I woke up this morning to a very dry windy day.  It reminded me of so many times when I would wake up to mornings like that on big audition, or performance days…really not ideal for great singing.  I can just taste the fear I would feel the minute I sensed the dryness when I would open my eyes and how raspy, unnatural, and low my voice would feel.  I thought I would give you some ideas to combat the dryness that I have learned over the years.

The truth is, the voice loves a good humid environment, it naturally lubricates your vocal chords and makes everything feel just right when you open your mouth to sing.  So what you need to do is try and create that environment on your own no matter the weather is, especially if you have some important singing coming up.

1. Humidifyers-  I can’t think of anything more important for a singer to own in a house with heaters running.  You want the cool air type, make sure your filters are fresh and mist your environment away so at least in your own home you won’t have to battle the dryness.

2. Personal steamers-  This may seem a bit extreme, but if you have a performance and have a small bit of privacy, you can get those personal face streamers (I think they are mainly for at home facials)  Just breath into one for a bit before you go on stage to relieve dryness.

3. The Netty Pot-  While I have not used this, I have some singer friends that swear by this.  Great for allergies and dryness.  It is a little tea pot that you put saline solution in and essentially flush your nostrils with regularly-  You can look more up on your own for that one.  I had a Broadway singer friend who swore by this to get her through the crazy dryness in Manhattan winters.  I even saw them talk about it on Oprah once.

4.  Tea with Honey-  I prefer herbal tea or any sort of Throat Coat Teas that you can by at your local health food market.  Caffeine seems to strip your chords of it’s natural moisture (which is great when you have a lot of mucus, but for normal dry days…)  The honey is great to lubricate the chords and the warmth of the tea combined is great for the throat.

5.  Glycerin throat drops-  NOT MENTHOL which is drying, but candies or drops that have glycerin are great for coating the throat.

6.  Humibid- this is a medication that is used to combat dryness caused by allergy medication.  Talk to your ear nose and throat specialist about this one.

7.  Slow vocal warm ups-  Start slow in the early morning.  First hum a bit, do some yawn sighs, just be gentle, then go take a hot steamy shower.  As your voice starts to acclamate to the day you can do a real vocal warm up.  It is important not to push the voice when it is very dry.  Try and get everything working in your throat first before you push into some hard singing.

I’d love to hear back some of your ideas to combat the dryness for your voice.

written by: Ariella Vaccarino

creator of Voice Lessons To Go, and author of Vocalize!

www.voicelessonstogo.com