Hi. I'm a singer and I need advice. I had studio time sullied by my vocal power waning. I went to two doctors, the first doctor-my family doctor- told me to wait on it and use a sinus spray for my allergies and gave me a referral to the voice specialist. My voice and sinuses got worse so I went to a second doctor-a really good walk in clinic doctor- who said that it was an infection that few doctors notice and he gave me some antibiotics. It made my sinuses much better and my voice a bit better but still not healed so he then prescribed me stronger antibiotics. When I took the last pill my body broke out into a rash and my voice is still not healed. It is Dec 30th. The voice specialist is out until January 2nd and who knows when I'll get in for an appointment. The walk in doctor is out of town until Jan 7th. I am still gonna go to his clinic for an oral swab tomorrow from another doctor. But I am getting scared. It has been two months of this. I have a gig January 11th and I want to get these vocals for the album done and sounding their best. I'm not sure what to do! Will I be severely messing with my voice? Any tips on making the voice sound better? I've rarely sung these last two months even with the doctor saying it'll be okay. Has anyone had this happen? And how do people deal with allergies messing with their voice as well?

I had something similar happen. Didn't listen and kept gigging and recording. Ended up hosing up my throat. Now I can barelly sing for half an hour without being horse for hours.... Any shot I had at being a singer is now gone. My advice is to let it heal as much as possible. If you have to gig, make sure you drink a ton of room temperature liquids in the days leading up to the show (at least 2 days). I also used to drink Traditional Medicinals Throat Coat Tea (tastes like garbage but helps), it saved me a few times while on tour. I ended up making it part of my daily ritual. Whatever you do, don't drink, alcohol dehydrates you and that will make the condition worse (trust me). Good luck!

this thread is so punk rock.

good luck, fellas.

semen, gallons of semen...like twice as much as you'd usually ingest
Coats the vocal cords, frees the spirit

Actually I have been drinking that tea and plenty of other liquids and I don't drink booze. The two gigs I did this past month where I had to sing my voice was worn out the next day. I have one gig in two weeks that is semi-confirmed. I am just hoping this throat heals and am pretty freaked out about it, I am still sure that it's a virus as noted by doctor 2 but because of the antibiotics not cutting it i'm getting more freaked out!

if it's a virus, antibiotics wouldn't do much anyway. Just go easy on it, treat it and coat it with tea and stay hydrated and it should heal in time.

I'm a shit singer and I had to sing/shout lead vocals in my old band. I used to sing myself hoarse and it got even worse when I had a cold or a flu. Anyway, there was one week when we had a gig and we had practiced loads beforehand and I'd picked up a nasty cold bug. I could hardly speak, let alone sing. I got recommended these and they did the trick for me.

Body Beautiful wrote:Hi. I'm a singer and I need advice. I had studio time sullied by my vocal power waning. I went to two doctors, the first doctor-my family doctor- told me to wait on it and use a sinus spray for my allergies and gave me a referral to the voice specialist. My voice and sinuses got worse so I went to a second doctor-a really good walk in clinic doctor- who said that it was an infection that few doctors notice and he gave me some antibiotics. It made my sinuses much better and my voice a bit better but still not healed so he then prescribed me stronger antibiotics. When I took the last pill my body broke out into a rash and my voice is still not healed. It is Dec 30th. The voice specialist is out until January 2nd and who knows when I'll get in for an appointment. The walk in doctor is out of town until Jan 7th. I am still gonna go to his clinic for an oral swab tomorrow from another doctor. But I am getting scared. It has been two months of this. I have a gig January 11th and I want to get these vocals for the album done and sounding their best. I'm not sure what to do! Will I be severely messing with my voice? Any tips on making the voice sound better? I've rarely sung these last two months even with the doctor saying it'll be okay. Has anyone had this happen? And how do people deal with allergies messing with their voice as well?

I'd say don't eat/drink dairy for 2 days before doing anything strenuous (which sucked for me because I love cheese), no booze (also sucked), and room temperature to slightly above liquids for at LEAST a day, and throat coat tea with honey and lemon helped me out a lot. Everybody's body is different though so some things you just have to figure out on your own.

Hope that helped, if not eh fuck it.

Chris

Thanks! Been doing all that mostly anyways except for cheese: damn, how can something so good be so evil? I didn't know that my water should be room temperature or above so I'll be doing that!
And thanks Hall for the throat drop recommendation, tad strapped right now but some pals are coming over from England next month so I'll get them to bring me some!
I am also trying steaming as well, steam comes highly recommended from voice experts.
Still with doing all this my voice still feels screwed and am hoping to get to the bottom of it and not have any permanent damage!

Body Beautiful wrote:And thanks Hall for the throat drop recommendation, tad strapped right now but some pals are coming over from England next month so I'll get them to bring me some!

This makes no sense. I mean, I am waiting for my friend from Vietnam to bring me some Big Macs next month.

Lift your ass up, reach behind you in that couch of yours, insert hand into crack, feel around, grab excess quarters, go to store..