Prep the week/day before

ON THE DAY

First thing – hydrate and steam

Hydrate

• Remember it takes up to four hours to hydrate your vocal cords systemically from the water that you drink. If at all possible, without disturbing a good sleep, drink a couple of pints of water at T minus four hours.
• If your speaking event is first thing in the morning then drink a good pint of water as soon as you wake up, and have a steam if at all possible with your portable steamer.
• Avoid a lot of caffeine, salt and sugar at breakfast. One coffee or tea first thing is ok, but don’t load up on coffee to fuel you through the day. It actually stresses the body and will undermine your vocal performance.

30mins before

Vocal Reset Exercise (the straw)

This exercise is a good warm up, warm down and will soothe if you need some respite part way through an event.

Take your reusable straw and bottle and fill the bottle two thirds full. This should feel good and comforting throughout. You should not feel like you’re labouring or holding your breath at any point. This should take between 2-5minutes each time.

1. Find your depth – make an unvoiced, steady stream of bubbles and adjust the height of the bottle until this feels good. More depth equals higher pressure, so if that feels too hard, bring the straw out a little to a more shallow depth.
2. Start vocalising – using one steady tone, start vocalising through the straw, adjusting the depth if you need to.
3. Widen your vocalisation – gently siren through the straw to stretch the voice. Adjust the depth at different parts of your range if you need to, ensuring you’re not working your voice too hard at any stage.

Make sure you schedule time during a lunch hour to repeat this and sit quietly for a couple of minutes if your event is long or over a couple of days. Don’t wait until you feel vocally tired to do this.

VIDEO DEMONSTRATION

Podcast episode / audiobook chapter

10mins before

Vocal Warm Up

You may wish to find some privacy to complete this part of the prep!

Fricatives

Unvoiced

1. shh
2. ssss
3. fffffff

Voiced (hold a steady tone)

1. jjjjjj
2. zzzzz
3. vvvvv

Voiced with modulation – move the tone up and down, steadily widening the pitch range.

1. jjjjjj
2. zzzzz
3. vvvvv

VIDEO DEMO

Throughout

Keep caffeine to a minimum

Continue to sip water throughout.

Snack on apple slices.

Repeat the vocal reset during breaks if you feel your voice getting tired.

• Kit bundle (upsell)
  • steamer
  • reusable straw and/or bottle
  • vocalzones
  • entertainers secret

Categorised in: Health and Wellbeing