always, happy (and healthy) singing!

The Voice Returns!

This past Sunday, February 5th saw the return of one of my favorite new shows, NBC's The Voice. Last year, I thoroughly enjoyed this entertaining fresh-breath-of-air music show that in my opinion far outweighs the tired concepts of American Idol and The Sing-Off.

What I love so much about this show is that so many of these singers remind me of myself. They love music so much that they can't not perform. It is in their blood. They feel like if they aren't able to do something with their music, they will face a fate worse than dying; they will face the reality of never having truly lived to their full potential.

I love the variety of the voices that appear on the show, especially this season. I have to give props to the classically-trained singer, Chris Mann who appeared on the show on Sunday and belted out a beautiful rendition of an Italian song. I loved what he said to the judges about being tired of trying to "shrink his voice", so he just decided for the show to sing with his true voice. I hope he goes a long way on the show!

I really enjoy the fact that all four vocal coaches are currently enjoying their own great careers outside of the show. None of them are "has beens"; they are all doing big things right now. It's fun to listen to their critiques of each of the singers and agree or disagree with them from the comfort of my couch.

If you haven't seen The Voice, I highly recommend that you tune in on Mondays at 8pm EST on NBC! This is entertainment at its best. Not to mention, there is much to be learned about the singing craft and its current trends. Happy watching!

Using Failure to Motivate New Success

A few days ago, I awoke suddenly from a nightmare about a past music failure I'd experienced back in high school. In real life, I was a sophomore and had signed up for a district music competition where I was performing an original song I had penned specifically for that event. I remember working so hard for weeks at my little Casio keyboard, writing furiously in my notebook to make the song exactly what I wanted it to be. When the day of the performance came around, I sang the song and gave it my all. Unfortunately, the judges didn't care for it and I didn't advance to Nationals that year.

The dream was almost an exact retelling of the actual event. I woke up suddenly after getting the news that I hadn't advanced in the competition. My first conscious feeling was dread in my apparent and embarrassing failure in music, and then another thought occurred to me: but I'm a music teacher! Once I fully came to and realized that the event was actually in my past, I was able to comfort myself with the fact that that particular failure didn't seem to set me back in my musical career as much as it could have. In fact I hadn't even thought about it in a long time.

I do remember being devastated after the event and feeling that maybe I didn't cut it as a songwriter. I believe I took some time off, but not too much before I was back writing and singing my original material again.

The tendency seems to be that after we fail at something, it can be easy to give up or take a longer break than necessary from that particular thing. Why would you want to try something again that you've already failed at? Herein lies the lesson. Just because you've failed at something, even something that you have talent in, doesn't mean you shouldn't attempt it again for the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time. Eventually, you'll have logged enough failures that you are bound to have some experience under you belt and are that much closer to success.

Please don't discount the life experience you gain from every failure. It will grow you as a musician, singer, or whatever else you are in life.

So, I issue a challenge today: think about something that you've tried in the past and failed at and have maybe been too scared to attempt since then. Now, I want you to try again! What if you fail again? So what? Dust yourself off and chalk it up as life experience. Been aching to audition for the local musical in town even though it scares the life out of you? Do it anyway! What if you succeed? What if it leads to greater opportunities than you ever thought possible?

Do me a favor: once you've tried this challenge, post a comment on this blog or on my facebook letting me know how it went. It really doesn't matter if you fail or succeed; as long as you try again. I think you'll be surprised at what you can do when you take a leap out of your comfort zone and allow your failures to catapult you to even greater successes!

Update! (Or, Where in the World Have I Been?)

Well, hello again, blog! I am sorry to say that as soon as I began getting ready for my new high school choral position, I completely stopped updating this blog! It's hard to believe it's already been a half a year! Here we are, already half-way through January of 2012! It's amazing how time flies when you're having fun.

I don't know if you're into New Year's Resolutions, but it's something I try to do each year, and I attempt to make them attainable things in different areas of my life that need work. Several of my musical goals I'll list here: one of them is to update my blog regularly (that is, at least once per month) and also to get some songwriting done this year. I didn't do a whole lot of writing in 2011, and I miss it! So in 2012, I hope to tap back into my creative side and write at least 5 songs.

Now onto the update. Since my last post, I have started my new choral job and have already completed the first half of the school year. All I can say is that the cliche is true: nothing can prepare you for teaching like your first year! It has been a whirlwind!

First of all, I have some really talented students. They have totally upped the stakes for me. What I used to spend minutes on checking before I would teach, now I'm sure to study out to make sure I really, really know what I'm talking about! High school students can sniff a fake or a lie in an instant! But I am amazed at my students' abilities to learn music. I have each of my choir students five days a week, and I wouldn't have it any other way. We can really dive into the material, learn it well, and have some fun while doing so.

I am also proud to say that once-foreign words to me like All-County, FVA, ACDA, and MPA are no longer a major source of confusion for me. My motto this year has been to take every thing one step and one day at a time, while learning along the way. I can't believe how much I've learned in such a short period of time!

My students had the opportunity to audition for Disney World's Candlelight Production, which is a spectacular Christmas program that runs from the end of November through New Years at Epcot. We started working on the audition pieces probably around the first week of school. We sent in our audition dvd, and received word that we'd been accepted! Then came the really hard part of learning fifteen songs for the show, all of them SATB scores including Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus". On December 5th, I accompanied 48 of my high school choral students to Disney World and got to hear them sing in Candlelight! It was one of the proudest moments of my life and one of the coolest things I've ever done in Florida!

Finally, while settling into my new job as chorus teacher, I was observed by another teacher at my school, and given the great honor of Teacher of the Month for December! It made me so proud to know that my hard work is paying off and someone else is taking notice that I am trying to make a lasting difference in the lives of my music students.

That is an update on my little world. I will be sure to address many exciting singing topics this year such as auditioning, taking criticism, finding your voice part, and song-writing! It's good to be back! Please remember, if you have a voice question or comment, you can always post it to this blog! Happy New Year!

(This is a pic of me posing with the Golden Apple Award, for receiving Teacher of the Month at my school in January!)

Inject Some Enthusiasm

I have to admit that I'm having an off day. My energy is not quite up to par, but I think this makes it a great time to discuss a concept that is so important to utilize in singing, in making music, and most importantly, in living life.

This is the concept of enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is vital to the success of your life. Remember the quote, "if you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything"? Sometimes you lose your zest for life because you think you have nothing to be excited about. The solution is to inject a little enthusiasm into the many tasks in your day and see if it doesn't change for the better.

I use this technique when running a choir rehearsal on a weeknight. I realize that people have been working all day, and I appreciate that they are committed enough to show up for a two hour rehearsal after a long work day. I know they're tired; so am I! But if I can get them enthusiastic about what they are singing and how they are singing, rehearsal goes from drab to fab, and those two hours fly like minutes!

You can inject enthusiasm into just about any task and make it more desirable to check off your to-do list. Gotta clean the house? Put on some good jazz tunes (or whatever else you prefer to listen to) and double your cleaning as an exercise routine. Need to run some unexciting errands? Envision how you will feel after you've completed them and imagine how the completed tasks will make your life easier. Have to brave the long morning commute? Download some new podcasts to your mp3 player and use your time in the car as "personal development". The fact is, you can turn anything you have to do into a more desirable task if you find a way to develop some enthusiasm for it.

In music, if I'm feeling apathetic about a particular task I have to do (chart a song in a new key, for instance), I first assign myself a time limit to work on the project. Usually it's 30 minutes to an hour. I promise myself that if I can't get into the work at the end of the time period that I can quit for the day and at least I'll have gotten started. But what usually happens is I get into the project and get excited about it and plow through until it's done.

Are there areas of your life that need an injection of enthusiasm? Maybe your singing needs some new life. Try to imagine what the author of the material you're singing was thinking and feeling when he/she penned the words, then try to get in that same spirit. Experiment with different vocal tones and dynamic levels. Research the style of music you're performing and see if you can find out something interesting about it that you didn't know before. Or, go completely off the wall and choose a new piece of music in a different genre than you ever performed before (reggae, anyone?) No matter what you do to spice up the music in your life, taking the time to become enthusiastic about it will be anything but boring!

The Vocal Warm-up and What It can do for You

Hello fellow singers! I know it's been a while since I last posted, but rest assured, once I begin my new job as a chorus teacher, I am sure to have an array of subject matter and stories to tell you! For now, I want to take a moment to speak on one of the most important parts of vocal health, and that is the vocal warm-up.

Anytime I teach a private voice lesson, I begin with a series of stretches. (Some of these are covered in my previous blog post: Vocal Secret Weapon #3). The concept behind stretching is to let the body know that you're getting ready to sing and also to remind yourself that singing is a full-body experience. It's also simply easier to sing when all the muscles of the body are warm as opposed to tensed up.

After we stretch (and yes, I always stretch and sing with my students; it's unreasonable to expect them to do something that I can't do!), I take the student through vocal warm-ups. This might surprise you, but I spend at least half of each voice lesson on vocal warm-ups. Why? They are so important to helping a singer master the correct technique, and they can also be directly incorporated into the singer's repertoire, or "real life" material, as I like to call it.

The main purpose of vocal warm-ups are to help the vocal cords avoid injury. Aside from that, warm-ups prepare the body for heavy singing, help develop agility in the ranges, and get the singer in the habit of practicing good vocal technique!!! It's a win-win situation all around when you warm-up.

One thing I have to emphasize when talking about vocal warm-ups is that they are just that: warm-ups. You perform them as a preliminary exercise to singing whatever other material you're practicing. Therefore, they shouldn't be perfect or you wouldn't even need to use them! When I was recording some of my own vocal exercises for my students, I actually had not sung at all that day before I began. I used those exercises as my warm-up while recording them! They aren't perfect, but they illustrate the way warm-ups are supposed to sound, and more importantly, they provided the perfect warm-up for my voice that day. When you are performing warm-ups, they should be done with ease and should bring you more energy, not drain it! If the exercise is too strenuous, then it shouldn't be considered a warm-up. You don't want to do the hard work before you've even have a chance to sing a song!

Now that I've hopefully talked you into adding a warm-up routine to your singing, you may be wondering where to find warm-ups. The answer to that is easy. Look around you; they are everywhere! You can easily find warm-ups on the internet. Use this quick guide to help you evaluate if a particular warm-up will work.

1. Make sure the warm-up is easy to understand

2. Make sure you can perform the warm-up with ease to a certain degree and that it doesn't tire out your voice or temporarily decrease your range

3. After you perform it, you should feel "warm" around the throat and articulators. That's usually a good sign that you can begin practicing your other material

4. Make sure the warm-up actually helps your voice develop and grow

Warm-ups are critical to your success as a singer! They will ultimately help you increase your range and memorize what it feels like to sing properly.

From Choir Singer to Chorus Teacher

On April 10, 2008, I wrote these words in my personal journal:

"I've decided to wholeheartedly pursue teaching. I am getting everything together that I need, including all of my references. And, mark my words, Journal, I will get hired somewhere and I will make an amazing teacher. It has always been in my heart to teach."

If I'd only known how long and at times, how rough the journey would be, I most likely would have given up sooner. That was over three years ago, and over the past three years, I worked harder than I ever have before, became a substitute, went back to school, took a slew of tests, applied for jobs, interviewed, got rejected, cried, said I was done, then finally dusted myself off again and told myself I was worth a shot as a music teacher. I just needed the right school to give me a chance.

On Tuesday of this week, I had all but given up. We all have dreams that at times in our lives have to be laid at the altar, so to speak, because they are taking our energy away from other areas of our lives that could be more productive. I was driving to my church choir rehearsal and prayed and released what I thought was a dead dream of teaching into God's hands.

Several hours later, I found out that a high school I had interviewed for a week ago wanted to hire me as the Chorus Teacher! I have to be honest and say that after three years of relentlessly pursuing a goal with as much gusto as I could muster, I was a bit numb when I finally, finally accomplished it! I had never gotten past the point of rejection before, so now that I was on the other side, I had a whole new set of feelings to deal with. Namely, what on earth am I going to teach these kids?

Of course, now that the news has settled, my organizational skills have kicked in and I know that I'm more than capable of giving my students a quality music education. It's what I love to do when I teach private lessons, so I know I can do it in a classroom setting.

All I needed was one chance, and now that I've been given it, I vow to be the best music teacher that I can possibly be. These students won't know what tornado of a 5 foot woman hit them!

I'm so glad I didn't give up. My life has now opened up to this new road on my journey and I'm overjoyed to get the chance to take it. I believe that God placed me right where I needed to be, in front of the right people, and it was time for me to get my shot!

I also need to say that there are countless people along this journey who have helped me, encouraged me, given me invaluable information, and assured me that I was worth it. If you had anything to do with any of these things, you know who you are and I have to tell you that I am eternally grateful and couldn't have done it without you! Thank you.

Finally, now that I've accomplished my goal of becoming a teacher, I needed to set a new goal to strive for. I'm going to cut myself some slack for this school year so I can learn the ropes of being a first year high school teacher (gulp!), but eventually my long-term goal is to be Teacher of the Year, either at my school or for the county, whichever comes first! I'll let you know when that happens!

Please don't give up on your dreams. You never know if you're a phone call away from them coming true!