- Hey there, sweetheart. And what's up, singers? This is Cheryl Porter, singer
and your vocal coach here. And today, I wanna share
with you the top eight signs that you are damaging your voice. So if you're a singer,
speaker, teacher, preacher, or any professional voice
user, you gotta see this video. Number eight, being hoarse
the day after singing. If you wake up hoarse in the
morning after every show, that's a clear sign that your
voice is being damaged, baby. The only reason why most singers who suffer from chronic hoarseness haven't experienced any
serious vocal problems yet is only because they
usually have a lot of days to rest after every show. But when a singer or speaker goes on tour and they suddenly find themselves from doing two shows a
month to seven shows a week, that's when we see a lot of
concerts getting canceled because of nodes, polyps,
swelling, and vocal cord damage. This vocal cord damage
may have come out on tour but that vocal abuse was always going on and no amount of steaming,
no amount of mint tea, no amount of essential oils
or cough drops is going to fix the underlying problem that you are damaging your voice. Don't ignore your hoarseness. Check in with your voice doctor and fix those underlying technical flaws. Number seven, your
voice gets tired easily. If there is one thing that
a singer's voice must be, it's resistant. When I watch singers train online, I notice that a lot of singers
are doing vocal warmups but not skill, targeted vocal workouts. That means that most singers are just
warming up the voice to sing but not doing specific exercises
to develop those muscles. My darling, you're supposed to be able to sing or speak for two,
three, maybe four hours straight without getting tired or hoarse. Remember, you're a vocal athlete and you gotta keep that
instrument in shape. Make sure that you put in
some solid vocal workouts into your vocal training, not just vocal warmups but
some breathing exercises, some stamina exercises. Start doing your vocal exercises while running if you want to, and don't forget to warm up
well before every performance. Number six, your vibrato
gets shaky or unstable. About three years ago, I was about to start my Lion King tour. It was the toughest
time of my life, y'all. I was coaching sometimes 12 hours a day. In the studio, I created my
own online singing course, doing concerts like
almost every other night. I'm gonna be honest, I needed the money, y'all, and I needed the work like all singers do. But I noticed that my vibrato, especially in my chest register, was getting kind of shaky, would be like ♪ Hallelujah ♪ instead of ♪ Hallelujah ♪ It was shaky like ♪ Hallelujah ♪ You can hear that shaking, right? So the frequencies were off and I could not control my vibrato. It was driving me crazy. I checked in with my voice doctor, and sure enough, he found
swelling on my right vocal cord and that's what was preventing my cords from vibrating correctly. So baby, if you notice even
little changes in your voice, that's a clear sign that
something may be going wrong and you need to get get it checked out by your voice doctor immediately. Number five, timbre changes. Your voice gets darker and raspy. Every singer and speaker knows what their voice is supposed to sound like and every voice matures
and changes over time. But if you hear a sudden or
drastic change of timbre, especially if it becomes suddenly darker or suddenly really raspy, that's a clear sign that
your voice may be damaged. Like I said before, be aware, listen but keep in mind
that change of timbre can also be hormonal imbalance
like we see in ladies during that time of the month,
or thyroid issues or puberty. But any persistent
timbre changes is a sign that you need to check
in with your voice doctor and get to the root of
the problem and fix it. Number four, inability to sing softly. So listen to this. ♪ Let the storm rage on ♪ ♪ Let the storm rage on ♪ If you can't sing ♪ Pianissimo ♪ and you can only sing ♪ Fortissimo ♪ that's a clear sign that you
could be risking vocal damage in the long term. Please check your dynamics often. Number three, constant cracking. (Meryl laughs hysterically) We gotta keep that in the video. That's so funny. If you can't hold a note without cracking, yep, you guessed it, it's a problem. I know a lot of singers
have just accepted the fact that they crack a lot. I know a lot of those singers. And of course, singers and
speakers, we crack sometimes. But if you are cracking a lot, or if you can't sing a
note without cracking, baby, that is a sign that
you're overusing your voice, overusing your throat, and it can cause some
serious vocal problems in the long run. Cracking is a clear sign that you lack that basic vocal support, but that too can also be just hormonal like boys doing that
voice change for example, the brain has difficulty
controlling the voice. But if your voice just
won't stop cracking, do some vocal exercises
for sustained notes, breathing exercises with longer phrasing to improve your vocal
technique and vocal support. Number two, loss of high notes or difficulty changing vocal register. So you are on a stage, you're singing that song that
you've been singing for ages. You are about to kill it, baby. The house is packed. You're about to deliver that note that everybody has been waiting for. You can feel it coming. The band is doing a great crescendo and it's time to let that
voice fly, and you hit it. The audience is going crazy. You brought the house
down like you always do. But when you get back
to your dressing room, you realize that you got a
little itch in your throat, a little tingle, a little cough, and hitting that note feels so much harder than it did before. When you start losing your
range, it is a serious issue. It might be something really
subtle, something structural, a swelling, a small growth of tissue. But please, sweetheart, don't wait. Go to your voice doctor
and your vocal coach and they're gonna help
you come up with a plan. Voice changes, they occur with age, but if you notice a sudden change or a sudden loss in your
voice or your range, you've got to get to
the root of the problem. So before I reveal the number one sign that you may be damaging your voice, I want you guys to check
out my online singing course that I created especially for you guys to help singers develop their voices so they can avoid all of these problems that we are talking about. Remember, 90% of all
vocal damage is behavioral which means that you can
avoid it completely or fix it if you know what to look out for. Use a coupon code, "I Love My Voice" to get an extra $10 off any of my courses. And the number one sign that you may be damaging your
voice, of course, is pain. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Singing is not supposed to hurt. Pain is your body's way of telling you that there is a threat to your safety. If you are singing and
you always feel a burning or a stinging or a pulling
or any pain whatsoever, then you gotta know that
your voice is in danger. Listen to what your voice
is telling you, sweetheart. I'm so frustrated with this taboo surrounding vocal issues
and singers keeping quiet when you know that something is wrong. And I really hope that
this video is gonna help us to stop ignoring pain. Don't be afraid to go
to your voice doctor. They are there to help
you, not to judge you. I'm not here to judge you either. I love you and I want you
to keep on using that voice to make a difference and
an impact in this world because believe me, there is
no one in this world like you. Thank you so much to my
voice doctor, Dr. Steven Sims for being such an enormous
help in creating this video. And thank you to all the professional
voice experts out there for your incredible work to help singers like me
protect our voices every day. I am so sad to go now because I love you guys. Thanks for watching this video
and I'll see you in class. - [Staff 1] Aww. (Staff 2 laughing) - Aww. I am sad. (Staff clapping) I miss them already. (Staff laughing)
