Staying Vocally Fit for Eight-Show Weeks.

Our tongues, oral pharynx, thick and thin vocal folds and everything anatomically included within our mouths and singing mask are made up of a complex structure of muscles that are continuously engaged throughout the day. Our voices are inherently designed to be used all day, every day, and speaking is often an underrated part of our overall warm up for a nighttime show.

It is possible to overwork the voice during warm up. Finding a good and economic 10 to 15 minute vocal warm up that works the vocal range and parts of the voice that are utilised within the show is an integral part of the process of being ready to step onto the stage.

Belting, or staying in our chest register while singing at a higher pitch, is a survival sound. Your voice is the same muscle that is used as an infant to cry for long periods of time. It is inherently one of the more robust muscles within our bodies. Trust that with the right placement and technique, our voices are strong enough to withstand the load of an eight-show week.

Every voice is as unique as a fingerprint. Different areas of our voices have varied levels of flexibility and robustness. As performers we don't have control of which tracks in which shows we might be lucky enough to land, and every show has its unique challenges and physical and vocal load. This also applies to the extra media appearances, early breakfast television performances, nine-show weeks and so on.

Having an extensive technical understanding of your vocal load, and the parameters in which you can use your voice, is crucial to maintaining vocal health. For example, if it was the sixth performance of the week and I was feeling slight vocal fatigue, I would make sure to incorporate extra vocal rest overnight and set a boundary of 10.30am the next morning before making sound.

If you are prone to losing your voice towards the end of the week, or the overall strength and accuracy diminishes over the week, it is indicative of pushing your voice past its parameters, and adjusting the amount of use and rest accordingly.

The number one way I feel vocal fatigue is not from the repeated vocal use within an eight-show week, but more often shouting over a room full of people at the opening night function. This is applicable for any loud space you may encounter post show.

In a theatre, there is an entire team dedicated to the sound balance, because without the ability to hear ourselves in a large space, we have a tendency to push the voice past its safe and natural use. For live gigs, this is why in-ear monitors are so integral when there are loud instruments to contend with. In the theatre, we have a whole ecosystem of foldback speakers that can appear anywhere around, offstage in the wings, or even inbuilt into the set.

This balance, when we are dealing with all kinds of amplification, is crucial to how we use our voices on stage, as naturally we strain and use far more of our thick vocal folds in order to try and hear ourselves acoustically. Using these folds without proper placement and laryngeal tilt can lead to strain and unwanted cracks.

This is predominantly the way we communicate when we can't hear ourselves, so the lack of proper sound balancing and vocal awareness is rife at an opening night reception. Making sure to position yourself somewhere where you can speak at a normal level will avoid a challenging matinee the following day.

Unlike other places of work, we perform in a stage production, ideally, in the exact same way eight shows a week for the duration of the show's run. This means that during a long run, you are using the same vocal faculties night after night, sometimes for years at a time.

Like other muscles, if you worked the same muscle group with the exact same loading most days of the week, you would quickly find that your body acclimates to that amount of use and it becomes easy. Over time you would also need a heavier loading in order to yield results. Never underestimate the concept of singing a show in.

Have you ever noticed how a difficult passage of music can feel from the first preview, in comparison to a few weeks after opening? The more repetition and time we give our voices to strengthen the areas that are worked within our show track, the better they will be in performance.

I typically sing a piece a few times a day, each day for the week leading up to a performance. Even if it is a one off, I want to give my voice enough of a chance to reduce the initial difficulty and chance of unwanted strain or inaccuracy. This is something I have found invaluable to put into my practice before important auditions. I want to give an opening night vocal performance at my final audition.

Performers need to find balance within their work and personal life to ensure longevity in what can be a challenging industry. Becoming show fit does not only benefit the overall quality of your performances on stage, but the quality in which you can live your life around this. It is a full body sport, with mental health being just as important as vocal training, as all of these areas of your life come together.

I am a huge believer in making sure your vocation is adding more to your life than the amount you need to sacrifice in order to do it. For example, if you need to spend an extended part of your free time on vocal rest, can't exercise in a regular and healthy way around the parameters of the show, and find you are isolating yourself in your social life in order to conserve your energy, this could breed resentment for the job that you once dreamed of securing.

Who you are off stage is arguably more important than who you need to be in any production. Maintaining a semblance of your regular life and activities is crucial to your overall wellbeing.