Vocal Care: It’s All About What Works For You

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17
I got an email from a Monique Phillips
it got hidden somehow by Gmail for abo
a month so I’m sorry I’m late on this
but he said she said could you do a
video on voice care how to protect you
voice if you have to scream how to avo
phlegm the need to clear your throat
what to eat what not to eat also what
are the drinks or secrets that vo acto
use is there a specialty that everyone
uses or anything like that thanks so
much I am enjoying your videos well yo
know I’ve learned that there is one
thing to know about vocal care and
keeping yourself in good shape and tha
is it’s different for everyone there i
one universal and that is it is much
better to be hydrated than not hydrate
and what you should remember is that
hydration begins hours before you need
it so sip water ahead of time not like
right then so that your stomach is
gurgling and then you’re sloshing arou
so hydration really important beyond
that the problem is that there are
hundreds of things that I’ve heard of
people using you know green apples and
honey and tea and I drink cinnamon
coffee because it works for me
on a regular basis when I have a cold
you know I basically blow my nose a lo
and caught and get a lot of you’re
trying to get the mucus out of my thro
and I’m sorry if you’re in the middle
lunch or something and you’re watching
this but that’s what works for me I me
I’ve joked a lot over the years about
the fact that people go what’s your
secret for warming up and what do you
what’d he do for exercises for warming
up and you know I have to be honest an
say I sit down and I do this
and I go I don’t I don’t I don’t have
any elaborate warm-up and there are
vocal coaches who will lead you throug
you know 20 30 minutes of warm-ups 5-1
minutes who knows whatever their their
beliefs are but I think really what it
takes is experimentation what works fo
you there is one thing that works for
but I’m not sure if it’s actually the
beneficial value of the product itself
or just the fact that I think it’s
really good but I use something called
low hon quo and low hon quo is a fruit
Chinese fruit that’s usually in a big
let me just open this package up here
it’s usually in a big fruit that’s har
and they grind it and they grind this
what’s inside the box it’s just a whol
bunch of little packets and these
packets inside these are little square
that remind me of those super bullion
cubes that you used to have when you
were a kid that had like you know
chicken bullion and stuff like that it
either in little little let me get thi
out here they’re in little wax paper
things you open up there’s two of them
in here and you drop one into a cup of
boiling water and it’s sweet slightly
sweet it’s very soothing but I don’t
know that drinking anything is going t
keep you either good or not so good
there’s kind of a universal stay away
from dairy but I do Dairy all the time
and it doesn’t do in fact when my thro
is raw I’d rather go get some ice crea
then avoid dairy altogether if for som
reason I’ve been shouting doing voice
doing voice work for say animation or
video games or something stressful to
voice I always ask for breaks nobody n
producer worth his or her salt is ever
gonna prevent you from taking breaks b
the thing is anything that anybody
recommends to you may or may not work
for you that’s the point I want to get
across I have a client who’s searched
for months for something that would ke
her from getting mouth clicks and
getting dry mouth and it turned out it
wasn’t green apples green apples made
her salivate even more and then dried her
out you know there were all these thin
she finally found something that worked
there are clients that I have that swe
by entertainer secret and throat coat
and other you know preparations that y
can buy that are supposed to be good f
your throat I tend to gargle uh you kn
with like scope to get rid of what I
feel is like an oncoming you know
problem in terms of like an infection
something like that I tend to try to
clean things out but I don’t usually d
things like I can’t stand entertainer
secret the taste of it makes me want t
gag so you know again it what works fo
you and don’t think that there is some
universal secret that you can find that
will work for you and everybody else i
the world because that’s not the case
other than staying hydrated that’s
really really important if you’re dried
out that will really really destroy your
voice and you know the exercises that
singers use are different from the
exercises that voiceover people use yo
know for me it’s like I sit down and I
do the work but I’m not you and you’re
not me and we’re not somebody else so
advice to you is look around ask a lot
of people try what they use see if it
works for you and if it doesn’t work f
you don’t think they were lying don’t
think they were you know they were
misinformed because it works for them
just doesn’t work for you so you got t
find what works for you that’s really
best advice to you Monique I hope that
helps by the way if you have suggestions
now’s the time to start the dialogue
below this video leave me a comment why
do you use what kind of exercises do y
use what works for you and know that
you’re gonna be giving your opinion an
others may or may not be able to take
advantage of that but that’s what we’r
all about here that’s what I’d like to
do leave the comments by the way over
vo to go go comm you can leave them on
YouTube if you want to but it’s kind o
hard to maintain a conversation there
gugu comm the conversation is sane a
moderated and polite I love that if
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David H Lawrence xvii thank you so much
for watching and I’ll talk to you
tomorrow.