5 Secrets to Improve Vocal Stamina and Increase Endurance

5 Secrets to Improve Vocal Stamina and Increase Endurance

Vocal stamina and endurance are key factors in professional performance. The ability for your voice to last night after night without burning out is a critical component to performing at your peak no matter how many performances you have per week.

The truth about singing is that you can only wing it for so long. With care and a little attention, you can build vocal stamina and increase endurance to be able to sing for hours without burning out.

No matter where you are on your vocal journey, you can recover your voice from issues as well as build a stronger and healthier voice than you now have. Vocal strength and stamina are key elements to a voice that can deliver night after night.

Here are the 5 Secrets discussed in this article:

• Vocal Analysis
• Unlock Your Voice: Strip Away Compensatory Tensions
• Get Your Voice Out of Your Throat
• Build Core Vocal Strength
• Increase Endurance

Let’s dig in….

1. Vocal Analysis

The first step is to do an analysis of your voice. What is your current state?

How would you rate your voice right now?
Rate 1-10. 10 being the highest rating.

• Strength 1-10
• Stamina 1-10
• Endurance 1-10

Does your voice burn out after an hour or two of singing? Maybe even sooner?

This is a sign that your voice needs some technical help!

Start with my Vocal Health Quiz. Take the Quiz to do a quick analysis of your vocal health and status.

Read the article below for more help.

2. Unlock Your Voice / Strip Away Compensatory Tensions

The next step before strengthening the voice is to strip away tensions that are actually constricting it. Until you unlock the voice and strip away compensatory tensions, you will be adding tension to your voice, which makes it burn out early.

Stretch and massage the muscles surrounding your vocal instrument to open the voice.

The muscles surrounding the voice can constrict the instrument and cause issues with tone, range, and overall sound and production. Stretching and applying vocal massage techniques to these muscles will release tension stored there that is constricting your sound and can overtime cause vocal problems.

In my method, The Cole Vocal Method, we start with my Singers Gift Vocal Warmups that are designed with a series of vocal stretches, massages and diaphragmatic breathing that open the singer freeing the muscles, the voice and the breath.

Try these vocal massages to help reduce strain in the vocal instrument. Vocal massage will help decrease tension in your throat, and will also help reduce hoarseness that accumulates from over-singing.

• Vocal massage 1:
  • Place your thumb and forefingers at the top of your throat holding the throat gently.
  • Begin a yawn and notice the throat slip downward.
  • Gently massage the throat downward.
  • This motion helps to relax and open the throat before singing.
• Vocal massage 2:
  • Place your thumb and forefingers at the middle of your throat holding the throat gently.
  • Gently move the throat back and forth side to side. The laryngeal muscles are all soft cartilage that should easily slide back and forth horizontally in the throat.
  • Gently massage the throat back and forth to relax and gently stretch out the throat muscles to decrease tension pre-performance.
  • This motion helps to relax and open the throat before singing.
• Releasing throat tension: Use my larynx drop and pull down to release tension in your throat. Watch my Instagram Mini Voice Lesson on releasing throat tension here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CgU5WvyFbOi/

For a full experience of unlocking your voice and stripping away compensatory tensions sign up for my free Better Voice Challenge. I walk you through 8 sequences that unlock your voice, decrease tension and increase sound and power – right on the spot! Experience vocal freedom – learn more here.

3. Get Your Voice Out of Your Throat

What separates singers who last decades from those who burn out in five years— is the muscle patterning and technique they use. It’s an epidemic that’s quietly destroying careers daily.

While most techniques promote generic breath support and “sing from your diaphragm,” we tackle the biomechanical root cause of healthy vocal production.

By stripping away the over-functioning compensatory muscles, we build core strength at the foundation, dramatically improving sound, vocal skill, health and longevity.

Stop staying trapped in the compensatory cycle and address muscle dysfunction at the source instead of just treating the surface sound.

One of the first things is to identify which muscles are functioning to produce sound. Which muscles are over-functioning and which are under-functioning? Over-functioning muscles are referred to as “compensatory muscles.”

Common compensatory muscle patterning is a complex name for a relatively straightforward process. When primary muscles do not work properly in movement, the brain tells other muscles to perform that movement instead.

Which muscles are over-functioning to compensate for a weakness elsewhere?  Which muscles are under-functioning that need to be more active for the singer to step into their full voice?

Try this:

• Stand in front of a mirror and watch as you sing looking to identify what muscles are engaging. I’ll give you a moment to get that set up.
• Sing AH-AH-AH-AH-AH (1-2-3-4-3-2-1)  in front of the mirror.
• Now let’s sing this scale again and now notice any subtle movements. What muscles are engaging.
• Do you see your neck muscles tightening as you sing? This signifies the over-functioning of the neck muscles.
• Is the jaw clenching or closing when you sing? This signifies the over-functioning of the jaw muscles.
• Sing the scale again. What more do you notice?
• Is your head or chin jutting forward as you sing? This signifies the over-functioning of the back of the neck muscles in singing.
• Is your chest caving in – even slightly? This signifies pushing air and the lack of breath control.
• Is your tongue reaching forward when you sing? This signifies the over-functioning of the front of the tongue.
• Are your eyebrows raising when you sing higher? This signifies the over-functioning of facial muscles.
• Jot down what you notice.

Whatever muscles you visibly see reacting are indicators of an “over-functioning” compensatory or accessory muscle.

The muscles and movements mentioned above are considered “compensatory” muscles that compensate for a weakness in the primary muscles we use in healthy vocal technique.

This is the start to identifying muscles that are interfering with healthy vocal production.

4. Build Core Vocal Strength

When your voice is weak you will fall back on your throat muscles and sing from the throat increasing vocal strain. The first step is decreasing vocal strain and increasing sound to start building your vocal strength.

The untrained core voice is always weak in the core instrument. As we perform vocal technique we can strengthen the movements and coordinations to build vocal strength, accuracy, and consistency in singing decreasing strain and improving sound.

We practice movements that target the core muscles of the voice and breathing to work together to produce sound that is unencumbered by compensatory tensions. We then practice scales and movements that build strength in the core voice. .

Try this:

• Hold your jaw open 2″ with your hand.
• Let the front of the tongue rest touching the inside of your lower lip.
• Say “Kah” keeping the tongue glued to the lip.
• Try it again.
• Initially the tongue will try to pull away from the lip.
• If you can keep it touching the lower lip, the back of the tongue will reach upward more which stretches the base of the tongue away from the laryngeals.

Why is this important? Because the base of the tongue presses down on the laryngeals to compensate for the lack of strength in the core muscles in an effort to control the air pressure at the vocal folds. But it doesn’t do this well.

What we want to do is to lengthen the tongue so it doesn’t over-compress the laryngeals which causes vocal fatigue and strain.

This is a movement that is practiced in vocal technique to free the voice and strengthen healthy vocal production.

As you train your voice with the Cole Vocal Method™, you will learn how to stop using the compensatory / accessory muscles while then strengthening the core muscles to provide a stronger more consistent voice with a free and open range. Learn more here.

5. Increase Endurance

Endurance in a singers voice is a result of their biomechanics and the techniques they use to sing with.

A singer who trains their voice has a great advantage over singers who don’t.

You’ll outlast other singers on stage.
You’ll retain longevity way past their prime.
You’ll stand out because they sound better.
Singers who train sound great on their worst day.

Here are my suggestions:

• Start with my Singers’ Gift Vocal Warmups. Learn more here.
• Learn the Cole Vocal Method taught inside The Vocal Freedom Circle.

And if you want to experience the method for free, you can! Grab a seat in my free Better Voice Challenge to learn how to sing better and sound better right away. Sign up here.