It’s frustrating to frequently suffer from persistent laryngitis and voice loss, particularly when you just started a learning process to become a singer.
The problem here is, you’re not singing properly and keeping your throat too tight in a position. Over time, this practice can result in a hoarse sound.
Learning how to sing without hurting your throat is crucial if you desire to pursue a job as a professional singer.
Some straightforward exercises can help you eradicate this problem:
- Warm-up
- Drink enough water
- Sing from the diaphragm
- Keep proper posture
- Relax your throat
- Avoid harmful elements
- If it hurts, stop singing
This article will dig deep into applying each of these methods correctly during singing. Let’s get right into the details!
Why Does Your Throat Close Up When You Sing?
Your throat closes up as you sing because of tension, but this habit does your vocal cords no good. It would help if you learned to relax and open your throat while singing.
The more relaxed it is, the more effortlessly you’ll sing from your diaphragm, and the more beautiful your sound is.
Indeed, stage nerves or high notes can induce throat tightness. Thus, be aware when you’re stepping outside your comfort range or stressed out. And ensure to support the voice with deep breaths and the diaphragm.
An expert tip when hitting high notes is to think low when going high. Mind and visualization techniques can surprisingly have a profound impact on the output.
Don’t let laziness deter you from developing solid groundwork. Ensure to do warm-up exercises before singing and performing regularly.
This practice will provide a well-supported, relaxed sound and relieve the vocals.
It’s also a good idea to include diaphragm workouts and breathing exercises in your warm-ups.
If the problem with vocal straining still lingers or you can’t manage to break down the methods below alone, consider taking a singing course or registering for an online tutorial with a vocal expert.
How To Sing Without Hurting Your Throat?
Singing from your throat is damaging and does not deliver pleasant sounds as a correctly supported voice.
It’s not arduous to stop singing from the throat. From regularly hydrating your throat to breathing from your diaphragm and learning to relax when singing, there are numerous ways to strengthen your vocals.
#1. Warm-Up Before Singing
Concerning how to avoid sore throat when singing, it’s crucial to warm up your vocals before practicing. There are various exercises for all ages, levels of ability and experience, and vocal ranges.
We always start our exercises by warming up our facial muscles first.
You’ll blow through the lips, stick out the tongue far, sigh musically, and massage your face to loosen your jaw muscles and lips.
It’s pretty normal to produce some noise when warming up, so don’t feel embarrassed. Let your vocals wander around its range.
After that, move on with humming, tongue trills, lip trills, or lip rolls exercises. You will start singing and performing only when your voice, mouth, and face have loosened.
You can depend on this tutorial video to see how to do the lip roll vocal exercise:
The warm-up process will take about 10-20 minutes. Don’t skimp because your face and vocals need precisely that time to get heated. Also, the cool-down process after a performance, audition, or lesson is no less important.
Many vocalists omit this step on their tips for a healthy vocal. Indeed, cooling down is a necessary yet straightforward method to improve vocal health that beginner singers should know.
Simply sigh on descending notes to cool down. Yawn while releasing any accumulated tension and raising the soft palate.
Also, gently do some lip rolls and let your voice gradually descend. It should take your voice about 5-10 minutes to turn back to its previous speaking range.
#2. Drink Enough Water
Everything you eat and drink all affects your singing voice. Surprisingly, the healthy drink that will help better your singing is water.
This cheap, highly available liquid can do wonders for your vocals, aside from herbal teas (at medium heat).
Remember to drink enough water for all-day activities and singing and always keep a warm water bottle with you during rehearsals and lessons.
One or two swigs of water before singing is not enough. The vocal folds do best when well-lubricated and hydrated, so you’ll need to hydrate your lip, throat, and the entire body properly.
Indeed, you can’t directly humidify the dried-out vocal cords. Anything you dissolve, spray, and drink won’t pass directly through the vocal folds because your esophagus is not in the same place as your larynx.
But a dry throat can quickly irritate and hurt vocal cords, harming your voice. Thus, drink more water and moisten your vocals to improve your singing.
#3. Sing From The Diaphragm Instead of Throat
Kicking out the habit of singing from the throat is a real challenge for a new performer, but you can’t have a healthy voice without succeeding in this challenge.
The diaphragm is a singer’s most crucial tool. Using it wisely allows you to open up vocal strength and power opportunities. The diaphragm pushes out and takes the air in the lungs, maintaining a contracting and flexing motion.
A tip to keep your diaphragm completely flat is to breathe more deeply than usual while singing.
As long as the diaphragm is significantly engaged, you can gain greater control over your breath when singing.
It’s also possible to add expression and exciting dynamics to your voice practice. That means you are free to adjust the speed at which you hit high notes and the period within which you can maintain them.
The goal is to work your breath through the soft palate and vocal cords and drive it to blossom into an impressive vocal riff. Breathe deeply and keep that breath from stopping and swirling within your chest and throat.
Once you can ensure it hits somewhere low in the stomach, you’re singing from the diaphragm instead of the throat.
#4. Keep Proper Posture
An athlete has to train laborious marathons, and a singer has to train their voices to sing for an extended period. And proper posture is a critical factor that helps expand your diaphragm and sustain notes longer.
Stand tall and straight with your feet shoulder-width apart and hands sitting at the sides to make your diaphragm feel spacious and nice.
Also, try this posture: Stand straight with your knees relaxing and shoulder blades leaning back, then you’re ready for a blossoming start.
Once you master the precise posture like a pro, you can start with this exercise: inhaling while placing one hand on the stomach.
Inhale deeply so that your belly pushes forward like you’re blowing up a ball. When you exhale, your stomach will deflate.
Repeat this process about 15 times to get your diaphragm raring and ready to go and avoid pushing the vocals from your throat.
#5. Relax Your Throat
A brilliant way to prevent strain is by relaxing and providing your throat with enough rest. Though you should not sing from your throat, the keys have to run through it. Thus, it will somehow affect your tone.
The more you keep the vocals at ease, the more relaxed and open it will feel. This way, you can keep pressure from the throat and allow vocal release. We advise you to take this exercise as a warm-up.
The goal is to prevent the strong muscles called “constrictors” from constricting as you sing. If you don’t know how it feels with throat constriction and tightness, swallow and feel it.
Another method to effectively relax the vocals is to place a finger on it or Adam’s apple. If the throat begins to tighten, that means the vocal cords are tucked within. In this case, do as follows to relax them.
Have a giant yawn, followed by some small ones to release the tension and nerve in your throat and enable the muscles from the back to relax.
After that, every time you yawn, complement it with a huge sigh, saying “ahhh” at the best note for you. Forget about the silly feeling; you should notice a clear sense of relief.
Repeat this process five times to make your vocal cords feel more comfortable, opening chances for projecting vocals.
#6. Avoid Harmful Elements
Vaping or smoking anything is undoubtedly the quickest and best way to ruin your vocals forever. If you dream of being an excellent singer, steer clear of it.
In essence, when you take in smoke, you’re soaking your vocals in toxins.
Anything you inhale, from pollutants, specks of pollen to dust particles, will pass right through the vocal cords, dry out, and irritate them.
Unlike smoke, alcohol may not pose such an instantly damaging effect, yet it is inflammatory and dehydrating.
Also, most mixers are high in sugar content, negatively affecting your voice. Do you wonder what is good for your vocal health? Turn back to tip number two.
#7. If It Hurts, Stop Singing
Sometimes, you’re too immersed in your practice without noticing that it’s time to allow the vocals to rest. Intense training also causes you to feel hurt even when you’ve carefully taken care of your voice.
When you feel pain, it means your body is telling you to stop. Whether that sore throat is because of an infection or straining through overuse, cease singing.
Drink plenty of water and have vocal rest. You can have 1-2 days off a week to look after your tired vocals. Remember never to ignore the pain and push through it.
There’s a high chance that you’ll severely damage your vocal cords if you sing when the throat is hurt or strained.
The Bottom Line
Speakers and singers alike will usually suffer from throat irritation like a dry or scratchy throat. However, you can loosen the tension and relax the sensitive pharynx and larynx with proper practice and exercise, allowing for a strong, healthy voice to grow.
Our easy yet practical tips on how to sing without hurting your throat can assist you in protecting your precious singing tool.
Thank you for reading!
