Vocal Care for Music Therapists

Many music therapists spend much of their day singing as they go from one session to another and are singing easily as many as 4-6 hours per day leading individual and group sessions.  The voice is a very important tool for a music therapist; however, voice care is often an afterthought as we rushing from session to session. The way the voice is used in this profession makes music therapists vocal athletes. To keep your voice in good condition, here are four simple things you can do throughout the day to make your voice stronger and prevent future injury. 

1. HYDRATE!

This is a simple one…DRINK!  Make sure you are sipping on something all day long.  Sipping throughout the day is better than drinking large amounts all at once. Stay well hydrated. Drinks with sugar or caffeine, and alcohol can be dehydrating and are best used in moderation.  If you choose to indulge, which most of us do, make sure to increase your water intake to compensate. 

2. Belly Breathing

Learn to breathe using your diaphragm to give support to your voice.  If you aren’t sure what that means, try lying down and putting your hand on your stomach while taking some slow deep breaths, noticing how your stomach rises and falls, not your chest.  When upright, your chest and shoulders should not rise, and your belly should expand outward.

To help strengthen the use of the diaphragm for breath control, you can exhale on a hiss (Snake Hisses), making it last as long as possible.  Take a deep breath and breath out slowly using the sound of “SSSSS” or hissing like the sound of a snake.  Over time, you can increase the amount of time it takes to use up all the air in the lungs by controlling your breath.

3. Warm-up and cool down 

Before jumping into sessions, it is important to warm up your voice.  Here are a few simple warm-ups you can even do in the car, or between sessions to help prevent fatigue and injury.

• Gentle humming

• Hum your favorite song through a straw

• Practice belly breathing

• Snake Hisses

• Lip trills/Vocal glide: Take a deep breath using the diaphragm and breathe out making the lips vibrate, like blowing bubbles under water. ( If you have difficulty with this, try vibrating the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth…like a rolled “R”). Do this while also gliding your voice up and down the scale, low to high and high to low.  You can even lip-trill the tune of a song.  This can help your voice learn how to reach higher notes without straining your voice and build better breath support while singing.

At the end of day, these gentle exercises can also help relax the voice after a full day of singing and talking.  In addition, taking some time to simply rest the voice, can help it recover and be ready for the next day.

4. Vocal Fatigue

Through the day, you may notice that your voice feels fatigued.  Perhaps, you even feel like your voice is disappearing before the end of the day. This is important to note and take preventative measures to avoid vocal injuries.  Here are some ways to help prevent injury and make it easier to get through the day.

• Use a voice amplifier for groups if needed to prevent fatigue to prevent over singing.  They cost about $30 on Amazon and are very portable.

• Between sessions gentle humming and lip trills with vocal glides can help relax the muscles

• Practice belly breathing and re-engage the diaphragm to support your singing by increasing the airflow (like when you do lip trills and snake hisses), which will result in reduced tension and fatigue in the voice.

• DRINK!!!

  What to do when you are sick 

It is inevitable that sickness gets in the way of music therapy work at times.   Ideally, vocal rest is the best action to take when it is affected by illness, however, this is not always practical. Here are a few tips. 

• Sometimes rest is necessary! If you have laryngitis and your voice disappears, vocal rest is very important as the voice can be vulnerable to injury at this time. In a perfect world, NO TALKING (or even whispering) as much as possible until the voice heals is the best approach!

• Avoid many OTC antihistamines and decongestants.  They are often very drying and can make voice problems worse.

• Coughing is very hard on the voice and minimizing the cough, when possible, helps. Cough suppressants, lozenges, and tea with honey can help.

• Use a voice amplifier for groups until the voice is fully healed to lessen the strain on the voice.

• Use interventions that do not require singing whenever possible.

If you ever develop problems with your voice that don’t go away, it is important to see a voice specialist to rule out a problem that requires treatment. While there are many more ways that singers can learn to develop their voice, including taking voice lessons, these four tips provide a few tools to help music therapists protect arguably the most important and irreplaceable instrument in their toolbox.