Bad Vocal Days

Oh boy, what a day. You get up, ready to sing and out comes ….well, not what you expected or want. It’s almost as if your vocal cords are working against you, your sound is hobble, your range is limited and it scares you. Now, while you should work with a vocal coach or need to make a trip to a speech pathologist or ENT if you are experiencing consistent vocal issues but in this article we are going to assume that your bad days are less in number than your good days. I have found that bad vocal days require some observation. Bad vocal days can have different causes and are very individual. One might be very sensitive to certain foods, another one to emotions or both and if in addition to that we dont get enough sleep or too much stress, that pretty explains the reasons for our bad vocal day. The question is how can you prevent having these kind of days, especially during tours or back to back performances. My answer again: Observe yourself and learn to know what your body and therefor your voice likes and needs. I for example know that emotions are an important trigger for me, if I’ve had an unpleasant situation (eg dispute, argument etc) it takes some time to loosen up and be able to get into my zone. I first need to clear my head and then I’m ready to sing, going for a run or talking to someone usually helps. I also know that red wine (actually alcohol in general but in particular red wine), late night snacks and a lack of sleep will pretty much guarantee a bad vocal day for me, whereas other people might be totally fine. I also find it very helpful to not judge yourself too harshly when you have a bad day. The self-distruct tendencies by giving yourself lots of latitude in solving vocal problems, does not help, it’s rather contra productive. Try to be king to yourself, step back and look at the big picture. Know your tendencies and the conditions you need to sing at your best. You might find yourself in the situation where you have to perform on a bad vocal day. Of course the question is if you are having a bad vocal day because you’re worrying about the performance or if you would have had it anyway but in either way, you need to sing that day and you need to make yourself comfortable enough. One major thing I can recommend is warming up! On a regular day it takes me between 5-15 min to get my voice ready, on a bad day its more like 30-45 min of exercises and vocalization. During soundcheck make sure the microphone is set to a comfortable level for you, sing as loud or soft as you are going to sing during the performance (this should be done anyways, no matter if you have a great or bad vocal day) but you might want to sing a little softer and definitely work more with technique on a bad vocal day and don’t start straining because once you get there its vey hard to come out of your throat again. In order to figure out what might prevent you from being at your peek, ask yourself a couple of questions: I would like to share with you a check list from Brett Manning from Singing Success which I have slightly modified. The checklist is divided in 5 sections which you can remember with this acrostic: NEATS That stands for: Nutritional (what did I eat?) Emotional (What am I feeling?) Awareness (What am I thinking right now?) Technical (What vocal technique issues are there?) Spiritual (How have I violated my conscience?) Nutritional checklist for Bad Vocal Days: 1. Did I eat something irritating? (Remember, pepperoni, late nights, and reflux go together like old friends.) 2. Have I been eating poorly for several days now? (garbage in, garbage out) 3. Have I taken my supplements? (I sometimes forget, so you probably do too.) 4. Am I hungry? (Singing uses energy. You need to have fuel.) Emotional checklist for Bad Vocal Days: 1. Sad? 2. Mad? 3. Lonely? 4. Angry? 5. Hurt? 6. Detached? 7. Discouraged? 8. Frustrated? 9. Victim? 10. Overwhelmed? Awareness checklist for Bad Vocal Days: 1. What issue is "pecking" at my thoughts? (Itchy thoughts can make an itchy throat.) 2. Is there a distraction that I should deal with first? (take care of business) 3. Is there some unfinished mental task? (Get it down on paper if necessary, so it will leave you alone long enough to sing.) Technical checklist for Bad Vocal Days: 1. Morning warm-up routine (lip rolls, edge, hum) 2. Deal with rough spots in range 3. Replace lyrics with appropriate exercise sounds if need be ( my program walks you through this, as you may know.) Spiritual checklist: 1. What weighs on my conscience? 2. Face it 3. Confess it 4. Ask for forgiveness 5. Forgive any and all grudges against others