If you want to have a good voice for singing, then besides practicing with the correct vocal exercises to improve your voice quality and flexibility, you will still have to take active actions to protect your vocal cords.

Sounds like common sense, doesn’t it? Yes, it is precisely so basic that people forget about it or do not even think about it and that is why there are so many people damaging their vocal cords daily and depriving themselves of a good singing voice.

Let me ask you a question. Tell me how often do you burst into a song without doing proper vocal warming up exercises? Are you guilty of singing before warming up your voice properly? Every singer worth his or her salt knows that when you warm up your vocal cords, your singing will be more flexible and because of that, prevent strains and damages to your vocal folds. Alas, even then many singers do not bother to do warming up exercises and that even include some professional singers too.

What about cooling down your vocals after singing? Oh, you don’t think it is important to cool down your voice after a performance? Of course it is important because when you sing, tension builds up around your singing mechanism and you have to release the tension. This is what cooling down is for, otherwise the tension may create swelling of your vocal cords and other damages.

Screaming, shouting and speaking loudly can cause permanent damage to your vocal cords. All you need to have proof of this is just to listen to the heavy metal rock singers when they talk. Their voices are all raspy and coarse from shouting and screaming when they perform. Some of them even have to undergo surgeries to repair their vocal cords in order to stay in their career as a singer.

Yes, shouting, screaming and having a raspy voice may be the thing if you are a heavy metal rock singer, however how many of you aspire to be one besides also risking permanent vocal damage?

If you want to have a good singing voice and you are a smoker, then it is time to quit smoking. Look, if smoking can cause throat cancer that can destroy the entire throat, can you imagine what it is doing to your vocal cords right now?

People are always saying breathe with your diaphragm when you sing, but when you ask them what they meant by breathing with the diaphragm and they are stumped. So are you trained to breathe with your diaphragm when singing or as a matter of fact, that is the correct way to breathe even when you are not singing?

All babies naturally breathe with their diaphragm and that is why they can throw their voices so far and wide when they cry. However as we get older, most of us just lost this natural ability and must be trained to get it right.

When you are breathing right when singing, your voice will soar effortlessly, be of better quality, the notes will be steadier and you can also hold notes longer because you will be able to better control your breathing. As such, you will less likely be straining your vocal cords and so offer it more protection and voice preservation. If you do not know how to breathe with your diaphragm, then get some singing lessons to learn it. This is essential if you want to be a better singer.

The above are just some of the many things you can do to protect your singing mechanism. If you are a professional, don’t just stop here because there are many more things you can do to protect and preserve a good singing voice.

This is a preview of some of the mixed voice exercises in my new CD vocal series “Breaking the Chains – The Ultimate Rock Singer’s Vocal Course”

Tags: mixed voice, head voice, vowels, singing high, chest voice, belting, free singing lessons, voice instruction, vocal exercises, resonance, falsetto, vocal cords, brett manning, per bristow, dena murray, roger love, seth riggs

Kevin Richards teaches at Rock the Stage NYC – Manhattan. For more information about studying at Rock the Stage in person or via online lessons: please visit www.rockthestagenyc.com

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