A singer’s livelihood relies on functioning vocal cords, but the Internet is littered with conflicting information on how to properly care for these vital membranes. Should you soothe a sore throat with tea and honey? What about products like throat lozenges that are advertised to repair a raspy voice?
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GRAMMY.com caught up with Hollywood’s vocal coach to the stars, Roger Love, to discuss the dos and don’ts of proper vocal cord health:
What dietary changes should singers consider for keeping their vocal cords healthy?
Phlegm is the mucus of the throat and the lubricant of the vocal cords. Phlegm is a good thing. If you didn’t have phlegm, the vocal cords would be trying to slam up against each other and they would get really red and puffy because there would be no lubricant. If you are one of those people that is always clearing their throat because you have excess thick phlegm, then and only then do you need to look at your diet and say, “OK, what are some of the things that could be causing this extra thick unwanted phlegm?” Dairy is usually on the top of the list because most people make extra thick phlegm by having too much dairy.
Next on the list is caffeine because caffeine speeds up the production of all kinds of things in the body, one of them being phlegm. It builds more mucus because it speeds up your metabolism and then you make more phlegm. If you’re having excess phlegm, you have to look at how much caffeine you are having.
What about tea with honey and lemon? Is that a good way to coat your throat?
That’s a common wives tale. They always say, “Oh your throat hurts so you should have tea with honey and lemon.” The bottom line is that’s not a good idea because tea is generally too hot. When you drink anything too hot or too cold, it can change the size of tissues in your throat. When you drink anything, it doesn’t go anywhere near the vocal cords. There are two holes in the throat – one for food and liquid and one for air. You think, “Oh my vocal cords are really dry. I’m going to drink water. Oh my vocal cords are really hydrated.” Well that’s baloney. The vocal cords live down the air hole and if you drank anything down the air hole, you would have choked. The goal is you have to drink a ton of water so that the water gets into your system and then travels to the Salivary glands, which produce mucus, but you have to have a lot of water in your system to do that. Tea is not so hot because even though it goes down the other hole, when it’s really hot or really cold, the temperature can still permeate from one hole to the next. You can still drink something that’s really cold and it can affect the vocal cords because the cold goes from the tissues from one passage to another and the surrounding tissues. You wouldn’t want to make any of the tissues in your throat swell or increase holding water. And also caffeine in tea is bad and also lemon in tea is bad. Citrus makes you salivate more and if you salivate more, you create more phlegm.
What should you drink when your throat is sore?
You can have decaffeinated tea that’s warm without lemon or honey. Honey is so thick that your body thinks that it’s just phlegm anyways. The best way to keep your cords hydrated is to drink a minimum of a half a gallon of water a day. You have to drink that much because once you take water into your body, it goes to vital organs -- the brain, the heart, etc. Salivary glands, the glands that produce the phlegm the throat, are at the end of the spectrum. So they only get water if everything else is serviced in the body. That’s why you have to drink a lot of water and the water you drink right now isn’t going to help you right now. The water you drink right now is going to help you hours from now.
What about special vitamins and products designed to repair a sore throat?
It’s all baloney. And special throat sprays and throat coat and all that stuff – you’re drinking it. It’s going down a hole where the vocal cords aren’t. And those sprays like Entertainers Secret that people just spray in their throat and then swallow it? It goes down the wrong hole. If they wanted to use a spray – which still doesn’t help really – but if they wanted to, if when they sprayed it they inhaled, then it would go to the vocal cords. That’s why when you see old movies of opera singers and they have those spritzers, they are inhaling the spray. You have to breathe in because then it goes near the vocal cords. The millions of people that are buying those stupid sprays, nobody is breathing in!
What about alcohol?
Alcohol is very bad. It’s dehydrating so when you drink, alcohol robs your body of natural moistures. When you get dehydrated, the body does two things. It’s like, “Well we better make some more fluids” and then it goes into overproduction of fluids and you get that thick phlegm – or it’s just in a state of “I’m dehydrated and I don’t have enough water for the vital organs and the vocal cords are not going to get any.”
What are some of the most common vocal cord issues that you see?
Well first, vocal cords just get red and swollen from putting too much pressure or singing too airy. Whispering is actually harder on the voice than screaming because it sends so much pressure to the cords that it dries up all the moisture. What I see a lot is redness, swelling of the vocal cords, and then when they keep singing when it’s red and swollen, you see these little lesions appear, like little calluses. Nodes or nodules on vocal cords are not as scary as people think. A guitar player, for example, develops calluses on his fingers because he plays the guitar daily. That’s the body saying, “If I don’t build an extra layer of skin right there where you are touching those hard strings, then you are going to wear off your fingers.” The body does the same thing for singers and speakers. The body says, “You seem to be rubbing your vocal cords in a way that is going to damage your vocal cords. Why don’t I give you an extra layer of skin there to protect you?” That’s what nodes are. They are like calluses on the vocal cords. By making the skin thicker, a mass appears and the vocal cords don’t close 100%. Vocal cords are supposed to close all the way and stop the air so when there is something on the cords, they can’t close and then air escapes in the gap on both sides. Not only does it make it red and puffy but it makes the sound all fuzzy and then the vocal cords can’t do their job. If your cords are not closing then air coming up to them is not stopped.
Then is surgery the next step?
Yes and no. Better technique is the answer. Most people who get nodes could easily just change the way that they sing and the nodes would go away. People have been coming to me since I was a kid and I have tremendous success getting rid of nodes and nodules [using better technique] before I would even think of surgery. Most of the time people have to learn how to sing better but sometimes they get hard and when they are hard, they don’t shrink back the same way. And certain things like what Adele had was a polyp -- kind of like a callus on a cord but it ruptured. When it ruptures, it bleeds and then you don’t have any choice – you have to go in and take off the scar tissue.
So when people notice that their throat is swollen, do they need to just stop singing for a while?
When people get hoarse, they need to stop singing so much or stop singing the way they are singing. They also need to seek better vocal technique that will help shrink the swelling on the cords. I have a specific exercise called “Low Larynx” exercises. It elasticizes the cords and takes pressure off and allows them to move up and down the range without any pressure. Quite often, I’m called in and someone has to go on stage in a half hour and they don’t have any voice and I have to do those low larynx exercises to shrink the swelling before they go on stage.
Are there any quick tips that people can do if they are in a pinch and find their voice is hoarse?
They should try to find their Adam’s Apple and try to make a Yogi Bear deep sound or try to bring their tongue down until they feel their Adam’s Apple come down lower. Then they should try singing for 5 or 10 minutes in that funny voice. That will help take some of the pressure away.
What about quick tips for vocal warm-ups?
Singers go to my website (http://www.rogerlove.com) where there are plenty of free exercises for them to learn my techniques. The answer is that they have to do exercises that warm up the chest voice, middle voice, and head voice. If they are just warming up their chest voice and think they are rock singers, they are not going to be singers for long. If they are only warming up their head voice and they are thinking they are opera singers, they are not going to be opera singers for long. They have to warm up chest voice, middle voice, and head voice and you need exercises to do that – while you’re doing the right kind of diaphragmatic breathing…in through the nose pretending you have a balloon in your stomach, letting the stomach come out when you inhale and then letting the stomach come back in without any pressure when you exhale.
In a nutshell, what is the best way to keep your vocal cords healthy?
The way to keep your vocal cords healthy is to drink a lot of water, to practice vocal exercises, and sing in a way that doesn’t make them red and puffy and swollen to begin with – so then your voice which is actually set up to speak and sing 24 hours a day and not get hoarse, won’t get hoarse. If you’re singing and you get hoarse afterwards, then you are doing something wrong and it’s unnecessary. It’s really that simple.
