Make sure your voice is reaches its peak performance –says Shelagh Davies
Bright lights, dry air and hours of singing add up to one thing:
the need for singers to drink lots of water.
Shelagh Davies, a Speech-Language Pathologist, urges singers to be “well hydrated” and explains the special circumstances that make singers especially prone to dry vocal folds.
Knowledge is power – even knowledge about mucous.
At the center of our singing efforts are the vibrations of our vocal folds; Shelagh describes how the water we drink actually affects this critical part of our voice.
Groundbreaking experiments are teaching us more about handling the stresses of singing for long periods of time.
Once the vocal folds are too dry to sing efficiently – it takes up to two hours for re-hydration to occur.
Shelagh also explains the relationship between smoke and hydration in this final clip.
Shelagh Davies is a Registered Speech-Language Pathologist and a Clinical Assistant Professor and researcher in the Graduate School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, University of British Columbia. She has over 20 years of clinical experience and is internationally recognized for her work with the voice and its disorders. As a singer and public speaker herself she is familiar with the joys and challenges of performance. See www.shelaghdavies.com/
