Are you wondering how to recover from vocal fatigue quickly?
If your voice gets tired from singing or speaking, then stay tuned because in this video, I am
going to explain what voice fatigue really is, the only way to treat a tired voice and
even better, how to avoid vocal fatigue.
You will also learn how to recognize if you experience vocal fatigue and how to build
vocal endurance.
And if you stay until the end, I will share with you a checklist of vocal behaviours to
avoid so that you can keep your voice healthy for many years to come.
So, make sure to keep on watching.
Hi and welcome!
For those who don’t know me, I am Katarina from How 2 Improve Singing and here on this
channel, I share tips on how to use your voice in a healthy and efficient way.
So, if you are new here, consider subscribing to my channel and hitting that bell notification
below this video.
And I would like to know if your voice gets tired either from singing or talking.
Please let me know in the comments down below and share with me the ways you treat your
tired voice.
This video was inspired by a question I got from one of my followers.
She asked: My voice gets tired easily.
What do I do?
This is a great question because I often hear similar complaints.
My “voice feels tired when I talk too much”, “my voice feels scratchy after singing”,
or “it feels like I have to put more effort into singing at the end of my practice”.
To be honest with you, vocal fatigue is not completely understood by voice scientists
and doctors but I will try to explain it as good as I can.
The one thing I can tell you for sure is that your voice is not designed to get tired.
It’s not like any other muscle in your body that gets tired from a physical activity.
Sometimes, when you get a good body workout in the gym, your muscles feel tired and it’s
ok.
But your voice works in a different way.
If you can barely talk after a good vocal practice, that is not a good sign.
That is a warning sign that your voice is either not accustomed to that kind of use
or a warming sign of a more serious problem.
Simply said: vocal fatigue is a pathology.
But don’t panic yet.
There are ways to treat and avoid vocal fatigue.
First, let’s talk about vocal fatigue symptoms.
Here are some examples of tired voice symptoms: the voice quality declines during speaking
or singing, your voice may get progressively hoarse or breathy.
You can even loose your voice at some point in your vocal practice.
Or you may be suddenly unable to sustain a sound or you may not be able to sing certain
pitches or at certain volume levels at the end of a vocal performance.
Also, you may need to exert more vocal effort to achieve the same level of singing or speaking.
Or you may even experience pain in your throat.
Basically, if your voice becomes progressively weaker and you are unable to perform vocal
tasks that you were able to do before the speaking or singing activity, you may be experiencing
voice fatigue symptoms.
Even though the mechanism of vocal fatigue is not completely known, scientists agree
that there are two types of vocal fatigue: muscle fatigue and tissue fatigue.
Muscle fatigue is probably caused by muscle overuse and a build-up of by-products of muscle
contractions that need to be removed.
A singer with tired laryngeal muscles may feel sore, muscle tension in the neck or even
discomfort.
This singer will probably need to put more effort to achieve normal voicing.
Tissue fatigue is caused by temporary changes or damage to the most superficial layer of
the vocal folds, the part that vibrates during sound production.
In this type of fatigue, the cells on the surface of the vocal folds are damaged or
lost due to stress put on them.
And when the structure of the vocal folds is changed, their function will be changed
too.
A singer with this type of fatigue may feel pain in throat or scratchy sensation, the
voice may be more instable and the sound production will require larger subglottal pressures.
So, what can you do?
What is the best vocal fatigue treatment?
And how to avoid vocal fatigue?
The following three steps are the only way to get rid of vocal fatigue and they are not
negotiable.
Step 1 Vocal Rest and Hydration With both types of vocal fatigue, the only
way to recovery is vocal rest.
There are two types of vocal rest: absolute and relative.
Right after you experience vocal fatigue, you should exercise absolute voice rest, which
means no talking for a few hours to give your voice a chance to recover.
You should experience improvement in your voice production after several hours.
Then continue with relative vocal rest for a couple of days, which means that you decrease
demand on your voice for example by taking vocal breaks and planning vocal use.
Vocal fatigue recovery can take somewhere from a few hours to several days depending
on the extent of the damage.
When it comes to hydration, keep those tired vocal cords hydrated by drinking or eating
sufficient amounts of liquids, especially water.
You can also opt for external hydration and if you don’t know what that is, I just recently
made a video about vocal steamers, so you can check it out here.
Step 2 Eliminate the Cause If you experience vocal fatigue on a regular
basis, it is important that you find the root of your problem and eliminate it.
Evaluate your voice use and find the cause.
Maybe you are using unhealthy vocal technique, maybe you are putting too much pressure on
the vocal folds, maybe your voice is not conditioned to sing for a long time, maybe there is an
underlying health issue that is causing your voice to get tired easily.
Sometimes, it is easy to spot the problem.
Sometimes, it’s hidden and you need the help of a specialist, which leads us to step
#3.
Step 3 Visit a Specialist As I said at the beginning of this video,
vocal fatigue is a pathology.
It can be a stand-alone group of symptoms or it can be a warning sign of a more serious
vocal issue, such as vocal nodules.
Therefore, you need to visit a specialist who can look at your vocal folds and assess
their structure and function.
This would be an ENT doctor (ear-nose and throat doctor) who specializes in voice.
Bonus tip Develop Vocal Endurance How to develop vocal endurance?
By regular vocal practice, during which you use your voice in a healthy way.
Daily vocal practice even for a short period of time is better than one vocal practice
for several hours.
And don’t forget to include other types of exercises, other than just vocal exercises,
because your instrument is your whole body.
Now, if you want to keep your voice healthy for many years to come, click this link or
a link in the description below to get a free checklist with my voice care tips for singers.
It may help you identify some causes of your vocal fatigue so that you can start eliminating
them.
In my next video, I am going to continue talking about vocal health and vocal hygiene.
More specifically, I will be talking about hoarseness of voice.
So, don’t forget to click the subscribe button and the bell icon so that you get notified
when a new video is live.
If you liked this video, please click the like button and share it with your friends.
For now, I just say: see you soon.