How to Protect Your Voice When Gigging a Lot

Whether you’re on the road touring or gigging in your own town, it doesn’t take long to figure out you are working a job. Touring is great, but there are some brutal reminders I got this fall, when my band and I just played 21 shows in 21 different cities over the course of one month. 

Everyone thinks that being the lead singer is the cushiest job. You have less gear to worry about, you get the most recognition, and you get asked to sign the most boobs. The truth is when your instrument is literally part of your anatomy, you have to ACTUALLY take care of yourself. This is often an uphill battle on tour. 

I decided to give Andrea the week off of the blogging responsibilities and give you some tips on how to take care of your voice when touring. Here are my tips from my time on the road so you can sing your best and stay safe.

The Rockstar Lifestyle 

I personally hardly drink on tour.  I’ve seen plenty of singers who do, but none who sing difficult, technical material and drink on the regular while on the road. Smoking (anything) also makes your vocal life immediately more difficult. 

If I drink, my voice isn’t going to be the same for 24 hours. During the tour, I only drank when there were two days off. This only happened one time since we were performing back to back. And even then, there is a recovery process. I spent the next day resting my voice, hyper hydrating, eating pineapple and showering to let my chords soak up as much steam as possible.

I also keep my caffeine intake confined to the mornings. Caffeine can dehydrate you, even if you drink a ton of water. Keep yourself hydrated! Keep that piss clear!

Stay as healthy as possible 

I tried to get myself in the best physical shape before the tour.  It's good to view a tour as an athletic event - something to train you train your entire body for.  A healthy diet and exercise is crucial. When you get on the road, both become increasingly difficult to maintain. 

You should definitely take your health into consideration if you aren’t already. Workout, eat right, get sleep, and keep hydrated AHEAD OF TIME. It’s not easy at home, and it’s almost impossible to keep up with on tour. But try your best and your voice will thank you.

You may not have access to a healthy meal on the road.  Whenever you can, stop at grocery stores. In many less populated stretches, however, there is only fast food.  During these times I would make sure to pick up fruit at gas stations whenever available or at least guzzle sugary bottled green juice that would give me a few veggie servings. Always prioritize eating healthy even when its hard.  

Getting enough sleep was tough but I stole moments when I could. Luckily I’m the worst driver in the band, so I got to sleep while the other bandmates drove us around. Not everyone has that luxury, so make sure that you’re getting naps during down periods. And get used to the FOMO feeling. It beats being tired on stage. It also beats getting sick from exhaustion.

Stress is not Your Friend 

Ok, it’s never great to be stressed out. But your voice is really sensitive to stress. Whatever you can do to calm yourself down, do it. I practice mindfulness and meditation whenever I can to relieve stress. I try to exercise to blow off steam and shower to inhale steam. 

You can’t cram self-care. You need to practice it all the time. But when you’re doing a lot of gigging or touring intensely, you need to up the ante. Take care of your body like it’s your job because it literally is. You might feel like you’re babying yourself. But you wouldn’t accuse your bassist of babying his guitar by replacing the strings. 

And traveling is stressful. You don’t have much privacy, it can be hard to sleep. Your bandmates become your roommates and your van becomes your home. If you suffer from anxiety, like so many people do, it can be a recipe for a panic attack. If you’re a lead singer, the anxiety can also impact your voice. That makes you even more stressed, and the cycle can go on and on.

Avoid Inflammation: Hydration and Air Quality

I was surprised as to how much the climate and weather changes impacted my vocal cords. The dry air in the van is horrible for your voice too. Try to get to the venue well before soundcheck time just to breathe better air that isn’t being constantly recirculated. 

Whenever you sing heavily, your voice gets inflamed. So anything to counteract that inflammation is great. Even “normal inflammation” can have an impact on your voice. On our rider, I included chopped pineapple. It's an excellent source of vitamin C. It also has Bromelain, an enzyme that reduces and prevents throat and sinus inflammation and mucus production. 

Steam is also great for your voice. Singing in the shower clears out all the mucus. Shower as much as possible when you are performing a lot. In some shows I got spoiled with showers in the dressing rooms on tour but regardless in general I took about three showers a day. Stay in the bathroom after your shower so you can breathe that glorious steam!  Try not to talk for 20 min after your shower to let your chords adjust to the temperature change before vibrating.

Warm Up and Shut up!

When you’re in the shower, your voice will feel great and you’ll feel like Superman.Your voice will feel nice and loose. But do things gradually. I have a tendency to belt it out way before I should. Do as I say not as I do. Don’t take advantage and hit those high notes. Save the difficult notes for the stage.

After a long ride in the van breathing in hot dry air, my head voice and vocal mask were usually pretty sleepy. So these are the areas I generally focus on for vocal warm-ups. I particularly like warming my mask up with "muh" (barely opening your mouth and mostly focusing on the "mmm" so most of that vibration stays in the sinuses. I start at a comfortable, yet powerful place and then take my time getting higher. Once both are properly warmed up, I will do some "whoop" slides (up , seamlessly spanning my chest voice, high mix, high head voice, and then all the way back down. 

Fan Communication was a mistake I learned the hard way. After the show we were selling our own merch. I went down to talk to people. After the show a lot of people are incredibly inebriated. It’s pretty much impossible not to yell. After you sing pretty heavily, that’s when your voice is the most vulnerable and chatting it up with our new fans just increased the inflammation. I was really tired the next day - I had to do a lot of recovery. 

Some stars like Katy Perry, John Mayer will go on complete vocal rest throughout the day. They will literally not talk. I didn’t go to that extreme, but I tried not to talk after the show. 

Do What You Can 

Most of these tips are just good habits in general. When you're touring or doing a string of back to back gigs, it might be hard. But remember that your voice is your instrument and it's a part of your body. Be a professional and take care of your tools.