By Alex Baran,
Project Weight Loss Staff Writer
July 08, 2009Michael Jackson’s memorial was highly emotional. Celebrities like Stevie Wonder, Usher, Jennifer Hudson, Lionel Richie, Mariah Carey and Trey Lorenz paid tribute to Michael Jackson. Many people wondered who Trey Lorenz is. He is Mariah Carey’s collaborator, singer and songwriter. Everybody sang beautiful. How do they maintain their voices?
Most singers are born with good voices, but they still have to maintain them. Also, a good voice comes with lots of exercises. There are vocal exercises for getting vibrato, power, or getting higher notes into songs.
Some bad habits can destroy your singing voice and when I say this I refer at bad habits that you might not know you have. Smoking is one of the bad habits I’m talking about because it may destroy your voice – cigars contain chemicals and irritants that make your voice raspy and coarse.
In order to have a good voice you need to stay hydrated, but pay attention because alcohol, caffeine and other beverages like them have the opposite effect – they dehydrate you.
Don’t abuse your voice, meaning you should get to know your limits. Also don’t shout, talk loudly or sing forcefully. There are vocal exercises that make you sing powerful, so you won’t need to shout.
If you have a sore throat don’t panic – you’ll recover faster if you avoid unnecessary phone calls and conversations.
When you go to the gym you warm up your muscles first, right? Well, here is the same story – your vocal cords need to exercise a little in order to warm up. When you finish singing cool them down with other exercises.
Late night meals harm you voice too. Because of the stomach acid spilling into your larynx you can get a hoarse voice.
Here’s an exercise that should be done daily: Sit up straight and take ten deep breaths. While letting them out make vowel sounds. Next stick your tongue out far away, so you can feel the burn; grin as wide as you can; open your mouth very wide. Now you’ll laugh, but you have to do this exercise as well - touch your tongue to each lip, the roof of your mouth, and each cheek, all being done rapidly for ten or twenty times.
You will become or remain a great singer by controlling your breathing and exercising your voice. Even if you don’t make e career of singing, it has lots of benefits: e.g. helps those who suffer from sleep apnea; helps reduce depression or anxiety; improves articulation and presence when speaking; overcomes shyness and nervous reactions to crowds.
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Project Weight Loss. All rights reserved.
