FRYING LESSONS

It’s Spring! Birds are singing, the sun is shining…oh, and the Santa Ana’s are blowing pollen into your nose. With that comes post-nasal drip, a sore throat, phlegm, and constant irritation. Allergies always seem to kick up with the advent of a different season, and that can wreak havoc on your voice.
Knowing what to do when you must sing anyway: a gig, a contest, an audition, even singing Happy Birthday to your boss when your throat is sore , is a skill you want to have.
You know the obvious: water and more water, right? That’s correct, but even more beneficial can be a personal steamer. They are small and fit over your nose and mouth. Any drugstore carries them, or you can get fancier ones online. Even five minutes steaming can make a difference to your nasal passages and your vocal cords, and help you sing better. You can also get the steam benefit in the shower or even standing over the stove with a towel over your head. Hey, anything to win the contest!
Vocal exercises, although sometimes viewed as not necessary, are really helpful when your vocal cords are swollen. Humming over a few notes, very low volume, gradually going up the scale will help. Be sure it sounds “hummy” enough–it should sound like a cartoon voice. Continue gently getting the blood flow to the cords, with siren sounds and maybe some “tiny bees” sounds. (BRRRRRRRRRRRR , bubbling the air up and down the scale). Nothing should be too loud with too much breath pressure behind it–this will only irritate the cords further. Also the “dog whimper“, tiny “mmm–mmm–mmm” sounds with glottal stops after three notes will also help soothe the swelling.
However, the number one exercise to unswell the vocal cords though, in my opinion, is: (ta da)…The Vocal Fry.
Vocal fry is the sound from (so I hear) The Grudge (a movie) and also Elmer Fudd used it. Pick your generational reference. Fry has no weight on the cords and should be worked with until you can do it on a high pitch or a low one. Vocal fry also uses the smallest amount of air possible. You can find it by singing the lowest note you can hit, and then sing lower. The note will go into fry. I do an “ah” (like hat) sound, and I drop my jaw a lot as I go higher to get the fry up there. It is an amazing tool to work the “fur” off your cords, and also to strengthen the break in a few minutes. I have used this on the notes that always seem to get weak when I have allergies. The key is to let the fry go into two pitches–it will hit two at once, usually the fifth, and then it will “flip” to one note. (Incidentally, you are singing ONE pitch here, the note splits by itself. You don’t change the pitch at all). This is optimal for getting the blood flow to that particular note. Don’t do it hard, any of it. Just do the fry, then let it go to two notes, then let it go to one note, and take it easy on all of them. This may take quite awhile–just hang out making the creepy sound. When you can negotiate the two pitches into one, and hold onto the note, you will be amazed how the note will be stronger. Your cords will be approximated and together, and your voice will be seamless. This is a trick session singers in Nashville use when their voices are exhausted after a concert, and maybe they have a recording session the next morning: vocal fry for 10 minutes will get them back in decent shape, and it can do the same for you. Now we can sing into (ah–choo!)Spring!