14 Easy Ways Worship Leaders can Prevent Vocal Damage

In my article "10 Early Warning Signs..." I explained the early warning signs of vocal damage.

This article explains how to easily prevent vocal damage.

"Prevention is better than cure"

When it comes to the voice, it is far easier to prevent damage than to try and repair damage.

1. Stay Hydrated - Drink lots of water daily and steam regularly. 

2. Warm up  - I cannot stress enough how important it is to warm up especially if you are a gospel singer.

3. Warm Down - Adopt a warm -down routine to help reset your voice box.

4. Avoid Shouting  - Shouting whilst singing is trying to bring your speaking voice up way too high. As soon as you start to strain or feel like you're reaching/pulling up you have exceeded your chest range and need to mix in the head voice.

5. Don't whisper - Whispering is worse than shouting and causes more trauma by putting extra strain on the vocal cords. 

​6. Rest - If your body is tired, you know you have to rest. So, if your voice is tired? Yep, you got it, you have to rest.

7. Avoid Over-singing  -  I describe over-singing as "where you vocally exceed more than is necessary at a point in a song where it is not essentially needed." 

8. Good breath support - Breath support is 60 percent of good singing. Without it you can do very little and limit your ability to sing high and low notes, hit pitch correctly, change placement, execute technique and so on. In short, singing relies on good breath management and it reduces the risk of vocal damage.

9. Energy  - energising your singing can help you vocalise much easy especially when singing hit high notes. If you find you are always under the pitch or get 'stuck' when trying to belt high, try adding a bit more energy by engaging  other parts of your body to sing. Watch your favourite gospel singers to see how they do it.

10.Pursue good vocal technique - seek to always use good vocal technique. Good technique includes effective breath management, correct posture, energy and imagination. 

11. Avoid clearing throat  - Harsh clearing of the voice, slams the vocal cords together. 

12. Avoid Alcohol - Alcohol can dry out the throat and cause irritation.

13. Manage allergies  - avoid foods and environments that will trigger allergies ( milk, pollen, wheat etc) if you are susceptible.  Anti histamines, dry out the voice so stay hydrated with lots of water.

14.  Hire a Good Vocal Coach  - this may be last on the list but its top of my recommendations. To understand why the 13 points above are important a good vocal coach will not only explain but will also show and demonstrate. 

As well as being able to sing, a vocal coach must also be able to:

• Teach
• Demonstrate Technique
• Understand Music 
• Be trained in or studied Voice ( Estill, CVT, SLS, Bel canto or Vocal Degree). Its not enough for a coach to just be able to sing.
• Must treat you as an individual. ( one size does not fit all)
• Use the correct instruments and aids (ie, metronome, backing track, mic, gym ball,piano, worksheets or anything appropriate to help you understand technique and develop your voice)
• Understand your vocal style ( not every voice coach can teach jazz or gospel or metal)
• Be affordable for your budget, so you can continue lessons regularly.
• Set goals AND help you achieve them.

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