how do I avoid losing my voice after lecturing for hours?

April 11, 2008 6:53 AM

how do I avoid losing my voice after hours of lecturing? what can i do to prepare? singers and teachers, help!

Few times a year, i have to lecture for extended periods of time. last time i had to do that i lectured for 4 hours, two days in a row. There are 15 minute breaks every 1.5 hours or so, but it is still very taxing on my throat. I lost my voice at the end, and could not talk for a week after.

I have to lecture again in a few days. This time I will lecture for 6 hours, 2 days in a row. What can I do proactively to prevent myself from losing my voice again? Should I sip hot tea throughout? Suck on Halls? Anything else? Please help.

Please do not suggest that I do not lecture. This is pretty obvious. The scheduling is also not up to me.

posted by esolo to health & fitness (16 comments total)

Are you lecturing with a mic? It's the volume that generally hurts voices, if use a mic you could probably lecture for weeks.
posted by bigmusic at 6:58 AM on April 11, 2008

Not tea; avoid caffeine. Maybe hot herbal tea, though: I'm partial to chamomile with ginger. Make sure you have plenty plenty plenty of water and drink it often, particularly if your environment will be climate-controlled and therefore likely pretty dry.

Take frequent breaks if possible. Your audience can probably use them, too. For you, though, the breaks should be a chance to rest your voice.

Avoid talking too much when you first wake up. Start with humming in the shower; warm your voice up gently.

Take care with your voice starting now so that it will be rested and strong when it comes time to lecture.

If you can get someone -- a singer friend, a voice coach -- to show you how to speak with good breath support, that's really going to help you. However, if you're talking for six hours, then you really want good support to be habitual.

Good support is often employed as a way to make one's voice stronger or louder. You're probably using a microphone for lecturing, but supporting will still help you keep your voice going.
posted by amtho at 7:03 AM on April 11, 2008

this book might help
posted by sgt.serenity at 7:16 AM on April 11, 2008

Water and microphones are what have helped me the most. I also found that talking less outside of class helped.
posted by fake at 7:20 AM on April 11, 2008

My brother is a singer and when he is busy he drinks aloe juice he finds in health food stores (I think he cuts it with water though)
posted by mikepop at 7:41 AM on April 11, 2008

I have been in exactly your position: 6-hour lectures, back-to-back days, no voice at the end. The big shift in my thinking about it was when someone pointed out to me that doing these long lectures is, essentially, an athletic performance, and you have to treat it like one.

Minimize your use of alcohol and caffeine for a few days leading up to and then during the talks. These diuretics reduce your body's ability to keep the vocal cords lubricated. Alcohol, in particular, can take a couple of days for your body to bounce back from.

Get plenty of sleep, leading up to and during the talks. Doing these talks takes a lot of energy even when you're not suffering or recovering from a sleep deficit. While you're talking, drink lots and lots of water. I literally don't set the water glass down, and sometimes will pour several before the talk so I can switch smoothly when the glass is empty. Make sure you'll have access during the talk to all the water you'll need. (I go through about half a liter an hour.) Integrate drinking water into the patterns of your lecture, so it doesn't feel like everything grinds to a halt when you take a drink.

During breaks, sip hot water with lemon and honey in it. If you don't have access to these, I find that Ricola honey-lemon cough drops are an acceptable substitute. I've tried other cough drops with considerably less success -- Halls, or anything menthol, did nothing for me. Also during the breaks, rest your voice completely. Don't talk at all. Just sip your hot water.

The most important thing, as amtho indicated, is learning how to breathe when you're lecturing. The reason you're losing your voice is that you're relying on your throat muscles to project your voice out to the audience, and they simply aren't up to the task. So they get strained, and eventually give up on you completely. The throat should be relaxed -- the power in your voice should be coming from your lungs and diaphragm. This will take some practice, but it's the only long-term solution. Good luck!
posted by jjg at 8:41 AM on April 11, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

You need to adopt lecturing strategies which involve you talking less and the students talking more. Ask questions, get them to do exercises, give them a problem to work out.
posted by biffa at 8:55 AM on April 11, 2008

Seconding the hot water with lemon and honey. Soothing goodness.
posted by tomcochrane at 8:57 AM on April 11, 2008

Breath support, breath support, breath support, breath support. There are plenty of good exercises out there to learn good breath support techniques. Your diaphragm and the inside of your mouth should do the work, not your voice box. That is how good singers sound excited/amazing even when they are singing at close to a whispers volume.

If you can't find anything, let me know and I will see what I can dig up for you.
posted by Silvertree at 10:24 AM on April 11, 2008

A good acting coach can also help you with projecting your voice without hurting yourself. I really like Yogi Throat Comfort Tea for when my throat is stressed.
posted by Medieval Maven at 10:27 AM on April 11, 2008

A singer handed me a bottle of Propolis spray when I was losing my voice, I used it before and during a gig. It's a quick fix, but a good one.
posted by Benjamin Nushmutt at 11:14 AM on April 11, 2008

All good advice here, and I'll add: if you sense after the first day of lectures that your voice is starting to go, stop talking. Completely. And no whispering, which is terribly hard on your vocal cords. In fact, even if your voice feels fine after day 1, talk as little as possible that night and the next day before your lecture.
posted by rtha at 12:58 PM on April 11, 2008

Here are another couple of questions that might be helpful...
how do I help my voice recover after speaking loudly all day?
best home remedies for sore voice due to call center work
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:09 PM on April 11, 2008

The first post above mentions tea being good for the voice. I guess, compared to coffee, green tea would be better - less caffeine, you can sip it all day. But really, avoiding caffeine will help a lot.

Also - make sure you get enough sleep. It's amazing how much difference this makes to me.
posted by amtho at 3:02 PM on April 11, 2008

throat coat
posted by holympus at 11:42 PM on April 11, 2008

thanks so much, everyone. These are fantastic!
posted by esolo at 11:55 AM on April 13, 2008