music

When Pain Is Trying to Tell You Something

lampardmLeave a comment

There’s something I wish more young singers understood the risks of: taking ibuprofen or another anti-inflammatory before singing. I am not talking only about the singer who is genuinely unwell and takes something for a headache or an unrelated injury. But there are singers who routinely take ibuprofen or similar painkillers before a performance as a matter of course. Perhaps they feel vocally tired or they know they are going to be singing heavily. Maybe they have pushed or over-sung in rehearsal and don’t want to feel the discomfort during the performance.

I am not a doctor or a health-care professional. And my advice here is gleamed from my years as a performer and teacher, and discussions I have had with a range of health professionals, some through a period of my own vocal stress caused by a long-term affect of Covid-19. If you are experiencing worrying signs in your singing, pain or discomfort, seek the advice of a good teacher and a professional ENT or specialist.

Pain and discomfort are information. They are part of the body’s warning system. If you take a painkiller and then sing through the discomfort, you haven’t solved the problem. You have just removed your awareness of it. That can make it much easier to continue pushing the voice when you should be resting or having a lighter singing load.

There is also a specific concern with drugs such as ibuprofen (from the range of medications known as NSAIDs) as they can affect platelet function and increase the risk of a bleed. For singers, this matters because the vocal folds are subjected to considerable stress when we sing, even on a healthy technique. NSAID use has been identified as one factor associated with vocal fold haemorrhage. This can cause a sudden change in the voice, loss of range or power, and significant dysphonia. For a professional singer, it can mean an immediate interruption to singing and potentially a significant period of recovery.

That doesn’t mean taking ibuprofen once will damage your voice, nor does it mean that NSAIDs are inherently dangerous for singers. There are legitimate medical reasons for taking them, and individual circumstances matter. The problem is using them as part of your vocal technique. If you regularly need painkillers to get through a performance comfortably, I would argue that the more important question is “Why does singing hurt?”

Are you fatigued? Are you over-singing? Are you working beyond your current technical capacity? Are you recovering properly? Is there an underlying vocal problem that needs to be addressed? I also understand the enormous pressure singers face to ‘go on’. I have been working professionally for decades and have faced that predicament myself several times. There are contracts, financial pressures and audiences waiting in the theatre. When singing is your livelihood, cancelling a performance can have very real consequences. Sometimes “just don’t sing” isn’t an option.

But particularly as a young singer, I think we need to ask ourselves a bigger question: Are we making decisions that protect tonight’s performance, or decisions that protect the next thirty years of our careers? Being reliable, consistent, and resilient are important, but so is knowing when something isn’t right and having the clarity and confidence to respond appropriately. Your voice is your instrument, and unlike a broken string on a violin, you cannot simply replace it.

So if you find yourself routinely reaching for ibuprofen before a performance because you are tired, sore or anticipating discomfort, please don’t just accept that as part of being a singer. Listen to what your body is telling you.

And if you experience sudden hoarseness, a loss of stamina, range, power, vocal stability, or any other dramatic change in your voice during or immediately after singing, don’t simply take a painkiller and carry on. Get an assessment from an ENT specialist. The show may have to go on sometimes, but your career has to go on for much longer.

Welcome

lampardmLeave a comment

Welcome to my blog.

This space is going to be a place for me to explore some of the things that have occupied my professional life for many years: teaching, vocal training, pedagogy, repertoire, and the development of healthy, sustainable voices.

Although I teach singers of all genders, ages, backgrounds and musical styles, I have a particular interest in the training of changed male voices. The adolescent years can be an extraordinary and sometimes difficult period for a young singer. The voice is changing physically, the instrument is developing rapidly, and techniques that worked perfectly well a year or two earlier may suddenly no longer feel appropriate or reliable.

It is also a period in which a great deal can be gained, or unfortunately, a great deal can be lost.

My approach is therefore centred on helping young singers understand what is happening to their voices rather than simply asking them to work around the changes. The aim is not to force a developing voice into an adult model, nor to treat adolescence as an interruption to musical development. Rather, it is to work with the instrument as it is, while gradually developing the physical coordination, musical understanding and technical awareness that will serve the singer throughout their life.

Breathing, anatomy, resonance, posture, onset, articulation and coordination all have their place in this process. But good vocal pedagogy is about more than a collection of exercises. It is about helping a young singer develop an understanding of their own instrument.

I want my students to know why they are doing something, not simply what they are being told to do. My goal is to establish healthy vocal habits, an efficient and flexible technique, a strong understanding of breath and vocal anatomy, and, perhaps most importantly, a sense of curiosity about the voice.

There is also a broader question here. Young singers who are considering further study or a career in the performing arts need to understand that vocal training is a long-term undertaking. The voice is not simply something we use to produce notes. It is a physical instrument that has to be cared for, developed and understood over many years.

That is particularly important during adolescence, when patience is often more valuable than pushing for immediate results.

A long-term project

This interest in adolescent male voices has developed through years of teaching, observation, experimentation and pedagogical study. It has also grown out of my own experience as a professional singer and teacher, and from watching young singers navigate the sometimes bewildering transition from childhood voice to adult instrument.

I am increasingly convinced that there is much more that can be said about this subject.

In fact, I intend to write a book about it.

That project is still developing, but this blog will form part of that process. It will give me an opportunity to explore ideas in greater detail, test my thinking, share practical resources and document the development of some of the teaching materials I am creating.

I will write about repertoire, technique, and the practical realities of teaching young changing voices. I will also discuss some of the misconceptions surrounding adolescent male voices, and the ways in which our language and expectations can influence how a young singer experiences their own instrument.

This will not be a blog exclusively about boys’ voices, however. Teaching is too broad and too interesting for that. I expect to write about singing and pedagogy more generally, drawing on the many different singers, teachers, musicians and experiences that have shaped my own approach.

There will be plenty of practical discussion, but I also want to engage with the underlying questions:

What are we actually trying to achieve when we teach someone to sing?
What does healthy vocal development look like?
How can we give young singers the tools to build a voice that remains useful, expressive and resilient for decades to come?

Those are big questions, and I certainly don’t pretend to have all the answers.

But I think they are worth asking.

So, welcome. I hope you will join me as I explore them.