Maintaining Voice Through Extreme Stress

Mwight

Hey, I got a bit of a problem.

I'm doing a summer camp for my church where I'm singing. Problem the youth leader team including myself came up with a breakout character who does random things, yells BREAKOUT (Insert number) MORE DAYS! WHAT!? screaming at the top of his lungs. We're doing a few videos a day so we can post videos from video 29 to video day 1, then I need to sing at the camp and my voice is horse as it is.

How can I protect my voice while I do these silly things, and should I keep doing my warm-ups to help my voice as well? I remember Ken instructing to keep warming up, but lightly when your voice was down and out.

Example of something I know about is the voice actor for Gollum in Lord of the Rings would use his gollum juice which I believe was a concentrated mix of honey and ginger I think. Would something like that protect my voice while filming these silly vids, or is there something better so I can get my voice back up to speed?

Hope to hear a speedy response, we're on day 22, so that's 22 days to recover within the silliness. Thanks so much!

highmtn

First of all, you should never scream at the top of your lungs. You cannot protect your voice and continue to scream at the top of your lungs. You will hurt your voice doing that, and the more you do it, the more you will hurt your voice.

You actually need to cut back the volume as much as you can.

Since you and the director came up with this idea, perhaps you can come up with a better idea that does not include screaming every day as loud as you can. Honey and ginger might make your shredded cords feel better, but they won't be protected against abuse.

Since you're doing this on videos, perhaps you can overdub the "screaming" with something that isn't really screaming.

It's very important that you do not continue to abuse your voice for 29 days. You could hurt yourself, and you certainly may be incapable of singing well as a worship leader as a result of this plan you have devised.

Going hoarse is not good for your voice. Abusing the voice after you have become hoarse is an even worse idea. I recommend coming up with a new plan that eliminates screaming.

All the Best!

Bob

Mwight

Okay, I'll come up with a way to pull back on screaming like a WWE wrestler. I may also be able to plan things ahead so we can do it less days, and we'll plan ahead so we can make less takes. Hopefully the combination of less force, less takes, and less days will take care of it.

Also for fun, enjoy.

https://instagram.com/p/BHnvL6OAJVc/embed/

highmtn

:^) Funny.

Just copy the audio from this existing clip and use the same scream over and over without actually vocalizing it. Paste it in as you edit. Do an audio edit session where you just shout out the numbers, and assemble the copies with the whole phrase put together. Spare your voice.