hey chris liepe here with five things you should do every day to maintain a healthy
voice swinging with the boys and the school with your feet flying up in the air saying hey little
dinner with the kitty in the middle of the swing like i just didn't care so i took a big chance
at the high school dance with a missy who was ready to play it wasn't me she was fooling cause
she knew what she was doing and i knew love was here to stay when she told me to walk this way
walk this way
the beauty of these five things is that they don't really take any time
if you'd like to go way deeper with me with your own voice you'd like me to come alongside you and
help you discover the things that your voice can really do and how to do things in a healthy way
click the link below and join my free voice course thing number one to do for a healthy long-living
voice and these are all based on things that i actually do every day the first i have these
filled all day and i'm drinking tons of water but when i get up in the morning the first thing
i do when i roll out of bed i drink 16 ounces of water then i start doing very mild glottal stops
this is what i do every morning drink the water and then start doing little
bits of glottal stops really not even a minute's worth sort of just like i did
i am coming to terms with my voice everybody wakes up with a degree of morning voice and
i'm not trying to beat my morning voice out of my voice i'm just going ah what how does
my voice feel in the most sort of mild way i go you know some some of these stops are
in chest voice some of them are in head voice
an equal balance of both and notice i'm not going
i'm not very loud and i'm also not cutting off the sound
i'm letting breath happen after i make that very short staccato phonation again
this is just helping me come to terms with where my voice is at to to start the day
feeling out my voice because as a singer we want to be feeling our voice all day
even when we're not singing when we're talking we want to have this habit and this mindset
of feeling the sensations of our voice working this is going to help us improve in our singing
without even singing simply because we are mindful of our voice so pound the water don't pound it
drink it at a good pace 16 ounces of water and then start doing these mild glottal stops
how long doesn't matter under a minute you don't need to do a lot you're just waking
your voice up a little bit and you're coming to terms with where you're at all right number
two choose your words carefully throughout your day and watch your speaking dynamics make sure
that you are not yelling all day or i i have this habit if i if i'm on a lot of zoom calls
during the day or i'm out talking in loud environments i have this you know i tend
to do this and i'm not being mindful that i am overusing my voice even though i'm not
breaching some egregious amount of time in terms of vocal usage i am i am not being conscious of
how loudly i'm talking and also how monotone i end up talking when i do talk like this
this one this is kind of a parallel to a voice killer but if we make the habit of being mindful
about how we're using our voice speaking wise throughout the day we're going to
keep our voice a lot healthier learn to be a good listener throughout the day
often times we talk too much we say more words than we need to say
if in your quest for a healthy voice you measure your words more carefully before you
say them you're going to think about how you say them more which is going to help your voice but
it's also going to make you a better communicator tip number three regularly check your breathing
now those of you who have used smart watches or maybe even reminders on your phone
know that there are several mindfulness apps out there that help you remember to breathe
and those are good i tend to do this a little bit differently though instead i'll just have a
little silent alarm go off on on my smartwatch it doesn't have to be the the breathe app
um but an alarm will do just fine and i know that this alarm is reminding me to check my breathing
now this isn't to stop what i'm doing and do a do a breathing or mindfulness exercise although those
can be great too i am simply giving myself a check okay in this moment right now how is my breathing
am i taking lots of shallow breaths am i breathing slower and more deeply am i and why this helps me
zero in on other things that may be affecting my voice and my mind is my breathing shallow
and short and frequent because i'm exercising or because i'm stressed uh or because i'm preoccupied
is my breathing longer and more relaxed because i am winding down or vegging or because i'm
intently focused on learning something and and really engaged and and and in that case
am i breathing as much as i need to you know when you're really engaged in something
not in a vegging way but where you're kind of on the edge of your seat sometimes you end up
holding your breath so giving yourself and it's really three or so checkpoints throughout the day
to go what's my breathing like and just asking the questions and doing a very quick inventory
of what it's like and why you're not you may be singing when when your alarm goes off but this
helps you get in the habit of really listening to your body and evaluating what it's doing and why
which is one of the biggest components of being a great singer ever so if you can start making these
habits in how your body and how your bodily feedback is working when you go to sing that
what am i doing and why mindset is going to be so ingrained and helpful for you tip number four and
this is sort of related to the breathing check although it needs to be done as its own thing
choose some windows throughout the day to do a tension check i catch myself all the time holding
tension in my shoulders and in my neck i even do it while i'm filming sometimes this tension
check doesn't simply mean like have good posture because you can hold all sorts of horrible tension
while you're trying to have good posture i talk about that a lot in my full course
but what you're doing is you are you are trying to identify areas of your body if you're sitting in
a computer or you're doing some sort of activity you're trying to identify areas of your body that
are involved in an unnatural way they might they might be natural to you because you're doing them
without thinking about it but they don't need to be happening i do not need to be holding
muscular tension in my shoulders while i'm sitting here talking to you i don't need to be
doing that i don't need to be when i'm sitting in a chair flexing my lower abdominal muscles
this is something because i've as a singer because i've trained to engage these muscles
when i'm speaking sometimes i catch myself i think i'm fully relaxed and then i i start
directing my attention to my lower abdominals i'm like i'm flexing my abs on a low level
sometimes this manifests itself uh with people you know uh when they when they they have this
this tendency to sort of chronically suck in their gut and they're constantly they
constantly have their gut in a little bit and this can result in other tension and it can also result
in digestive problems believe it or not if you're constantly flexing your gut or sucking in your gut
your uh your muscles can't flow your your food can't flow and rest in your stomach like the way
it needs to so for me it's shoulders and neck i hold tons of tension there and lower abdominals
multiple times throughout the day and this could be on the back of your breathing check even so you
don't have a billion things to remember multiple times a day take inventory huh am i tensing my
forehead that's another one big one for me am i tensing my forehead just sitting here
reading a book am i tensing my shoulders am i bearing down when i don't need to be
am i flexing part of my leg as i'm sitting at my desk when i'm doing my workout am i making a bunch
of faces facial tension when you're lifting a weight doesn't help you lift the weight you might
think it does but it actually leads to all sorts of other ancillary tensions that end up competing
with what you're trying to do this is another way that we can practice the the good habits of being
a good singer without actually singing and create opportunities for immense and long-lasting vocal
health here's your final and fifth tip hum at least every day you might sing every day
you might not but even on the days where you're singing and warming up and have all your projects
and practicing and taking lessons and on the days that you're not do a little humming most mornings
my humming happens right after i drink my water and do my glottal stops my mild glottal stops
or onsets you could call them onsets as well and this humming is simply for the joy of experiencing
the resonance of your voice there's no expectations you're not trying to do anything
good often times actually most of the time my humming starts in my head voice
goes down into my chest voice
oftentimes this sort of sad forlorn melody that i have no idea really where it came from
comes out as i'm doing this and sometimes evolves into something a bit more happy
but i'll i'll start in my head voice i'll meander down to my chest voice
often times i'm not i don't have a closed mouth but it's not open oh it's just
i'm exercising a little bit of dynamics my eyes are closed my eyes are open i'm immersing myself
in my voice it's another way for me to come to terms it's not warming up for any sort of thing
per se it's just ah i have a voice that likes to sing let's experience it today i hope you've
enjoyed these five healthy habits for a healthy voice let me know in the comments below what
some things that have worked for you in terms of healthy habits and other areas of your voice
that you're struggling with that you'd like help with also in the comments below again if
you'd like more help with your voice on a more personal level the best place to start with me
is by clicking the link below and joining my free voice course we'll see you for more