Help with Performing with Allergies/ Cough

Lenne

Hey there. So allergies have always been a problem for me, especially around this time of year. I recently got very stuffy and a bad cough, and seemed to have blown my voice out from coughing so hard. My main question is, does anybody know of a very quick remedy to this? I have a show tomorrow (9/24) and I fear I won't be able to perform my best since half my range is very hoarse. I've gone through vol. 3's health and wellness video, but I am too broke to afford such things at this time.
Is there any way I can repair my voice before tomorrow night? Thank you guys for your time!

highmtn

Hi, @Lenne,

As long as you continue to cough, you will continue to blow your cords apart, and they will continue to swell. Swollen cords are what generally cause hoarseness. When your cords swell, you have a tendency to blow more air to try to get them to sound, which only makes it worse, because you just dry out the cords by blowing more air, and it becomes a vicious cycle.

I don't know if you are a student. Your login shows you as a Member. In the students-only area of the forums, there is a KTVA webinar video that is titled "How to Recover from Hoarseness". If you are a student, you can send a copy of your purchase receipt to ktvaforums@gmail.com and request a forums upgrade to have access to that, and other instructional videos.

Unfortunately, reducing the swelling is what you need, and that generally takes time.

You need to reduce or eliminate the coughing, or the swelling will continue.

To help try to recover your voice, you can try doing some light scales that start high in head voice and descend into chest voice. Do them as lightly as possible, and try to keep the cords together, so that the notes don't break up. If you can manage to keep the cords together singing lightly, that can help your voice to recover. If you can't get the notes to sound, then it's due to the swelling, and the only thing that can help is time, drinking lots of water, getting good sleep, and recovering from the coughing.

Taking a couple of ibuprofen can reduce some of the swelling, but you don't want to overdo that or chronically take ibuprofen. There is also the risk of oversinging, because of the reduction of sensitivity to pain or discomfort when you take anti-inflammatories.

So if you have any cough remedies that will not interact adversely with ibuprofen, then that might help some as a temporary, partial remedy. Try the soft down-scales and see if your cords will stay closed. Do this at low volume to avoid further irritation to your voice. Get some sleep and lots of hydration.

One day isn't normally long enough to bounce back from something like this.

Get well soon!

All the Best!


Bob

Lenne

Incredible, thank you! And I'll send my receipt to the email you showed me, hopefully I still have it.
Sadly I'll have to perform tomorrow as well as I can, haha.