duffyweber
Member
Posts: 220
I Am A(n): Professional Voice Actor, Semi-Professional Voice Actor, Audio Engineer
Pronouns: Any OK
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Post by duffyweber on Jan 31, 2017 9:28:07 GMT -8
Hi everyone!
I'm just resting after a fairly screamy-shrieky-growly session, and I thought I'd take a minute during cooldown to share my own voice care regimen and ask for yours. I'm not by any means suggesting this is something anyone should follow to the letter - ESPECIALLY NOT #6, but rather it's what's working for me:
1. Vocal warmups done gently and consistently are a must. Get you throat ready for what you're about to ask it to do.
2. Stay hydrated - sip frequently. And rest when your throat is dry. Just because the back of your throat feels better when you drink water doesn't mean your vocal cords are magically rehydrated. Water takes about 15 minutes to get into your system. (As my Speech-Pathologist spouse will tell you, if water is actually wetting your vocal cords directly when you drink, something is very, very wrong with you.)
3. I like a warm/hot saltwater gargle.
4. When I'm congested or my throat needs to relax, I like to hit the steam room at the YMCA. And hey, a good workout is always fun.
5. I like Fisherman's Friend lozenges. Who doesn't like liquorice, menthol, capsaicin and tragacanth? ; )
*6. After a big session if my throat's really been worked over I'll usually take an NSAID like ibuprofen to help with any inflammation from vocal stress, but absolutely run this by your doctor first. It's NEVER a good idea to self-medicate. I've also heard honey has anti-inflammatory properties, and hey, a spoonful never hurt me before. Don't do this if you're allergic to anything. Again, I'm not a doctor. I just include this because it's what I've been doing.
7. REST YOUR VOICE. Just like any other muscle, if you keep working your vocal cords when they're tired, you will damage them. Let me tell you, when they put a little tube with the camera on it up your nose, and it comes through your sinuses and down your throat in order to see what's going on in there, IT DOES NOT FEEL GOOD. A rest day keeps the otolaryngologist away.
8. If you're stretching your natural range, do it easily, slowly, and warm up, warm, up WARM UP. And work up to it slowly.
Cheers!
I'm excited to hear everyone else's warmup/cooldown tips and suggestions. Also, if I'm doin' it wrong, for the love of god, tell me so. ; )
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Post by Rebekah Amber Clark on Jan 31, 2017 10:05:05 GMT -8
1. If it hurts, I won't do it. Whether that's too long a session or outside my range. I'd rather do voice over part time and work part time at McD's or 7-11 if it really came to that, rather than risk hurting myself.
2. I don't work when I'm sick.
3. I always stay hydrated. No, not suddenly realizing all of a sudden that I want to be hydrated 2 minutes before I record *cough-weekend-warrior-syndrome-cough-COUGH-don't-do-that-folks*. ALWAYS. If you are thirsty, you're already dehydrated -- that's what I've been told. 
4. Bigelow I Love Lemon (now available in herbal!) warm (NOT HOT!) + honey both before and after long sessions, and when I'm sick (and not working).
5. I don't have a specific warm up routine with any sort of official warm up exercises, because I would completely lose my mind jabbering nonsense at myself -- I had enough of that in community theater musicals, thank you! ("Bumble-beeeEEEEE bumble-BEEEEEEEeeee bumble-beeeEEEE kill-mEEEEEeeee....") I just make sure I've just had a normal conversation with at least one other person for a while first. Seems to be a natural warm-up for me and I haven't had issues yet. Exceptions would be for something like a gravelly monster voice, high-pitched voices, etc. -- I obviously need to make sure my voice is all ready to go for something like that (but still no "bumblebees"!).
My routine is probably NOT very typical -at all- since I've just generally got a very sturdy throat, I think. I've never noticed any difference whatsoever eating caffeine, drinking milk, or eating sugary foods the same day as recording. I notice a slight difference eating EXTREMELY sugary foods within an hour of recording -- like cake, ice cream, or pancake syrup. I'm lucky, so SO lucky there -- I pay for it by being 100% helpless at improv, LOL. ^_^ Everyone's got their bonuses and drawbacks! XD
*Note: I also don't really scream that much, so.... |
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Post by Brittany Ann Phillips on Jan 31, 2017 12:53:32 GMT -8
I found that warm-up exercises before a theatre performance works really well when it comes to warming up before recording. This is what I do: 1. I do some neck rolls by rotating my head very slowly clockwise and anti-clockwise. I also do some shoulder rolls by rotating them forward and backward. This helps warms up my neck and throat muscles. 2. I massage my whole face by drawing slow circles with the tip on my fingers to relax the muscles of my face (my jaw especially). 3. Sometimes I also jump up and down and move around to get the circulation going, especially if I'm going to be sitting for a long while. 4. Then comes Lion/Mouse technique, which is stretching the facial muscles. The first part is to stretch the mouth wide open, imitating a lion’s roar and snarl. After that switch to a mouse face immediately, by scrunching the facial muscles and looking small and meek. Switching between the lion and mouse helps in improving circulation in my face and gives my jaw a good workout. 5. There's also sticking out my tongue out as far as I can, trying to reach my chin by pulling it down or the tip of my nose by stretching it up. After that that doing tongue folds and trills - it helps make me less likely trip over myself when I speak. 6. Sirens are fun too. I practice with various vowels going up and down the scale, increasing and decreasing in volume and so on.  7. Then I start practicing with my articulation. PTKT (pronounced as puhh tuhh kuhh tuhh) and BDGD (pronounced buhh duhh guhh duhh). I practice saying them in various tempos. 8. Then come the tongue twisters. I pair those up with words with letters that are prone to plosives (t, k, p, d, g, and b) and excessive "puffing" (w/wh, h, and f). Doing that helps me to have better control over pronouncing those letters. |
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Post by Lady Stardust ★ on Feb 1, 2017 3:36:08 GMT -8
Magical Chinese throat syrup. All the voice actors I know in LA swear by it if you're doing a rough session. www.amazon.com/Nin-Jiom-Pei-Pa-Koa/dp/B001FAQXD2I also try not to talk or shout too much when I'm sick or have strained my voice that day in recording... this is kind of hard at a concert or bar or other place where there is loud music or background noise... And iced Mexican mochas. People go on and on about coffee and dairy and what not but I find it to be soothing after yelling a lot. Plus it tastes good. Sue me. |
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duffyweber
Member
Posts: 220
I Am A(n): Professional Voice Actor, Semi-Professional Voice Actor, Audio Engineer
Pronouns: Any OK
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Post by duffyweber on Feb 1, 2017 7:49:16 GMT -8
MAN that's a lot of excellent advice from all of you! Razzle is absolutely right about hydration practices, Kira's drops are gonna be something I try out immediately, and Brittany's warmups sound great. I'll have to incorporate them. Since I always inevitably get a pair of character who sound respectively like a mouse on helium and an Emu on Sulfur Hexafluoride, I tend to do scales starting as low as I can working up to as high as I can, and back down a few times, gently pushing the upper/lower range each time.
As to milk/dairy, it's never really affected my voice one way or the other either, though it can lead to increased mouth noise/lip smack, and I find if you're doing a Louis Armstrong impression, gargling/drinking heavy cream helps. Heheh. XD
P.S. Razzle? I'm still laughing at the "killllMeeeeEEEEEEeee..." ; )
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Post by benedict on Jun 1, 2017 17:38:53 GMT -8
Not strictly a warm up / cool down question, but any tips for dealing with congestion? (Aside from the steam room at the YMCA, that is. No YMCA, and no steam room here.) I start off fine, not sick or anything, but about twenty minutes in it feels like I'm stopping up. Not sure if I've been fighting something I'm unaware of or if my sinuses just go into emergency stockpile mode whenever I'm in front of a mic.
Thanks,
Tom
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doomwar
Member
Where's my hair?
Posts: 98
I Am A(n): Aspiring Voice Actor
Pronouns: he/him
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Post by doomwar on Jun 1, 2017 20:03:42 GMT -8
You can always use a humidifier, just be sure to clean it after every use. Also, Kira, that syrup is not magical, but it does work, and you can always find a bottle or two in a Chinatown store, or if you're lucky, in a Chinese-run Supermarket in case there's no Chinatown nearby.
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Post by Rebekah Amber Clark on Jun 2, 2017 6:18:33 GMT -8
Not strictly a warm up / cool down question, but any tips for dealing with congestion? (Aside from the steam room at the YMCA, that is. No YMCA, and no steam room here.) I start off fine, not sick or anything, but about twenty minutes in it feels like I'm stopping up. Not sure if I've been fighting something I'm unaware of or if my sinuses just go into emergency stockpile mode whenever I'm in front of a mic. Thanks, Tom
Where are you recording? Is there a possibility of dust, dust mites, pet dander, etc. that you could be allergic to? (Honestly, I think dust affects just about everyone to some degree even if you don't have a diagnosed "dust allergy" per se, but I could be wrong.) I have seasonal allergies myself and always have to be mindful of pollen, etc. on my clothes, hair, and surroundings. I know once I go into my closet and close the door, if there ARE allergens it seems to affect me worse because it's closed up, if that makes sense.
If you DO have allergies and they get bad enough, you can use an antihistamine (Benadryl, etc.) though using them all the time really is not good, or try something meant to be taken long term like Allegra, Zyrtec etc. (those are OTC now), or you can try natural/homeopathic options like Hyland's brand Hayfever pills. But before any of those, 1, you want to be sure it IS allergy, and 2, an ounce of prevention is worth about 10 pounds of cure in this case -- washing hair/changing clothes after being outside, keeping your studio-area clean and dust free, etc.
Staying away from dairy can also help avoid congestion, or it's supposed to.
If you want to try steam, you can do the old lean over a bowl with a towel over your head thing, though for ME, I find although it loosens up congestion, it leads to terribly runny nose, so then it's out of the frying pan and into the fire... 
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Post by benedict on Jun 2, 2017 17:32:36 GMT -8
Right now I'm recording myself reading aloud to my family, so it's less of a booth thing and more of a live performance in the living room thing. It's out in the middle of where everybody lives (and I'm not the world's best housekeeper) so there's a really good possibility of dust, mites, pet dander, and everything else. The more I mull over what you wrote, the more I'm betting it's allergies more than anything.
I'll start with the preventative measures and see where that goes.
Thanks, Razzle!
Tom
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Post by Kyotosomo on Jun 5, 2017 15:37:23 GMT -8
I tuck it to sleep every night right after I read it a bed time story.
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