How Do I Stop Straining When Singing?

I Experience Strain When I Sing. Do you find that your throat hurts sometimes when you sing?  Do you find you can sing for a short period of time before your voice gets sore? Has your voice ever gone hoarse from singing? Have you ever LOST your voice from trying to sing loud or singing the wrong way?

Don’t Worry. We Get It.

It’s not just you. Most singers have experienced strain in their voices at some point in their lives. While the best singers in the world have often sounded effortless in their singing, even they have most likely struggled with strain at some point. After all, getting the voice to become effortless and stay that way is something that even the most famous singers have struggled with for years, often getting themselves into serious medical trouble from ongoing vocal strain, sometimes having to cancel entire tours because of it.

The Problem:

There are many muscles in the body. In particular, there are many muscles both within and around the throat itself.  Some of those muscles in the body are designed to provide mobility. Many things can cause these muscles to overwork, creating undesired tension sometimes making it’s way into the neck, and often into the vocal cords themselves. This makes it tricky for the delicate cords to do their job easily and correctly. Some singers use tension in the vocal cords as a means to reach a higher note, or sing louder. Incorrectly engaging the wrong muscles are common mistakes by singers experiencing vocal strain.

Be Careful!

The muscles of the vocal cords are tiny ranging anywhere between ½” to 1” long – roughly the length of your fingernail. Therefore, it is not uncommon for singers to overestimate how much effort they need to apply to their vocal cords to produce a strong sound. Also, you should know that a strong sound comes not just from the vocal cords themselves. They require the correct interaction with the changing resonant spaces of your throat and mouth when you produce vowels, to find vocal “sweet spots” which provide the most boost in vocal sound. This is the correct way of producing vocal strength, without straining the voice.

Also, the way the voice works changes in the upper and lower ranges. This causes many singers to “hold on” to one configuration of the voice as the voice shifts between these ranges causing the voice to strain and often miss notes.

The secret:

The secret is to first determine where in your vocal range you are experiencing vocal strain, and to tune the voice correctly for that area. Remember that the way the voice resonates and the muscles that are required within the vocal cords changes between the upper and lower registers, and to get the most efficiency, all vowels need to have both aspects tuned correctly for the voice to be free of strain.

How We Can Help You:

At Singer’s Edge, we understand how much strain can affect your ability to connect with the music and enjoy the process. We have a long track record of helping singers completely free themselves of vocal strain and create free, full, strong sounding voices. The most important tool available is our private lessons. Weekly lessons are advised to keep you on track to monitor your progress and quickly make changes to practicing regime as needed as your voice grows. Monitoring your development, especially in the early stages of your training is essential to ensuring optimal development. In our lessons, you will receive:

• a discussion of your goals, interests, skills and experience with singing, to see how we can serve you best.

• an in depth assessment to see what areas of your voice need release from strain the most and to see if there are any other major issues which need attending to.

• we will prescribe, and run you through a set of exercises that you need to be doing – the RIGHT combination of tools – to strengthen your voice in the areas you’re struggling with.

• we will look at how to sing songs while maintaining a free, strong voice correctly.

• you may choose to optionally explore our development plan the “Singer’s Path” to help you carve out a comprehensive plan to help you reach your goals. The plan develops a singer in all areas of growth for singing, not just technique.

• we will look at which of our lesson plans, group classes, performance opportunities, songwriting or other services we have to offer you would best meet your goals and set you up with that.

• you will receive a copy of our guide-book on singing The Singer’s Instinct before leave to help guide you on your journey!

We Suggest:

We suggest weekly lessons to make sure we keep you on a healthy path, catching any issues that may arise more quickly. New muscles coordination can be tricky to learn in the beginning and we’d like to offer you as much support as possible in the early stages to get you off to a good start.

The Next Step:

If you would like to learn more about how to correct vocal strain in the voice, pick up a copy of our book on singing The Singer’s Instinct to learn more about how to develop your voice. Also, consider booking a lesson with us to see what techniques for YOU will develop strength your voice the fastest.