Re-Building Vocal Strength After A Long Break or Illness

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During the last quarter of 2017 I lost my voice.

Yep, my evil Rheumatoid Arthritis got so bad that it effected even my voice and every time I tried to sing my throat would hurt and my voice would come out sounding weak, wobbly and had zero power. It even got to the stage where I questioned my future in music.

‘If I’m not a musician, than who am I?’ I thought to myself.

It was a pretty heartbreaking thing to have to go through; especially having spent years training my voice and making a living from my music; to have to even consider stopping due to illness. It felt like something I enjoy so much and is such an integral part of my life was being ripped away from me due to no fault of my own.

I stopped singing or doing any practice because I hated how my voice sounded and how painful it was to sing and I didn’t want to do any long term damage by forcing something which clearly needed rest. A big part of me reasoned that if I rested enough and let the medicines take their time to work, then hopefully eventually I’d be able to reclaim my voice again.

Fortunately I was right.

Several months and many medicines later, I’m on the road to recovery. My voice has stabilised and I’m able to work on re-building my power. I’m not 100% there yet but its so much better than it was even at the start of this year. So today I’m going to take you through one of the exercises that I used to rebuild my vocal strength.

Its a simple exercise and it works. The trick is to be patient and let your voice develop in its own time and not push too hard.

Nicola xx