Voice care tips from a vocal physiotherapist
Your singing teacher is doing vital work: good technique is the foundation of a healthy voice, and nothing in this post replaces that. But if you're only thinking about your singing, and not what's happening to your voice the other 23 hours of the day, you may be missing some of the most impactful changes you can make. Here are three things I see consistently overlooked in a singer's voice care routine.
1. Hydration: it's not just drinking more water
You've been drinking more water for your vocal health. *Cheers and applause!* Yes, your vocal folds need to be well hydrated to vibrate efficiently and resist the friction of heavy use. But hydration for singers is a bit more nuanced than just carrying a water bottle everywhere, or chugging 2 litres first thing in a morning.
There are two types of hydration that matter for your voice: systemic (how hydrated your whole body is, including what you drink) and surface (the moisture directly at vocal fold level). Drinking water doesn't immediately improve your vocal fold hydration, it can take time to work through your system (around 2-4 hours in fact). Surface hydration, achieved through things like nebulising or steam inhalation, delivers moisture directly to the mucous membranes and can have a faster, more localised effect. Both together can ensure lovely lubricated folds when you need them most!
A few practical principles:
1. Sip water little and often. Using a bottle that is divided into times/ amounts per hour can be useful to help ensure you are drinking regularly, especially if you are a bit neurospicy like me and you just forget to drink for hours!
2. Aim for pale yellow urine as your hydration guide. It's more reliable than counting glasses/measuring millilitres.
3. If you're in a dry environment like dusty backstage areas, air conditioned environments (cruise ship workers I see you), or flying to gigs regularly, a nebuliser can help give you a burst of hydration to help ease that dryness. Just make sure you are drinking water too, and adjust the amount you drink to match (see point 2).
A note on medications: some common medications like antihistamines, certain antidepressants, and decongestants have a drying effect on mucous membranes, including the vocal folds. If you take any of these regularly and notice ongoing dryness, it's worth raising with your GP or a vocal health specialist for more advice.
2. Manage your overall vocal load, not just your singing
When I first started singing regularly as a performer, I tended to think about vocal load in terms of rehearsal hours and performances only. Safe to say I have learned my lesson, and that’s what this is all about, because your voice doesn't distinguish between a two-hour run of a show and a two-hour noisy dinner with friends. Both cost you.
Vocal load is cumulative. Every hour you spend speaking, singing, teaching, or projecting in a loud space adds to the total. The problem is that the speaking voice often takes the biggest toll because it's constant, it's less considered, and it rarely gets the same warm-up, cool-down, or technical attention that singing does.
Think of your voice like a budget. You have a certain amount to spend each day, and the goal is to make sure the most important things (your performances, your rehearsals, your lessons) get the best of what you've got. That means making deliberate choices about where the rest goes.
My favourite way to look at your overall vocal load is with the “spoon method”:
1. Imagine that the limit of your voice use, the amount of vocal load available before your voice goes kaputt, is measured in spoons. Let’s use 10 spoons per day as an example.
2. Every vocal task you do requires a payment in spoons. That phone call with your Mum: 2 spoons (she’s got a lot of questions about your new relationship). Your part time job in a bar in evenings: 4 spoons (it’s karaoke night every night). Every day regular voice use: 1-2 spoons. Your daily singing practice: 1 spoon. Notice that actually it’s not always the singing that costs the most.
3. Now imagine you’ve got a busy week: auditions, work, a birthday party. You’re using 11 spoons a day. You’re running in a spoon deficit, and you don’t have an overdraft!
4. It can be difficult, but trying to balance your spoon account can make sure that you don’t end up in major debt, and by that I mean losing your voice.
5. How can you do that? Speak less on heavy singing days; take vocal “naps” (periods of short vocal rest to let the system calm down and reset); plan your day or week to ensure balance and stop vocal burnout in its tracks; warm up and...you guessed it...cool down!
3. Cool down: the step almost everyone skips
If you wouldn't finish a hard run and immediately sit down, why would you do the same with your voice? A vocal cool-down after intensive use is one of the simplest things you can do, and it's also the thing I see skipped most often *cries in vocal health.*
After singing, the muscles involved in phonation, including the intrinsic laryngeal muscles and the muscles of the neck, tongue, and jaw, are fatigued. The vocal folds may have experienced some degree of tissue swelling/inflammation, particularly after sustained high-intensity use. Cooling down helps bring the voice and vocal musculature gently back to a neutral state, reduces residual tension, and can lower the risk of the inflammation becoming a longer-term issue.
A cool-down doesn't need to be long. Five minutes can often be enough.
Effective options include:
Humming or gliding on a descending scale. This keeps the voice active but lowers the effort level gradually.
Semi-occluded vocal tract exercises (SOVTEs). Singing through a wide straw into a small amount of water, lip trills, mouth trumpets, bubbling, or your other personal favourite, can be particularly effective. If you don’t know what SOVTE works for you, speak with a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) or experienced vocal coach with adequate training.
Light singing in opposition. You’ve spent two hours belting at the top of your range? Try some low effort singing in the lower end of your legit sound. You’re using your intrinsic laryngeal muscles in a different way which can help to stretch and gently allow them to cool down. This one shouldn’t be overdone, especially if you’re vocally tired! The goal is a gradual, gentle return to a relaxed, resting state. Think of it as helping your voice gently land, rather than just turning it off (light a light switch...stagey).
Good vocal technique with your singing teacher builds a strong instrument. But how you treat that instrument between sessions - how you hydrate, how you manage your vocal load across the whole day, and whether you give your voice the chance to recover after use - determines how reliably it performs for you over time. These aren't advanced concepts. They're fundamentals, and they're available to every singer regardless of level or genre.
If you're experiencing vocal fatigue, or a sense that your body isn't recovering the way it used to, a one-to-one vocal physiotherapy session can give you a picture of what's going on and a personalised plan to address it.
Book a vocal physiotherapy assessment →
If you have been having persistent hoarseness, vocal changes or loss of voice for more than 3 weeks, see your GP and ask to be referred to a voice specialist ENT. Preferably one who can do an endoscopic evaluation with a stroboscope!
I hope this has been helpful!
Adam | Singing Physio
