Here are few ways that will help you to clear your throat before singing or voiceover: Voice is the foundation for any voiceover artist and singer. If the slightest damage occurs to the vocal cords and throat, it impacts your performance and career as a voice artist. It is therefore imperative for people in this field to take utmost care of their throat.

There are numerous tips and ways available to maintain your throat health and ensure that it doesn’t get sore. As a voice artist, you have to unfortunately use your voice rigorously which strains the vocal cords. Consequently, A voice artist or a singer has to walk an extra mile always, to keep their voice sounding good and not croaky.

Apart from the general day-to-day tips that one can follow, there are also some instant ways of clearing the throat to a great extent. Despite following a very healthy regime and avoiding everything that can affect your throat adversely, there are times when your throat can ditch you as a result of persistent strain. These quick tips can really come handy when you have a performance or a recording ahead.

Here are few ways to clear your throat before a voiceover or singing:

Drink a good amount of water

Keeping sipping water from time to time throughout the day to stay hydrated. Dryness causes the vocal cords to get irritated and the result is a croaky voice. To avoid this, consume food items with high water content and drink plenty of water at regular intervals before your performance.

Keep talking but without pressurizing your vocal cords

We all have noticed this actually happen with us. When we have a croaky voice and we continue to talk through that, our voice eventually becomes quite clear and normal. This happens because, the vibration caused when talking detangles the cords and shakes away the mucus deposit, hence, clearing the throat.

Swallow your saliva

We involuntarily try to clear our throat by pushing air downwards through throat as something feels stuck there but that doesn’t actually help always. When we put pressure there again and again, the vocal cords become more irritated and can get convoluted which causes voice to be croakier. Instead of trying to clear throat, try dry swallowing. Close your mouth tight and swallow your saliva as if you are gulping food. This will help the mucus around the vocal cords glide away, which was causing the irritation and soreness.

Cough-drop candies

Cough-drop candies really help keep away the dryness and irritation in throat as it makes us salivate constantly which keeps the throat clear from any mucus deposit. As we have something in mouth, our mouth releases saliva and this saliva glides through the throat to keep it moist, not letting it dry.

Gargling

Gargling is a wonderful method to clear the throat. It works wonders in curing sore throat and cough. It is a technique where you hold a liquid in your mouth and bubble it by passing air and thus, agitating the cords. This vibration helps remove the mucus surrounding the vocal cords. Gargling with warm water with a pinch of salt also reduces inflammation in the throat. It helps maintain the ph balance and the salt in it also kills the undesired microbes in the throat. For better results, you can also add a pinch of turmeric into the warm water along with salt before gargling. Make sure to keep the water in the mouth for a while and agitate it by passing air upwards, causing it to bubble. The water should not be too hot. It should be slightly above the room temperature. While gargling, make sure you don’t overwork or overstrain your vocal cords. That will cause further damage instead of benefitting.

Steam Inhalation

Just like Gargling, Steam inhalation is a home remedy which has miraculous effects on clearing the throat. As already discussed, sore throat is often caused by the dryness of vocal cords. Hence, it is critically important to keep the throat hydrated. Drinking water is one way. Another effective way to keep it hydrated is to inhale steam. Boil water in a small vessel and once it starts steaming, cover your face and head with a towel, lower your head slightly into the vessel and start inhaling the steam. You need to be very careful of course, as the water is too hot. The steam not only moistens the vocal cord folds but also helps keep away the mucus, hence, clearing the throat.

Apart from these tips and hacks, you should also remember to avoid the food which are harmful for your throat, especially before your performance.