LA Music Review | Art, stories and advice
by Carley Varley
What are the ways to be ready for your upcoming gig? Here are some tips to sound the best today!
- Vocal Steaming
The past three years I have discovered something called vocal steaming. I was a bit skeptical at first, I thought it can’t work that well but I was quite wrong! Vocal steaming is a way to warm up your voice before doing a vocal warm up, inhaling steam warms up your vocal cords and moistens them too. This is great when you to go sing because your vocal cords will be warmed up and ready to go.
You can find vocal steamers online, Dr. Nelson’s steamer is the one I use and I absolutely love it and find it very helpful. If you don’t have a steamer you can fill a bowl with hot water and put a towel over your head and inhale steam, you can also inhale the hot steam in a sauna or shower. This will help you warm up before a gig, I usually steam 30 minutes to an hour before I sing.
- Water, lemon and ginger
Another tip to warming up your voice before a gig is drinking lots of water and also warm water with honey, lemon and ginger. Ginger is one of the best things your voice and I cannot recommend it enough. Honey is also great for your voice, honey and lemon in hot water is very popular among singers and is well known for helping when singers have colds/flu etc.
Ginger I feel is the best for your voice in terms of warming your throat, it also works as an anti-inflammatory. Drinking this before a gig is very good for your voice and is something I do before I sing every week. Ginger tea without caffeine is also a great drink to have to warm up your voice, you can buy this at local stores, make sure it doesn’t contain caffeine.
- Exercises for your vocals
Finally exercises for your vocals, remember to warm up for at least 20-30 minutes before you sing. This will mean that your voice is in tip top shape. I often begin by doing humming exercises, then scales, then belts and I finish with holding notes for 12-24 seconds to ensure my breathing is supported when I sing too.
You can find exercises online, videos of demonstrations and you can also find podcasts on Spotify for vocal exercises too. Warming up your voice is so important before a gig, avoiding it can lead to vocal damage and strain on your voice, it will also mean you don’t sound as good because you haven’t warmed up your voice.
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