...I really don't know voice at all

December 20, 2019 2:40 PM

I'm a cis male pop/rock vocalist, age 43. How can I strengthen and preserve my voice into middle age and beyond?

I haven't been (what I would semi-facetiously call) a "professional" singer since my mid-20s, but after a long and painful absence from music, I'll be returning to stage performance soon. I recognize that I'm approaching the age when all my vocal heroes' voices started to change. There are folks who have managed this change better (Stevie Nicks, Sinéad O'Connor, Mark Eitzel, k.d. lang, Sananda Maitreya, Elizabeth Fraser) and unnamed others who haven't fared so well, for a variety of reasons.

I'm also going to put my neuroses on the table and say that I'm concerned about aging out of the rock performance style - which by definition forgives a lot of enthusiastic amateur/unsustainable styling. So, thinking into the future, let's assume I want to eventually turn my vocal attentions elsewhere. European folkloric singing, extended vocal techniques, 20th Century/minimalist, who knows. I want my voice to be able to keep up with my desire to create, and not rely on the punk-rock/DIY/"anyone can do it" perspective.

I've been extremely spotty about formal training over the years, so let's likewise assume I'm starting on the second floor from a vocal strength and maintenance standpoint. And I don't naturally possess the kind of voice that will crack and age in an interesting way, e.g., Jimmy Scott or Joni Mitchell.

So: as an early-middle-aged person who has not maintained a lifetime of good vocal hygiene, what should I do starting now to give my voice a more solid and permanent foundation to weather the inevitable changes of age and (potentially) reduced capabilities? I'm thinking not just obvious lifestyle precautions*, but perhaps more holistic advice from other folks who have continued to use (and improve!) their voices into the second half of their lives. (Also, yes, I'm finding a teacher.)

*About which: I'm a non-smoker, non-drinker, and high-intensity cardio addict who lives in an arid Southern Californian climate and enjoys way more caffeine than I know I should.

posted by mykescipark to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

My advice distilled down to one sentence: Sing in a relaxed and unstrained manner, with adequate breath support. Depending on your current vocal style, you may be doing this already, or it may require a complete re-learning of what it means to sing. A good voice teacher with a focus on developing your own natural voice, and/or classical vocal technique, will be very helpful in your journey.
posted by smokysunday at 3:20 PM on December 20, 2019 [2 favorites]

Voices age no matter what, though some people get lucky. I think what you'll end up working on with a voice teacher is support, which I just noticed I'm seconding. Singing without support can really make it harder to sustain a note, I'd think no matter the style. Though..." European folkloric singing, extended vocal techniques, 20th Century/minimalist" covers quite a lot of ground as far as style and what's though of as sounding fine. Minimalist vocal writing tends to assume regular classical technique and the ability to sustain a line with steady vibrato, which may be a big expectation if you've been singing hard on your voice for years. Sacred Harp singers, who may have comparable expectations to European folk music singers, sing pretty full throttle all their lives and I've met few who give a thought to technique. So this is just a huge IT DEPENDS I guess but it never hurts to learn good support. I find, in Sacred Harp singing, it helps me sing louder and higher and, though it's not particularly a virtue in that music, longer lines.
posted by less of course at 4:10 PM on December 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

I wonder also if it would be helpful to listen to people whose voices aged who ran with it. Chavela Vargas can't have been trying much to continue to sound young, I think, given the results, but people cherish her recordings in the years when her voice was very distressed by time. So that's another way to plan for the musical future.
posted by less of course at 4:15 PM on December 20, 2019

Have you read Judy Collins' memoir? She was straining her voice and was told by singing friends to see a voice teacher. She now credits that voice teacher with the fact that she's still singing, at 80. I have no specific recommendations for a voice teacher...I imagine some of them are damaging...but if you're sincerely concerned, put out the word: Who should I go to? The right choice can make a lifetime of difference.
posted by tmdonahue at 4:34 PM on December 20, 2019 [5 favorites]

I really also think that you need to work in physical space with a voice coach for what you are asking for
posted by thelonius at 4:41 PM on December 20, 2019 [1 favorite]

Gentle voice drills every day?
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:45 PM on December 20, 2019

I sing rock and country professionally and am in my 50s. (“Aging out” in rock and roll? The music itself is 75 years old!) Your voice just changed. You roll with it and learn your way around the changes. It isn’t rocket science and I’ve never had a “real” voice lesson in my life. What made the biggest difference for me was learning to sing country in my 20s. That’s all about breath control, inflection, and ornamentation. It’s much more technical and less power-driven than rock. Country taught me a lot of proper vocal techniques over time. My rock and roll buddies all note that I sing right on the microphone all the time, for example. Or that I rarely run out of breath on big power choruses. That’s because country taught me to regulate my breath and power much more than rock. Exploring other genres can be really helpful.

But you damn well can rock out in middle age. I get paid to do it, bro.
posted by spitbull at 3:09 AM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]

I can't stress enough the importance of self-care - that means LOTS of water; don't drink alcohol while performing (and if you do drink, drink at least one galss of water for every alcoholic drink); don't smoke or linger in smoke-filled places; get lots of sleep, warm up your voice before performing or practicing.

And maybe not singing every single day, but at least every 2-3 days, to keep yourself in shape vocally. It's a lot like being an athlete.

A vocal coach who understands your performance style and genres is key. Breath support for pop/rock singing is critical to prevent nodes and vocal strain. It's so easy to get carried away when belting it out for a crowd and before you know it, you're overreaching and cracking and doing real damage to your vocal mechanism.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 4:05 AM on December 21, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure what aging out of rock means. Willie Nile Is a "connection" (relative of an in-law of a relative type thing) who is really active at 71 according to my grape vine. Never Rolling Stone level of famous but he has had a long career in rock.
posted by Botanizer at 6:09 AM on December 21, 2019

high-intensity cardio addict

Ultra ditto on the voice coach. But body subtleties can have an effect, consider some Alexander Technique, it's a posture training that has been useful for some folks.
posted by sammyo at 6:22 AM on December 21, 2019

I’ve got to agree with keeping things easy peasy. Work within your natural range and especially tone (like if it’s not naturally a big, deep, or raspy tone, don’t try to make it that way - find the beautiful thing about your specific voice, make virtues of any limitations). Don’t scream, I don’t think there’s a healthy way of screaming (it also represents more of a rage-against-the-machine 20s attitude, imo).
posted by cotton dress sock at 8:59 AM on December 21, 2019

By the way, with age I would say my voice (and my musicianship) has improved, not weakened. Sure I’ve lost some high end and gained some roughness but it’s rock and roll. Roughness is part of the aesthetic. I haven’t lost any power or pitch precision, quite the contrary. My vibrato is better. My breath control is better than it ever was in my 20s. My lows are actually better and deeper and richer.

And I don’t do any of the mollycoddling of my voice that “trained” singers and teachers preach. (I live around such folks as a music professor, for 25 years, by the way..) I don’t give it breaks, I don’t use special teas, I don’t warm it up before a gig, and I sing flat out plenty of time at the gig, and oh yeah I still smoke a lot of weed on gig nights. I can’t recall ever “losing” it from this approach. I can wear it out from too many gigs in a row, but at most it’s a day or two of recovery time. And I can easily out-sing my 25 year old self and have the tapes to confirm it.

So take the advice of trained singers for what it is: probably right in some specofox sense, but for most rock singers I’ve known, not all that relevant. You can injure your voice, but most of the people I’ve ever known to do this have actually been CLASSICAL singers (again I’m surrounded by them all the time) who espouse all the careful voice care regimen stuff, because in my view it’s their singing techniques that defy the nature of the physical instrument. Mick Jagger still sounds great. You age out of opera, not rock and roll.

Contrarian advice from a guy who sings for pay twice a week.
posted by spitbull at 5:08 AM on December 22, 2019

Response by poster: I knew/hoped I'd get a variety of perspectives here, and I appreciate each of them. Thanks to all who took the time to offer insights, both here and in DMs.

I did warn I was putting my neuroses on the table, so I expected some pushback on the idea that one "can't do" rock after a certain age. Let me say that plenty of folks I love are rocking it out decades ahead of me, and that's not even a question. I just can't see it for myself, given what I know about how my music is evolving and what feels authentic to my personality. I've always wanted to be a trilling Sandy Denny more than a barking Jon Langford, so I'm not gonna be a whiskey-soaked snarler trailing hellfire into the grave ... but I raise a glass to everyone who is!
posted by mykescipark at 3:00 PM on December 23, 2019 [1 favorite]