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Winter and problems

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ConcreteLake

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Hi everyone,

I've been facing this issue very recently - Until a couple of weeks back, it used to take me around 20 minutes to warm up and I was singing upto about F#5-G5 most days easy; these days, it takes me an hour and I'm still barely able to touch E5 during vocalises, forget actual songs. I also have a "fry-ish" voice all the time, even past my mid range. I'm not sure what the problem is, is this a common occurrence in cold weather? Please help :(

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Do you mean 2 practice session per day or are you gigging/recording? Winter can make it worse. I went through that about 10 years ago towards the winter. My voice stayed really dry and fry-like I actually thought I had nodes but it was the seasonal affects that played very harsh on my voice. It could possibly be that you are over-woring the voice too. I hope you have a vocal coach near you that you can check with to make sure you are doing everything correctly. Because you might just be causing some bit of fatigue without knowing it.

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Until a couple of weeks back, it used to take me around 20 minutes to warm up and I was singing upto about F#5-G5 most days easy; these days, it takes me an hour and I'm still barely able to touch E5 during vocalises, forget actual songs. I also have a "fry-ish" voice all the time, even past my mid range. I'm not sure what the problem is, is this a common occurrence in cold weather? Please help :(

I have to admit that I'm not a vocal coach but just a singer and engineer. Anyway I'm experiencing similar problems during the winter: Dry throat, a bit hoarse.

My guess is that dry air is to blame for that. During the summer we have about 60-70% relative humidity over here and it drops down to as low as 30% in the wintertime.

Anyway it's gotten better since i started gargling with salt-water 2-3 times a day and also do a nasal-douche twice a day.

Sebastian

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Hi Jaime,

I live in India; as far as I know, there are no qualified vocal coaches here who teach full voice singing in head register. I've only learnt all this stuff out of experimenting and practicing with my own voice.

It's two practice sessions per day as of now where I tend to always sing songs in addition to vocalises. I went to this ENT specialist today who put a scope down my throat and she said the only abnormality she noticed is that my false folds are pinkish in colour. I think she said brown is the normal colour and red means an infection but she doesn't know anything about metal singing, so she wasn't sure what exactly pink means other than the fact that I've been using these folds which "normal" people don't.

Sebastian,

What's a nasal-douche? I do gargle on tone before and sometimes during singing but that's just with plain water. I'll try the salt water thing, thanks for the advice.

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What's a nasal-douche? I do gargle on tone before and sometimes during singing but that's just with plain water. I'll try the salt water thing, thanks for the advice.

Have a look at that:

Basically, you use 10g of salt for a liter of water and douche your nose with it (from the inside, of course).

There should be cannikins available in India, I guess they are called "neti".

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Hi.....first of all.....weather and time of year will affect your bodies energy and your voice! In India you have different climatic conditions to the cold of the West...however the equinox/solstice energies will still affect you! At this time of year the planetary energy affects the human energy in how it deals with bodily fluids! At this time of year the body reverses the energy flow. In the Spring it reverses again. You will have to go into homeopathy to discover this. Ayurvedic Medicine may also have some answers for you. Basically body fluids thicken at this time of year...therefore mucous & cholesterol thickens, therefore you also get dehydrated more as you need more water and essential fatty acids to keep the chemical balance correct in your body. Where you are geographically has a bearing on this too! The vocal folds are muscles like any other in the body. When you sing and push extremely...you are overworking just like someone going to the gym on the rest of their body......you have to take care! Consult an Ayurvedic Practitioner to see if they can shed more light on it for you too! Work with both your ENT & them! love Hilary :lol:

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Thanks for the suggestions everyone; turns out I had a terrible cold coming, are problems such as the ones I mentioned a precursor to common cold, generally?

Anyway, I've been taking Vit-C tablets all day, resting my voice and working on my guitar chops. Playing an instrument in addition to singing does have its advantages.

Peace,

V

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  • 3 weeks later...

yea i hate the effects winter has on the vox, even in texas this year its been brutal. Not to mention that we are still living in a metal tent in our driveway. (trailer)....

and our band leader seems to think outdoor gigs in feb and march are fine, i guess its like a toss of the dice in tx, is it gonna be 78 or 38???

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