“Can I sing with a cold? Or a cough?” So many students have asked me this question! The answer is…no…and yes. 😁

​If you have a performance and you have a bad cold, with your sinuses completely clogged, or you’re coughing and you sound like your voice is two octaves lower than usual, then it’s probably not a good idea to sing.

​However, you can always practice and do your warm-ups, as long as you do it in the right way. My teacher would never let me skip a singing lesson because of a cold or cough. She actually insisted that it’s a great opportunity, because in order to sound even decent you have to make an extra effort to use your vocal technique properly. If you don’t, you’ll probably hear only guttural noises but no sound.

​I think she had a very good point. Of course, you have to accept the fact that your voice will not sound great. So don’t try to “fix it” by pushing it out, because you’ll only make things worse.

​For example, sometimes it’s hard to hold the pitch when you have a cold or a cough. The reason is that the extra mucus may block the sound. So, again, don’t try to fight it by pushing the voice to its right pitch. It’ll just make it tired and hoarse. The bad pitch could also be cause by your ears being plugged, which is often the case with this kind of condition.

So, when you have a cold or a cough:

• Choose warm-ups that are short and quick. (I wouldn’t focus on long tones).
• Focus on keeping your throat muscles supple and relaxed. Don’t try to fix them in a certain position, keep them “flowy” and flexible, ready to adjust to any new situation. At the same time, focus on enunciating your vowel really well, in order to produce a sound that’s as full as possible.
• Drink lots of water, in order to loosen the mucus and make singing easier
• Don’t practice for long periods at a time. Better to do several short sessions spread throughout the day.
• Be nice and patient with your vocal cords. Yours it’s a lifetime relationship and it will last that long only if you treat them right.

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What’s the most important aspect of the singing technique that you would like to learn?

If you’re like most aspiring singers I know, you will probably say “expand my vocal range“, or “singing high notes without effort.”

How can you learn to expand your range and sing high notes without effort? Is that even possible? Heck yes!

Not only is it possible, but it’s the way to do it, if you:

• care about the health of your voice
• want to develop the full range your voice is capable of
• want to master your high notes and sing them with ease
• are tired of getting nervous every time you have to sing a high note!

Once you learn to use your head voice properly, high notes become your friends. Singing them will be so much fun, and you will look back with amusement at the time when you were trying to hit the high notes by pushing and straining your voice, because you didn’t know any better.

In this video I show you how you can access your head voice and develop your higher range without creating tension in your throat.

I’m sure you’ll find it helpful:

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Incorrect use of the low range is one of the most common issues that I run into in working with singers. Most women resist singing in their chest voice and tend to sing everything in their head voice. I believe this is because it’s easier and the quality of the tone is more ethereal and less masculine.

There are significant problems with this approach:

1. The voice in the low range sounds weak and breathy
2. It’s extremely difficult to sing low notes as they simply won’t come out!
3. It’s impossible to sing loud in the low range. Volume decreases the lower you sing.
4. The quality of the tone is often gravelly.

There can be other reasons for not wanting to use the chest voice, ones that are rooted in our emotions and psyche. I discovered this while helping public speakers develop a strong, resonant speaking voice.

A strong, yet relaxed speaking voice is deeply connected to self-confidence. Often those who speak with a breathy voice were told many times as a child to be quieter. They may have been told to not sing, or to just lip sync because they were judged to be inadequate singers. When working with these students and we touch on making their voices fuller, buried emotions are often released, revealing the deep connection between the voice and our emotions. Working on the voice acts as a catalyst to bring deeply rooted issues to the surface.

 ► learn the correct use of your chest voice here

A full voice communicates clarity of expression and conviction. If it’s forced out it’s often perceived as revealing insecurity. A voice that is full, strong, resonant, and without strain, conveys an attitude of self-confidence that is not imposing and is without ulterior motive. This predisposes the audience to be more receptive to you and what you have to share.

For a singer, a full, resonant voice means a larger “bandwidth”, better suited to sharing energy and inspiration. The correct use of the chest voice ensures that inspiration is grounded, practical, and accessible by the audience. Fullness and volume are but one aspect of what you are offering to your audience. Remember to remain open to the flow of inspiration, which can only work unimpeded when you get the ego out of the way.

Learning to balance strength and self-confidence with selfless expression of inspiration is a constant process of fine-tuning and recalibrating our intentions as performers. The reward, however, is the growing, overwhelming realization that we are part of something much greater, and through singing, we can access this and share it with the world.

In working with singers, mainly women, I’ve often noticed the tendency at the beginning of their training to sing with a “breathy” sound, meaning a sound that is not pure but mixed with some air.

​I don’t know if there’s a physiological reason why women in general have to deal with this issue more than men. What I have observed is that many women instinctively tend to sing with a softer, almost ethereal sound, and to shy away from using their voice in a way that perhaps feels almost masculine to them.

​The problem with this tendency is that the voice needs the proper support that comes from correct placement; that lack of support will become more and more noticeable as you move higher in the range. Your high notes, if they’re there at all, will probably sound so weak as to be almost non-existent.

​Some singers, especially sopranos, make the mistake of singing lower notes in their head register, instead of the chest register. This is sort of like driving your car in the parking lot in fourth gear: not very efficient! Their voice seems to “kick in” only at a certain height, the point at which it becomes appropriate to sing in the head register.

​Here are a few suggestions to correct this tendency:

• For a time, work primarily on the lowest part of your range. Try to hit those low notes more as if you were speaking rather than singing.
• Try the following exercise:  Start at the very bottom of your range and produce short sounds on each vowel: ee, ay, ah, oh, oo. Then move up to the next note and repeat the same thing.
• Practice a 3-note exercise, starting at the very bottom of your range. For example: A-B-C#-B-A. Try to produce a sound that’s close to your speaking voice and keep it that way as you move up and down those 3 notes.
• In both the above exercises, try to create a sound that’s as full as possible by exaggerating the enunciation of each vowel, rather than by forcing the voice out

I think we can all agree that breathing correctly is an important component of a good singing technique. Breath is the motor that makes it possible for the vocal cords to produce any sound.
​
There’s a lot of literature out there that claims that in order to be able to sing, all you have to do is learn the right breathing exercises (diaphragmatic breathing) and everything else will fall into place. Wishful thinking…It’s sort of like saying that if you learn the correct breathing technique you automatically know how to play trumpet! You can have the most perfect diaphragmatic breathing and still not be able to sing. On the other hand, if you learn how to place the voice correctly, you will automatically also breath correctly.
​
What do we mean by “breathing correctly”?
The diaphragm is the most efficient muscle of breathing. It is a large, dome-shaped muscle located at the base of the lungs. Your abdominal muscles help move the diaphragm and give you more power to empty your lungs. When you inhale, move your stomach out, like a balloon that’s getting inflated. When you exhale, tighten your stomach muscles and pull your stomach in.
It is easier to be aware of this mechanism while lying down on you back. Place your hands interlocked on your stomach and feel your stomach move out against them as you inhale and then fall back inward as you exhale.
​
In singing, feel that your breath is coming from your abdominal area, rather then your lungs. Don’t just expand you chest when you inhale, but feel your stomach going out and then gradually feel it come in as you sing (exhale).
​
Some people who are by nature more soft-spoken might find it helpful to practice the following breathing exercises separately from the actual singing in order to strengthen their diaphragm and abdominal muscles.

Breathing Exercises
​
1. Lie on your back on a flat surface or in bed. Interlock your hands over your belly. Inhale slowly through your nose and feel your stomach move out against your hands, like a balloon that’s getting inflated. Now tighten your abdominal muscles and exhale through your mouth, making a sound like “Tsssssssss”. Feel your belly under your hands move slowly back down toward the floor. Repeat several times. Stop if you feel you start to feel dizzy!
​
Once you’re comfortable doing the exercise while lying down, try it while sitting upright on a chair.
​
2. Another breathing exercise that is good for strengthening the diaphragm is known in the Yoga tradition as Kapalabhati Pranayama:
​
“Draw the diaphragm inward sharply, forcing the air out through the nostrils in quick thrusts. Let the inhalation take place automatically; all of your effort should be spent in the exhalation. Each respiration should take about one second to perform. Do this exercise 12 to 24 times to begin with – then more, as you become accustomed to it.”
​
~ From The Art and Science of Raja Yoga by Swami Kriyananda (J. Donald Walters)

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Have you ever had the experience of singing in a choir, or any vocal ensemble, and it feels like everyone around you is singing much louder than you are? Like, no matter how hard you “push” you can hardly hear your own voice? Indeed, that is the common response—to push your voice out, trying to get louder. But let’s stop and ask ourselves: does that really work??

One of the surprising things you learn with serious vocal training is that the more you push your voice, the less it will be heard from a distance. To truly project your voice so that it really carries, you must place it correctly and be able to give it enough resonance by keeping your throat expanded—in a relaxed way.

Ironically, when you hear your own voice very loudly it usually means that you’re not projecting it at all. You’re forcing it out by squeezing your throat, and that blocks the sound from projecting and quickly moving away from you. That’s why it sounds so loud to your ears!

The opposite is also true: when you place your voice correctly (with a relaxed and expanded throat), and therefore project your sound out, it doesn’t seem as loud to you because the sound is rapidly traveling away from you.

This technique was developed in times when microphones didn’t exist and singers had to come up with “tricks” to be able to be heard over large orchestras, without any amplification. Think of operas by Giacomo Puccini, where the orchestra gets incredibly loud at times and yet you can still hear the soloist’s voice soaring over the top of it.

I remember being at a karaoke place when the karaoke guy invited a trained alto to sing a song. At first she tried to sing in the microphone and that was impossibly loud: the speakers were distorting the sound big time. Then she tried without the mic. The place was relatively small, so even without a microphone her voice was still overwhelmingly loud! She was trained in the art of projecting her voice and making it resonant.

Of course, this is an extreme case; very few of us need to worry about being “too loud”. Quite the opposite! Almost all of us would benefit from learning to stay relaxed—keeping our throats round and expanded, remaining completely free of stress and strain, and powerfully projecting our voices out to the world.

Watch the video below for more details!

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Sincerely,

Ramesha