Last month I had a BIG birthday (I'm not telling you WHICH big birthday…and no, thank you, it wasn't 21). This of course meant some serious celebrating including a suitably BIG night out.
Big (or not so big) nights outs can obviously have some repercussions for the next day but for a voice actor, those repercussions might be even more significant. Obviously when having a big night out, I'd make sure my next day is clear, but even so, our voice is so precious, strain of any kind is to be carefully avoided.
As voice actors, we know that alcohol and food late in the evening isn't recommended. Alcohol is of course a diuretic. It causes your body to remove fluids from your blood so truly the enemy of our "hydrate, hydrate, hydrate" mantra. Even if we choose not to drink alcohol, so many foods and drinks we might choose to enjoy while socialising aren’t good for our voices. Caffeine is of course is a diuretic too so that’s coffee and cola to avoid. Carbonated drinks contain carbonic acid, which has been linked to acid reflux and cause throat irritation. So we must lose the lemonade. Food containing dairy and sugar will increase mucous production so that’s a no to the ice-cream. All foods high in fats (which of course you might be enjoying as meal or a post-drink treat on the way home) increase acid in our stomach because fats take longer to digest, producing more acid and causing acid reflux symptoms. No pizza and cheesy chips for me then. Really, any food or drink (other than water) isn't recommended after 6pm as it can cause acid reflux (the plague of the voice actor!) and often the cause of that sore throat feeling you may have first thing in the morning.
Let’s also think about voice use while out. Any night out socialising might mean using your voice more than usual. Add a noisy pub or bar into the mix and you might find yourself having to really raise your volume to be heard. And let's not even go into the impact of singing (yelling) along to Bonjovi anthems late in the evening…
Yikes. I think we’re better off staying in.
But surely us voiceovers artists need to let our hair down sometimes? Of course! Sometimes we might need occasions to relax these rules (a birthday being one!) but when we do, how can we minimise damage?
A couple of years ago, I had a massive realisation: the idea of warming up to socialise. It's crazy that as actors we will warm up (and warm down) our voice for a performance or voice recording session but we don't always consider the same degree of preparation for an event where our voice might experience the same (or perhaps, even more) level of intensity.
While my family have been well used to seeing me humming, lip trilling and making various other strange noises in the morning, they may now also hear me do this in the early evening while I prepare for a night out...not to mention in the taxi on the way home!
And of course it does have an impact. Warming up your vocal folds prepares them for increased use and intensity. And as stated in my previous blog post, continued, long-term use of those SOVT exercises encourage your vocal folds to work more efficiently, minimising stain or damage when they're under stress. Add to this, some wise dietary choices and more hydration in the daytime to prepare for perhaps a little more dehydration in the evening, and you'll be helping your voice even more.
So next time you're preparing for a night out, don't just concentrate on your outfit: get hydrating...and get humming.
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