Foods to avoid include foods with high fat content, like fried or greasy foods, eggs, butter and other dairy products; and acidic meals like spicy foods, peppers, concentrated tomato dishes, vinegar, and citrus fruits. It's almost impossible to sing well while burping.
Some foods and beverages to avoid prior to singing are mucous producing foods such as dairy, stimulants such as caffeine and spicy foods, soft drinks, refined sugars, chocolate, iced drinks and alcohol (including wine and beer).
#1: Never Practice with a loud volume.
This adds tension from the outer neck muscles. This causes you to squeeze and over-compress. You'll never be able to balance and coordinate the air from your lungs with the vocal cords so they can develop their own power and strength.
Chronic vocal fatigue
Our voice therapists recommend that for every 60 minutes of voice use, you need 10 minutes of voice rest. Overuse can damage the vocal cords, and if you often find you have lost your voice by the end of the day or after an hour of singing, your vocal cords may be experiencing tissue damage.
The best foods before singing are foods that hydrate your voice or are rich in protein. Singers should never stuff themselves before a performance and should avoid foods that are rich in dairy or hot spice. The best drinks before singing are warm drinks without caffeine or milk.
Milk. When you drink milk, it increases the mucus in the back of the nose and throat. This can make your voice unclear and cause you to cough and clear your throat more often, which can damage your vocal cords.
A healthy voice requires a strong body with generally good muscle tone and endurance. So plan to eat a balance of protein, fruits and vegetables, whole grains and beans, and moderate amounts of healthy fats and oils. The current typical American diet of highly processed, packaged food lacks many essential nutrients.
What are the best drinks for your singing voice? The best drinks for your singing voice are water (especially room-temperature water, perhaps with a squeeze or two of lemon) and tea, but be careful about consuming too much caffeine, which can dehydrate you. You can find wonderful herbal teas designed for singers.
Certain medical conditions can affect the nerves that control the vocal cords. These can include multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, Parkinson disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Huntington disease. Nerves can also be injured from surgery or chronic inflammation of the larynx (laryngitis).
A daily workout for your voice will strengthen your vocal cords, improve your vocal range, and develop a better vocal tone. You should practice singing for at least thirty minutes a day (making sure you do your warm-ups first). If you don't have a daily routine, work with your vocal coach to create one for you.
“The quality of the voice is dependent on many factors; however, barring a physical vocal disability, everyone can learn to sing well enough to sing basic songs.” While some factors are genetic, Rutkowski says growing up in a musical environment strongly influences whether someone sings well and confidently.
With enough practice and hard work, anyone with a voice can learn how to sing really well. Of course, talent plays a major role in how quickly and easily you are going to learn. But that doesn't mean you're not able to become a great singer if you're not born with great singing talent.
Singers need to keep their bodies hydrated, so that the delicate vocal folds (or cords) can be kept supple. They would probably drink between two and three litres of water spread out throughout the day. The water would be at room temperature, rather than ice-cold.
The best drinks before singing are warm drinks without caffeine or milk, warm water and herbal teas containing manuka honey, lemon and ginger are ideal. Warm or room-temperature water will hydrate your vocal cords, making them more supple and less liable to injury.
Cold water can actually shock your vocal cords and create tension in your throat. This can reduce your vocal range and ability. While it is important to stay hydrated and water is an obvious source of hydration, room temperature water is best.
Bananas moderate your blood sugar levels to reduce your appetite. This is ideal if you have little time to consume a rich meal before a performance. The glycemic index (the speed foods increase your blood sugar levels) of bananas is well-balanced.
The creamy texture of bananas can produce extra mucus and coat your throat, which leads to unclear vocals. The thickness of a banana will inhibit your singing ability and are best to be avoided right before your performance. Eating a banana is essentially the same as eating dairy before singing, both are bad news.
Fruits containing large amounts of water are excellent hydration-conscious snacks, including apples, pears, watermelon, peaches, melons, grapes, blueberries, oranges, pineapples, plums and raspberries. These fruits are a good source of water that helps to keep lubricated the vocal cords.
Foods to avoid include foods with high fat content, like fried or greasy foods, eggs, butter and other dairy products; and acidic meals like spicy foods, peppers, concentrated tomato dishes, vinegar, and citrus fruits.
Food You Should Eat
In all seriousness, while it's important to still eat in moderation and to not eat within two hours of a performance, keep an eye out for these voice-friendly foods: Hard- and soft-boiled eggs. Plain baked fish, such as salmon or tilapia, but stay away from the tartar sauce.
Unfortunately for chocolate lovers, it's actually one of the worst foods to snack on before you sing. It's high in both sugar and caffeine – two products that can affect the performance of your vocal cords before a show.
For most people, eating dairy products like milk, yogurt, ice cream or cottage cheese will create mucus, and should be avoided within a couple of hours before singing. For most, hard cheeses don't do that. Mucus coats your throat and makes it harder to sing.