Blog

I don’t always have a completely resolute opinion about the best remedy for your voice, because what works for one person may not work as well for another. But when it comes to the question of what temperature your water should be, I do have a strong opinion: Don’t drink ice water!

If you didn’t know why, check out today’s vocal health video where I share why ice water is truly not ideal for your voice (or really any of the internal tissues of your body), and why I strongly recommend drinking r...

Cold season is officially upon us here in the Northern hemisphere, and I want you to stay healthy! One of the best ways to do that is to drink lots of warm liquids, but people say so many different things about what kind of hot beverage to drink to soothe your voice… Use honey! Use lemon! Use ashwaganda! (That last one is an awesome ayurvedic remedy, fyi 😜). But look, the best thing for your voice is not actually that complicated: it’s plain ole’ hot water.

In today’s vocal heath video, hear my...

Are you guilty of clearing your throat? Even if it’s not a frequent habit and you only do it when you’re sick, it’s just not the best. Why? Well clearing your throat is actually pretty darn violent for your vocal cords – you’re essentially smashing them together trying to get the gunk off – when the truth is that the gunk is going to just settle back down anyway.

What’s a better thing to do? Gargle with warm salt water! It not only relieves the irritation in your throat, but it can literally di...

Guess what happened…

On Monday I was having a session with a private client, and I said “I know what would be great for your warm up. Try the animals exercise!!” So I hopped over to the How To Warm Up youtube playlist to grab the link, and it wasn’t there. Hmm.

After the session I started digging, and I realized O.M.G… Suzie and I got our wires crossed on dates and we never released the video!! I pinky swear we had no intention of doing this, but it’s certainly a hilarious accident: we’ve got ...

Wow wow wow. This is the last How To Warm Up video of the series. We have to wind it down because I’ve taught you everything I know! (Joking/not joking 😜)

But truly, the How To Warm Up series is now quite complete in terms of giving you a ton of great options for How To Warm Up. And what’s a fabulous way to end? With a batch of my favorite tongue twisters! Check out today’s tongue twister finale video, and be sure to download the handout too to follow along. 

Watch the Tongue Twisters video he...

Have you ever heard the word “pranayama” from yoga? It’s made up of two parts: prana, which means life force or breath, and yama, which means control. So a pranayama technique is essentially a way of managing the breath.

Today’s exercise is a bit of a departure from other exercises in the How To Warm Up video series because it doesn’t directly pertain to your voice. But I share it because I find that it’s my absolute go-to way to calm down when I’m feeling anxious or uncentered. No joke – I hav...

Comin’ atcha with Part 2 of the Exaggerate Your Sounds exercise! This week we’re making every possible lllllllooooooooonnnnnng sound that we can. That includes vowels plus categories of consonants that are called frictatives, nasals, and approximants/semi-vowels. (You’ll get what I mean once you watch the video!). The exercise will take you considerably longer than Part 1 when we were making things short and sharp, so be patient and take your time. I find that if you really invest in making all ...

Here’s an exercise to help you with your reading! In Part One of two videos about exaggerating your sounds, you’ll learn how going overboard to do an exercise that makes your crisp explosive sounds even crisper can help with the clarity of delivering text or a speech.

This How To Warm Up video falls in the category of Language, so it’s all about ultimately helping your listener understand your message better. Try it and see if it helps you! And standby for Part 2 of the video next week! 

Watch...

When’s the last time you got a professional massage? Of course I hope your answer is “Yesterday!,” but chances are that’s not the case. I mean look, getting a massage requires transporting yourself to a different location, paying someone money, lying naked on a table for an hour, and of course subjecting yourself to a potentially weird or uncomfortable experience if the person isn’t great. What’s easier? Give yourself a 3 minute self massage every day as part of your warm up! Check out this week...

Did you know that spinal flexibility is really important to your overall health? (If you’re a chiropractor, I’m guessing your answer to this is yes!!). Of course your spinal health contributes to your alignment, which means it’s also really important for your voice. So including spinal movements in your vocal/physical warm up is crucial. And an easy way to include spinal movements in your warm up is to do this really fun and simple swinging sequence. In these exercises, you’ll use the momentum o...