Cool down after a Performance

Out of my long stage experience I want to encourage you young singers to install the habit of cooling down the voice after a performance. Like in the sports world, singers also use muscles to sing. In my opinion it is not only important to exercise the voice everyday but also to cool it down after a long performance or recital.

You can use the “u“ vowel to do so only in the middle register of your voice. For example you start with quinte third tonica or you go down a five tone scale. When you sing it softly abd with your support, the vocal chords return to freedom. It just takes 5-10 minutes to do so, but the benefit is a healthy relaxation of the voice. Remember treat your voice like your best friend and acknowledge and take care of its needs.

There is another benefit of this procedure: You will build up a sensitive relationship with your voice, knowing if you have sung in the right way through your performance.
The voice will show you afterwards, if it is too tired, you definitely pushed too much, gave too much volume etc. There can be several reasons for this, but now you know you have to find out. Knowing how to keep your voice healthy and fresh is crucially important for a singers life and career.

With appreciation
Vera Wenkert

Caught a cold!

A singer with cold symptoms is very very unhappy …
Especially before an upcoming performance.
Here are emergency tips. Yeah!
If you feel you get a cold take lots of vitamine C
during the whole day and Zinc. A good thing is also to start with an immunebooster like Echinacea. Gargle with salty water and drink a lot of warm tea or ginger water. If you feel you are really down with an infection ,rest your body and most important rest the voice ! .Do not go to the piano every half hour and check if the voice is still there .. I know this is crucial – just to accept the cold. When I was singinc Sieglinde Walküre , I got a cold but instead of freaking out, because I love this role soooo much , I told myself meditate , send positive vibes to your body Vera and take immunebooster. Guess what in 4 days the worst was over and I could sing the Walküre performance.
The secret to get better quickly is to relax and trust nature and the body that it is already on the way to healing.
I urge you not to force the voice to sing pitches, which it does not want to do at the moment.You can damage the voice by doing this. The less you use your voice the quicker it recovers and the tissues around it. It is better to cancel a performance then to sing on a throatinfection. You only have one voice and it is serving you every day ; so treat yourself and your voice with respect and appreciation ; the same as you would treat a.good friend, when he or she is ill. And as you know in a week the cold is mostly over. Good news. Have a wonderful day Vera