5 Bad Habits That Are Wrecking Your Vocal Cords

5 Bad Habits That Are Wrecking Your Vocal Cords Sign up successful Bonus: Staying hydrated will also benefit your overall health, helping you to avoid infections and colds. Even mild dehydration can affect your bodys efficiency, leading to ailments like headaches and fatigue. 2. Relying on caffeine or alcohol. Similar to point #1, avoid the overuse of caffeine and alcohol, which both lead to dehydration. Alcohol causes the muscles in your throat to constrict, which may affect your range, and caffeine contributes to excessive dryness in the throat. While a cup of coffee to wake you up or one drink to calm your nerves before a show arent going to necessarily ruin your performance, its best to limit these drinks. And if you must have one, follow it up with an extra glass of water. 3. Skipping your warm-ups. Back to the athlete comparison: Similar to how the athlete needs to warm up the muscles in his or her body, warming up each limb to prevent injuries and help with overall performance, a singer should take vocal warm-ups into account before each and every practice session. Your voice teacher can show you various warm-ups to try, but a few popular strategies are lip trills, humming in an ascending and then descending pattern, and singing vowels in the same pattern. Your warm-up should leave your voice and throat relaxed, and your breathing under control. (Want some extra warm-up tips? Download our free singing video series here.) 4. Overusing your voice. Imagine youre at a loud concert or event. The music is so loud, you have to yell to speak to a friend standing right next to you. You might not think twice about it at the time, but do this all night, and youll leave the show as hoarse as a teenage girl screaming at a Justin Bieber concert. Do this often, and youre putting yourself at risk for a vocal injury. This also applies to everyday practice sessions. Keep yourself hydrated (seeing a pattern here?), and take breaks every so often to avoid overuse. Lastly, if you have a performance coming up, try to rest your voice as much as possible before (and after!) the event. 5. Belting without proper training. Belting, a style of singing that produces volume and power, can be extremely dangerous for singers who arent trained properly. Without this training, you may end up forcing some of the notes, which can lead to vocal cord damage and trauma. Healthy belting takes a lot of practice, and not all voices are made to do so but luckily, there are other strategies you can use to generate power. Some singers take years to train their voices to belt naturally and properly. Find a singing teacher with specific training, and discuss your goals. Its recommended that you master breath control, pitch and other mechanics of singing before attempting to learn how to belt. You might also like What Can I Expect At My First Voice Lesson? Learning to Sing: The Truth Behind 4 Common Misconceptions Ear Training Exercises: Recognizing Intervals