Voice Remedies - Help!
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Topic: Voice Remedies - Help!
Posted By: brianwolters
Subject: Voice Remedies - Help!
Date Posted: 8/17/07 at 2:27pm
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Help! I go on stage tonight and tomorrow with Smoke on the Mountain and my voice is a little shot from allergies. Any home remidies to get my voice ready for tonight besides water (been drinking all day long)? I can talk and sing now but not sure about later...and I may have a nagging cough on stage...uggggh! A first time for everything! |
Replies:
Posted By: bbpchick
Date Posted: 8/17/07 at 3:59pm
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I drink lemon tea and honey. that usually helps me. Or just drink some straight lemon juice if its plhem at the back of your throat thats the problem. Helps me anyway
edit **
omg...I gotta take more time typing...had way too many typos there sorry about that. ------------- Kendra http://www.murphysblackbartplayer.com - www.murphysblackbartplayers.com You are NEVER too old to dress up! |
Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 8/17/07 at 4:25pm
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The staight lemon juice is great for right now but will kill your voice tomorrow. Pineapple juice will give you a boost of about five minutes of voice, but drinking that everytime you run off stage will have you peeing like a racehorse by intermission. Good luck. ------------- Patrick L. Davis Fort Findlay Playhouse |
Posted By: Debflo
Date Posted: 8/17/07 at 5:29pm
| There is a tea called "throat coat" that you can get in most herbal stores. I highly recommend it. It works wonders!!! |
Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 8/17/07 at 9:28pm
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No expert I'm still waiting for mine to mend, after it broke. Consult a local or your vioce coach., but in the mean time. Lay off throat lozeges & quick fix remedies, they only a mask & are a short term mesure at best - you will pay for it later! A sore throat is the bodies signal that the vocal chords need to rest & heal. Drop all the dairy products & alcahol, rely on your diaphram, breathing, warm up & down exercises. What I noticed over the years with pro opera & other singers, is they mix up honey in cider vinegar & gargle with it, prior to performance not during it. Let your throat tell you how far you can push, not the pressure of performance. Get a mask to cover your eyes & don't read or watch TV, switch the radio off. This probably sounds stupid, but in fact reading & while listening to music, your vocal chords are working, without you knowing. Those who have damaged thier vioce have to go thru the same process of healing, so rest them, close your eyes & shut your gob! With the performance, try speak/singing, only singing the beginning & end of each line & using speak to saliant parts of the story, untill your vioce is capable of handling it again. During the peformance, while your off stage resting cover your eyes & put a pair of ear muffs on. Even if you look like an idiot, remember your protecting a delicate instrument & don't laugh!l There is the 'entertainers secret' http://www.entertainers-secret.com.au/?gclid=CJCBtNWk_o0CFRS7YAod0lg6Sw - http://www.entertainers-secret.com.au/?gclid=CJCBtNWk_o0CFRS7YAod0lg6Sw But I would say only use it after you have recovered? ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: Linda S
Date Posted: 8/18/07 at 8:02am
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Although, I agree with Joe about vocal rest, it sounds like you need a quick fix."Throat Coat" is great. My daughter, who is a professional singer, uses it when her allergies effect her voice and she has to sing. She also does everything else that Joe said about resting your voice and gargling.
Joe, I didn't know that about your vocal cords working while you are reading or watching TV. Interesting.
Linda
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Posted By: Gaafa
Date Posted: 8/18/07 at 6:37pm
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Vioce Coat & entertianers secret would be the same horse. just with a different jockey. Which are great for a quick fix & if you need to sustain long prolonged singing periods. Inverably a lot of trained singers, espicialy in the pop rock 'n roll industry, use thier false larynx, which enables them to scream/sing for extended periods, much the same as cats do. With the reading bit, this came up a number of times, when singers have consulted with vioce pathologists after they have experianced vocal damage. It sounds stupid, but apparently true. The only patholigy I understand is how to effect an instalation, using bricks & cement.  ------------- Joe Western Gondawandaland turn right @ Perth. Hear the light & see the sound. Toi Toi Toi Chookas {{"chook [chicken] it is"} May you always play to a full house} |
Posted By: vpaoffice
Date Posted: 8/24/07 at 9:06pm
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We ran a musical for six weeks this last winter, and found that Alaskan winters are tough on voices. :)
However, our musical director used this concoction and it worked FANTASTIC!
1/2 tsp Glycerin
1/2 tsp Salt
1 cup Warm Water
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Posted By: Kathy S
Date Posted: 8/24/07 at 11:49pm
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http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/allergiesasthma/a/SinusIrrigation.htm - http://altmedicine.about.com/cs/allergiesasthma/a/SinusIrrigation.htm This may sound weird, but it really helps some people. Here is a link to a site that instructs how to do sinus irrigation along with a recipe for mixing your own saline solution. It can help to clear out the sinuses and soothe the throat if you have allergies. You can use an nose syringe to squirt the water into the nasal passages, or you can just "snort" it from your cupped hand. Make sure your equipment is clean.
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Posted By: Shatcher
Date Posted: 9/05/07 at 4:55pm
| I once knew an actor who used a shot of Jegerrrmister before each show... worked for her. hehehe |
Posted By: TonyDi
Date Posted: 9/10/07 at 7:51am
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Just for the record it's best to keep the throat moist usually water is the best. But the teas you mention are fine. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should anyone use LEMON, or ANY CITRUS drink as a rememdy. The problem is the citric acids dry out the mucous membranes of the throat and create more problems than remedies. I don't care what anybody tells you - it's more damaging to the throat than ANYthing that's out there. WARM tea is fine with little to no sugar at all - best if none. Even HONEY is a sweetener and NORMALLY a GOOD replacement for white sugar or other artificial sweetener since it's NATURAL. BUT it's still sweetener and can and likely WILL GUM UP THE WORKS as sugars do in the throat. HARD to drink that way I know. You don't want artificial sweeteners either as they dry out the throat also. If you have allergy issues, it's best to get to the doctor for an allergy injection to allay those problems rather than trying to treat the throat with less than useful things. I know, I know everybody is going to tell me - "oh I've used lemon and honey and it works". Well LUCKY for you because it's specifically drying out the mucous membranes of your throat which is COUNTER PRODUCTIVE to helping. The throat should be kept moist and if allergy issues prevail treating the throat is NOT the answer. Getting the proper medical care IS.
Don't believe me? That's fine - keep doing what you do and pay the price. I know I'll get an argument on this issue and that's fine. YOU do what you do and I'll do what I do. Hopefully YOU won't damage your voice/throat. Good luck - I hope your remedy works....just don't be surprised if it doesn't. And if you don't believe me I'll give you my credentials so you know I'm not blowing steam. Been there, done that. If you want to know, ask.
TonyDi ------------- "Almost famous" |
Posted By: Shatcher
Date Posted: 9/11/07 at 11:09am
| Gee TonyDi I thought this was a friendly chat. |
Posted By: TonyDi
Date Posted: 9/12/07 at 8:35am
Well it IS a freindly chat. I'm not being harsh...just honest and REAL. I just am adamant about certain things. There is very little I know a lot about. THIS is one of the few things I DO know a lot about. I just state the facts as I've seen them for the last 50 years I've been doing this. It's about being credible and having to hear these same old tired remedies that people SWEAR by as being 'good for you' when if fact they are by medical and scientific nature - as well as tried and failed - counter to being good for you. Many of these things give a false sense of security because people who use them say "they work" for them. Well THAT is fine - I just simply said "LUCKY FOR THEM" for whom they do work. Because LUCK is what it's all about. THE BEST thing anyone can do who has throat problems, allergy issues, or any malady relevant to using the voice as an actor OR as a singer even more importantly, is to seek MEDICAL help and not some "remedy" which rarely works aside from providing psychomatic relief when the biology contradicts it entirely. I MAY have sounded harsh in this regard. I meant no disrespect to anyone but I have NO problems stepping on toes if that's what it takes to impart (NOT IMPOSE but IMPART) what I DO know about and have learned in the 50 years of doing this that I possess. I've consulted with doctors, speech therapists and ENT specialists - and they all have, in some fashion, corroborated what I've learned and I just pass it along for anyone's edification willing to believe me when I say it. I'm not a pussyfooter. I tell it like it is without sugar coating...sorry about that. BUT I think most people here who have seen what I post from time to time have come to understand that when I DO have something to say, I usually don't say it lightly or throw it out there if I DON'T know it to be truthful.
So I apologize to anyone who thought I was being harsh or pushy. I simply said, if you don't believe me, then continue to do what you do (most people WILL anyway) and I can calculate the statistics from that bit of knowledge. So sorry you or anyone took it as harsh. It's just the facts as I've learned them from the experts (not me) and from being into it for nearly my whole life.
TonyDi ------------- "Almost famous" |