Jermaine Jones & Kathy Alexander share tips on vocal health for singers of all genres.

Jermaine Jones

Singer-songwriter | Producer

Kathy Alexander

Music Teacher | Vocal Coach | Co-founder of Singdaptive

Singdaptive instructors are responding to questions from singers on all aspects of the singing life. Today singer-producer Jermaine Jones and Singdaptive VP, Kathy Alexander, share their top vocal health tips.

Jermaine Jones on Vocal Rest

Tips from The Team Transcript: My number one vocal health tip is to sleep, drink water, and then sleep again, because it’s so important that you get rest. It doesn’t matter how hydrated your voice is, or how rehearsed you are, and how warmed up you are: if your body is tired, it’s going to show in the sound of your voice, the quality of your voice.

The second thing I like to do is I like to drink at least at a bare minimum, two bottles of water. The first bottle, I take straight to the head – I drink the whole thing from the beginning to the end. Then I sip on it periodically on the second bottle throughout the day. And if I need more than that, I’ll take more, but at a very minimum, I start at two bottles of water. That’s my number one vocal health tip.

What is your Number One Vocal Health Tip?

Kathy Alexander on Vocal Health for Singers with Children

Tips from The Team Transcript: It’s tough to be a singer because our instrument is inside our body, and therefore, it’s affected by illness and irritants and things in a way that is not the same for other instrumental musicians.

So yes, we don’t want to catch a cold. And sometimes we catch a cold. A little congestion, doesn’t really get too much in the way. And some of us are a little more susceptible to changes in the voice where it’s not just annoying congestion, but the vocal folds have become a little swollen and unwieldy – this is such a drag! So yeah, we don’t want to catch colds.

Avoid Catching Colds as a Singer

There’s so many things you can do, like eating well and taking your vitamins and just staying strong. Sleep is important.

There are a couple of extra precautions that I take because I have children who are school aged.

I will not share food with them or finish their food that they haven’t eaten, which is something I would otherwise like to do – especially if I’m in a busy performance time in my life. The other thing is that I tend to take a lot of vitamin C and zinc at a time where I really feel like I can’t afford to get sick.