Dealing With A Dry Throat.
Most singers know that they should drink a lot of water and avoid beverages and things that dry out their throat when singing.
What happens though when you are in a bad environment and no matter how much water you drink on stage your voice dries out badly. Some situations that might cause this are singing outside in arid areas, smokey bars and air conditioning sapping all the humidity out of a club.
In this case the best things you can do are:
- concentrate on breathing through your nose when not singing, and when taking breaths in try to do it through the nose. This will help to moisturize the throat a bit.
- Keep drinking water. Though it may not be helping much, it’s not hurting
- Chew a small bit of gum and keep it on the side of the teeth when singing. This will keep the saliva flowing and keep the throat moist. Be careful not to choke on it. This is particularly helpfull for new performers who get ample amounts of adrenaline flowing, which dries out the throat and mouth.
- “thayers slippery elm lozenges,” these will give you very gentle coating on your throat lining without clogging you up. Avoid lozenges that are made to aleviate coughs and sore throats, most will make your throat feel better but actually dry out the throat and make you lose your voice because of the menthol in most of them.
- Use a personal humidifyer on the side of the stage between sets or when you don’t have to sing if the area is really arid of if you have problem due to getting over an illness. These bring moist air directly to your mouth and face through a mask.
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