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Beginner - Sore throat after singing

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littlewolf

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Am making sure I warm up before singing... am drinking heaps of water, stay away from coffee, caff beverages etc... dairy intake is moderate.....dont smoke or drink alcohol... get plenty of sleep, excercise regularly and eat well

but have noticed in the past month... my throat feels sore the next day after i have been singing (not professionally, not for long either...just practicing songs for my singing lesson each week and doing vocal excercises)...have tried to take it easy...not strain my voice...but doesnt seem to matter what i do....

have gone to the doctors thinking i was on the verge of a flu etc...with no result...she couldnt see anything wrong....

am getting a little frustrated and disheartened

any recommendations? feedback?

Cheers

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Sometimes, my throat can be a little sore from sinusitis. Other times, from my work environment. One cannot spend 8 to 10 hours breathing all kinds of dust and particles and not pay a price for it.

If none of those are an issue for you, then is it perhaps that you are doing something not quite right? Do you feel strain while you are singing? It's not a criticism but a sign of proper function. I just ran through my regular set of songs, most of them fully in the tenor range and not a smidge of strain or soreness.

My regular set changes from time to time but this is how it goes.

"Sweet Child of Mine"

"Brandy"

"Highway to Hell"

"Heaven and Hell"

"Land Down Under"

All varying parts of the range and intensity or volume. Whatever set or exercises you are doing should not cause lasting discomfort. Now, granted, if you sing in a cover band that plays in, for example, a Casino and you may be doing 20 songs at a stretch to maybe 40 songs in a night, you might be sore but so are professional athletes who are over-worked.

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there is a big difference between sore-as-in-sore-throat (raw, hot feeling) and sore-as-in-muscle-ache.

When the muscles feel sore, I've found there is usually an underlying weakness, cords don't quite close right, and other muscles we feel more consciously get overworked when trying to compensate.

But for the patients I've seen who complain of the other soreness -- if nothing LOOKS inflamed to your doctor -- seem to suffer from (1) chronic dryness (try a long hot shower after the gig & humidifier at bedside); (2) reflux irritation (your MD seems to have ruled that out, IF she checked your cords); (3) muscle tension in the throat, above and around larynx; or (4) referred pain from neck muscles.

See if a deep-tissue massage of your neck, with followup relaxation exercises, gives the inner throat surfaces some relief (tell massage or physical therapist to focus on "scalenes and SCM" region).

Maybe most important: be sure give your voice a break, let it sound tired when it IS tired, instead of tightening up to sound OK even when it feels rocky.

Get some training too -- there are lots of good teachers in TMV. "Giving till it hurts" doesn't work for singers.

best wishes --

Joanna

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