Expert: Wanda Reinholdt - 1/16/2008

Question
Wanda,
I love singing very much and would love to make it on Broadway one day but I have a problem. I got a cold a while ago where I completely lost my voice and I thought for a while I even had strepp throat. It passed and I'm fine now but I think it might have affected my ability to hold a note. I noticed this when I tried to sing a few of my favorite songs from Wicked. I used to be able to easily hold out the end notes of the songs. I even have two videos on Youtube of me singing Defying Gravity and The Wizard and I. But now, my voice gives out before I can finish the note. Do you know what could have happened? Also, are there any techniques I could do to correct this problem?

~Alexis

Answer
Hey Alexis...Thanks for writing.  I appreciate your question.

Sorry to hear you had strept throat.  That has got to one of the worst kinds of ailments you can get period.  It's not necessarily bad for the throat but a lot of people do lose their voices with it just like you did.

I have never heard of any sort of damage to the vocal cords from strept throat.  Did you try to talk a lot with your whisper voice when you were not able to use your voice?  If you tried to strain your voice to talk and you did it a lot (like a long speech or something like that), you could have strained your cords.  Other than that, I don't think that you need to worry about any damage there.  

I would recommend though getting your voice box checked though to be sure it is ok.  You would not want to damage it any further if it is damaged for any reason.  Permanent damage is possible with the voice.

If your voice is giving out, I would take some time to keep doctoring it.  It does not sound like it is completely healed yet.  Drink lots of tea with lemon and honey in it.  Keep your throat coated with lozenges.  Green tea is also really good for the throat.  Drink lots of water as well.  Keep it moist and don't push it for at least another week.  Then try to sing again.

It takes some time to recover from strept throat.  So I would say to be patient with it.  

It does sound like you MIGHT have also gotten weak in your breathing.  Stept throat is famous for the power it has to weaken the body, especially the lungs and the throat.  So my guess is that you need a little time to build up your strength there as well.

What I would suggest is that you DON'T sing for a while.  Simply listen to music and enjoy it.  While listening, do some breathing exercises that can strengthen your diaphragm and throat again:

Put your hand on your abdomen and breathe in through your nose as much air as you can and then even a little more, taking the air all the way down into your diaphragm (your abdomen).  Try to not raise your chest but to just breathe in with your abdomen (the most powerful and most healthy way to breathe).  

Once your abdomen is full, hold it as long as you can and then exhale out of your mouth.  Do the same thing with your exhale - exhaling by pushing with the abdomen and letting the air come out of the mouth.  Push out all the air and then push out more before you breathe again.  Hold it (don't breathe in) for a while.

If you repeat this exercise once a day 10 times, it will help to strengthen your breath and your diaphragm and lungs again.  

So that's what I recommend.  Always see a doctor though to be sure that your voice box or anything else in your body that you use for singing is ok.  You only have 1 instrument to use so I recommend taking care of it.

Does that help?

Wanda