Hi,

I've had a bad cough for the past few weeks. My physician put me on a sort of sample symbicort inhaler and mucinex DM to help with the infection, however as far as singing, i'm unable to do the harsh vocals that I normally do with the results being more throaty and weak sounding. I've always been used to using my diaphragm from vocal experience when i was younger so it feels unright and for a 30 minute set could really cause some strain to begin with.

The show is in about 5 days, so i have some time to still recover, but I was wonder if there's any remedies to help get my voice back at least enough to deliver the vocal style.

Ginger.

Do NOT talk or whisper for the next few days. Resist the urge. Take a pencil and a pad of sticky notes, these are now your means of communication.

Allow your body to heal, and take the medicine your doctor gave you exactly as he says to.

Get some Cold-Eeze, orange juice, honey, tea, etc...

SECOND. Do NOT talk at ALL, get the right medicines and what-not. I hope you're better and I hope your show goes brilliantly, brother \m/.

Aside from not talking, I would suggest you drink some chinese(herbal) tea. This is NOT just cuz I'm Asian, but it seriously helps. Coughs or whatever go away with a bottle of that, and a few hours of sleep. Unless of course, you're allergic, in which case, disregard this whole post, except for a "good luck with that show!"

^ indeed. Green Chai Tea is a miracle healer. And stock up on vitamin C and fluids.

I'm going to lend my voice to the advice that you both: (a) Don't use your voice at all for the next few days. (b) Drink lots and lots of tea. Herbal and green teas are my favorite for this sort of thing. However, don't use any sweeteners other than honey, and don't use too much of that.

Other than that, you really can't eat or drink anything that would normally hurt your voice. You can't get away with as much as you would be able to if your voice were healthy. Quick list of things to avoid:

- Dairy
- Soda (anything very sugary)
- Coffee (you should be sticking to tea)
- Chocolate (or anything else that can coat your vocal chords, i.e., Peanut Butter)

If you do all of this, you might be able to get your voice back into top shape in five days, with a bit of luck.

Thanks for the help brothers!

I've kept my body hydrated with mostly water and juices with high vitamin C. I haven't stopped talking, but upon reading through this, i'll be sure to keep it as minimal as humanly possible. The next couple days will be classes at the college, and mostly indoors so the need to talk will be minimal or next to nothing for the most part. My voice has been improving, but i'll definitely be cutting down on soda and coffee as well. Hopefully my voice will be back to good enough shape in the next few days.

Thanks for the advice!

Several months ago, I tried out for a local death metal band, as their vocalist (and bassist). About a week before, I really started losing my voice, and couldn't do harsh vocals at all. My highs were extremely weak, and my lows wouldn't come out at all... just air. I posted a thread here for suggestions. I was told to...

1) No talking, whispering, or ESPECIALLY singing of ANY kind. No harsh vocals. No clean vocals. No falsetto vocals. No nothing. MattP had it right. Get a pad and pen. Who says you have to talk to communicate?

2) Make some hot tea, and add honey. Also, drink alot of this.

It worked like a charm. I ended up getting the gig!! But I had to quit because I found out I'm deploying this summer

Best of luck to you.