For most of my life, I boiled health in singing down to vocal technique. I figured that if I could perfect my vocal technique and learn how to protect my voice from any damage, I would be able to book work and have confidence in my voice. I knew my body’s my instrument, but I wanted to stay focused on strictly the physical aspects of singing. Unfortunately, that’s not actually health in singing.
The truth is no matter how much work I did, I still struggled with the same blocks because I was only ever approaching my problems from one angle.
Health in singing is a result of MANY things including vocal technique and physical health. These aren’t bad, they just aren’t the full story. Mindset, lifestyle, and energetic health needs to be considered and addressed as well. It wasn’t until I began my own healing journey by diving into the personal development world that this reality surfaced for me. By dedicating the past several years to my mental and energetic health, I have found more freedom as a performer and as a person than I’ve ever experienced in my life.
So let’s talk about health in singing and what DOES matter from these various categories.
1. Vocal Technique
If you’ve spent any time in the performing world, you’ve heard many people discuss the value of vocal technique. It is absolutely VITAL to the long term success of singers who want to perform professionally.
Vocal technique protects you from unnecessary vocal strain and gives you tools to create a beautiful, full, efficient sound.
Anyone just starting to sing needs to start here. In fact, any time you’re working on a new skill, new style, or new piece of music, this is an essential place to start. Your skill level (natural or learned) will determine how long you stay here.
Basic vocal technique such as breath support, posture, resonance, diction, registration, vowel modification, transitions, and more creates a foundation for health in singing. This is the bottom of the pyramid when it comes to singing priorities.
Technique takes years to develop, and that’s ok. Some things you’ll take to naturally, and some things will take longer. This is where it’s important to work with a qualified voice teacher (like me) who can help you develop healthy habits and muscle memory.
The thing to be careful with here is making sure you don’t stay stuck in vocal technique. It’s easy to hyperfocus, so this needs to be balanced with other aspects of health in singing.
2. Physical Health/Fitness
As a singer, your body is your instrument. Whatever happens to your body has a direct impact on your singing. This means what you eat, your physical exercise, sleep, stress management, and more.
Your physical health is vital to your vocal health. Without it, you literally can’t sing or perform.
I have a lot to say on this topic given the fact that my master’s thesis was all about weight training and yoga for singers. If this is an aspect of health in singing you want to learn more about, I’m literally writing a book about it as we speak. To stay up to date on this, make sure you’re on my email list!
3. Mindset/Mental Health
This is the part of singing that is ignored the most in my experience.
Did you know that your emotions affect your singing?
The voice is an emotionally driven instrument. As much as the physical foundation matters, at the end of the day singing is emotionally driven.
Think about it. When you’re upset and need to process emotions, what do you do? People handle emotions in many different ways, but I’m willing to bet talking about it is somewhere on your list. Also, when you’re emotional, where do you feel it first? Your throat!
Not only does your emotional wellness impact how you show up and sing, it also impacts how you feel in performance settings.
As a voice teacher, I want you to be confident and feel good when you walk into a room or on stage. Feeling good about yourself and your voice allows you to open up and express. It allows you to get out of the way so your true light and energy can shine through your performance.
Emotional blocks are real. Singing brings up a lot. Having a safe space to discuss these blocks and develop healthy tools to address your emotions is vital to health in singing.
Not only have I done this for myself, but I’ve sent my students home with journaling prompts on more than one occasion.
Cultivating a supportive mindset and a healthy relationship to your emotions takes time. It’s important for voice teachers to hold that space and provide tools to cultivate this aspect of health in singing.
4. Energetic Wellness
Energy is everything. The energy you bring to your auditions and performances says a lot and sends a non-verbal message to your audience about what they should think about you.
Do you feel good about the work you’re presenting? Are you putting an energetic guard up? Have you already decided you’re not booking this job?
This ALL gets communicated to your audience (in an audition room or a performance) whether you like it or not. Making sure your energy matches what you want to be putting out is unbelievably important and is not discussed nearly enough in lessons.
Energy healing and energetic work is a hot topic in the personal development world right now for good reason. It makes a bigger difference than you know.
So much of energetic wellness is about regulating your nervous system and finding ways to be present. Energetic boundaries matter too, so it’s not about letting people access every part of you. But there is a deep value in evaluating the energy you’re putting out and making sure that energy matches what you want to be portraying.
5. Lifestyle
Your lifestyle will have an affect on your singing, and it’s important to make sure your goals and expectations align. If you’re working 24/7 and don’t have hours everyday to practice, then it’s important to develop systems that actually work for you. It’s better to do a little work consistently than to do a lot of work every once in a while.
Small hinges swing big doors.
If you live a high voice use lifestyle, developing habits related to warming up your voice and knowing your limits may be helpful.
It’s important to not only consider these aspects of health in singing, but provide tools to optimize your life so you can create lasting success and freedom.
These are still only a small portion of what health in singing really means. The topic is so broad, but my hope is that these words gave you a small peek into the type of freedom that can exist for you as a singer and performer.
If this sounds like something you want to work on for yourself, you can sign up for voice lessons HERE. I would love to work with you and help you find your version of health in singing!
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