Can I sing when I’m sick?

Years ago when I was a vocal student in a music school I used to wake up every morning with my first act of the day involving a panicked swallowing and testing my of voice to see what kind of shape it was in. To be honest, I think I only really had 3-4 good vocal days in a year. As a poor student I didn’t have enough to eat, my one pair of shoes I owned had holes in the bottom (which isn’t smart when you live on rainy Vancouver Island) and I couldn’t afford a bus pass so I walked everywhere. My health was compromised most of the time and my voice, performance and confidence suffered as a result.

Years later I have more food, a car to get me around and a few more pairs of shoes in my closet but now I have 3 children bringing home every cold virus known to mankind. Add to that some dust allergies making me prone to coughing, a persistent post-nasal drip and, once again, my voice is often compromised. Yet now I can confidently sing in pretty much any circumstance (barring laryngitis or excess phlegm) because I have a solid foundation of good vocal technique. When you really understand how your instrument works it increases the likelihood that you will know how to work around issues when they pop up.

I’ve had singers come into my studio concerned that they had always sung with ease but, suddenly, their voice feels different and they can’t hit notes like they could before. After some vocal diagnostics to rule out other issues I’ll ask them when they felt the turning point occurred. Often it is after experiencing some sort of vocal trauma like prolonged coughing or laryngitis. If I don’t pick up on any serious vocal damage we can often turn it around quite quickly just by getting them to relax and find their way back to their home base. When our voice experiences a trauma, we often unknowingly give in to the way our body is compensating and then get stuck there. Knowing how your voice feels when it is at its “home base” of good technique means that you will notice the compromises your body is making while they are happening and can adjust it back before it stays there.

Good technique is even more important when our health is compromised because those adjustments our bodies make are usually unnecessary when it comes to singing. When I’m sick I’ll feel my throat tighten up as soon as I go to vocalize – but if I relax and work myself back with solid technique I find that, most of the time, my speaking and singing voice work just fine. That being said, if your throat is painfully sore my advice would be to avoid making a sound (especially NOT whispering) until the soreness passes.

Now I no longer wake up in a panic, wondering whether my voice will fail me. I just take a deep, relaxing breath, get solid in some technique and sing to my heart’s content.

P.S. The best solution I’ve found to post-nasal drip and allergies is the “Neti pot”. Google it