Short answer? Yes—and here’s exactly why.
In this episode of Vocal Tips in 10, I’m diving into a topic that every singer hears about but few fully understand: hydration. Whether you're prepping for a performance, recovering from a long rehearsal, or just trying to feel better in your daily vocal use, hydration plays a critical role in how your voice functions and feels.
We’ll explore:
If you want to sing with more ease, comfort, and clarity, this one’s a must-listen.
00:00 – Introduction to Vocal Hydration
02:50 – Understanding Hydration and Its Importance
05:40 – Effects of Hydration on Vocal Performance
08:53 – Methods of Hydration: Systemic vs Surface
10:09 – Wrap-Up + Resources for Singers
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Hello friends and welcome to a new episode of Vocal Tips in 10. I am recording this right now in early June. So if you are listening to this, whenever you're listening to this, I'm recording this when we are getting ready to go into the summer season here in the Northern hemisphere.
and I've been getting a lot of questions lately as we're getting into these warmer temperatures asking me, does it really matter how much I'm drinking Amber? Like I'm not a big water drinker, does it really make that much of a difference for my voice? So that's what I wanna talk to you about today.
and let's just say right out of the gate, spoiler alert. Yes, it really matters that you stay hydrated, but let's talk about what that means. So you can best stay hydrated no matter what time of year it is where you live, no matter what time of year it is when you're listening to this, no matter what the temperature is like, how you can really figure out how to stay optimally hydrated.
for your body and your voice so that you can feel the best when you sing and sound the best when you sing.
So the first thing I want to point out is It's not just water that hydrates your body. Liquids hydrate your body. If you are somebody who loves tea, if you love coffee, whatever you're drinking, it hydrates your body. Now, something like coffee or soda, something that's caffeinated, that can also have some dehydrating effects, but you are getting liquid into the body. One of the biggest hydrators, milk. I personally...
I'm not a big milk drinker. I feel like it makes me really gunky. I'm an almond milk drinker, but milk itself is a really great hydrator. So if it works for you and you don't find yourself to be really gunky after that, when it's time to sing, chug a lug. You're totally fine to drink that. And it's not just liquids. There are water rich foods like
grapes and melon that I think of right off the top of my head that are water-dense foods. Those are another way to get more hydration into your body.
So if you are a person who says, just don't like to drink plain water, I just can't make myself do it, that is okay. Find something that you do like that makes you feel good, that keeps you optimally hydrated and drink that. Or find ways to snaz up your water.
add fresh fruit, add flavoring. I have electrolytes in mine right now, LMNT I love the grapefruit one that helps me kind of retain more water. I'm a person who needs more sodium and potassium. And so LMNT is really good for me.
And also, I really swear that I have trained myself to like it.
I just have been a singer always and I knew that drinking water made a big difference. So I would sip on it throughout the day. And now like my water bottle is like a security blanket. I have to have it with me everywhere. I fill it up and lay it beside me whenever I to sleep. Not in the bed with me. That sounds creepy. I put it on my little side table when I go to sleep because if I wake up, I have to have a sip of water.
So let's talk about what really happens to the voice when you are optimally hydrated and when you are not.
so right off the bat, the outer layer of your vocal folds is called the mucosal layer. Yes, mucosal like mucus. It secretes substances. Mucus is one of those to lubricate and hydrate the voice. When you are optimally hydrated, that mucus thins out and is almost like oil. I've heard the analogy before of motor oil.
which I really like because it allows those vocal folds to connect that connect thousands and thousands of times just as I'm talking to you in this 10 minute podcast it allows them to connect so smoothly. They just glide against each other
That is ideal. And let's talk about why that's ideal. So one, it's a lot easier for them to make sound, right? They don't have to work as hard to connect. You don't get that harsher collision. So they stay feeling good longer. You're able to go longer. You fatigue less.
Whenever we are not optimally hydrated, that mucosal layer gets stickier and gunkier. like a jello-like consistency if you're really dehydrated.
So sticky means those vocal folds are not as pliable, as flexible. They don't connect together as easily. When they connect, instead of oil, they just have this like kind of sticky gunk, so they collide a little more harshly, which can make us fatigue more quickly. Also, they have to work harder to just move. When we're optimally hydrated and we've got those nice oily vocal folds, it's much easier for them to vibrate. We have a much lower PTP, that is phonation threshold pressure.
That is the amount of air that it takes from our lungs to get the vocal folds to vibrate. We need less air to get that great vibration when they are optimally hydrated, because they're nice and slimy. Slimy vocal folds are a total win. So they're nice and slimy and oily, and they stretch more easily. They vibrate more easily. It's less effort all the way across the board.
Again, if we look at the flip side and you are dehydrated, those vocal folds are sticky, they're stiffer. they don't vibrate as easily. It takes a higher phonation threshold pressure, which means even more air to get them to connect together, where they connect a little more harshly, you don't get that nice glide. So we have to use more pressure, they don't connect as easily, they don't vibrate as easily.
All of those things are not as flexible. So what's that going to impact? That's going to impact our tone quality. That's going to impact our range. That's going to impact how quickly we fatigue. It's going to impact everything guys from how it feels to how it sounds.
So just a quick side note, if you are a singer listening to this thinking, I'm always dehydrated, my pee is neon yellow and I sing amazingly, good for you, that is wonderful. And I'm also going to almost guarantee you that if you were more optimally hydrated, you would find your range is better, your tone is better, you fatigue less quickly.
The very first thing I say to any singer that's having any kind of a,
vocal issue is just starting to notice Like, ah, it just doesn't feel as good as it used to. The very first thing I say is, OK, well, how's your hydration? Because that's an easy fix that we can make. So try that out. If you're having any of those issues and you aren't somebody that necessarily prioritizes hydration, maybe try prioritizing that for a handful of days and see how you feel. I bet it's going to be better. So now let's talk about how you can ideally hydrate yourself.
Like I said to start off, drink what you would like. I drink just truckloads of water, but I love it. if that's not you, if chocolate milk is what you love, like I said, milk's crazy hydrating, or I'm not saying everybody go out and drink soda. I'm not saying don't drink it. That's not my job to tell you what to drink or what not to drink.
you do what works for you, but systemic hydration, drinking liquid, eating water-rich foods, that is the best way to stay hydrated. Remembering that nothing you drink, nothing you eat,
ever touches your vocal folds. Remember that your vocal folds are part of your respiratory system. When you eat or drink, that goes down your esophagus, your digestive system, two different things. Even that yummy throat drop, Or that warm tea and honey that people talk about how much they love.
You can feel that in your throat. Yes, it can warm the throat and make it feel good, which really helps. The throat's part of our vocal tract before it goes down that esophagus and into your digestive system. But it doesn't touch your vocal folds at all. The only time anything has ever gone to try and touch your vocal folds is when you've choked. If you've ever been talking or laughing and you go to eat something or drink something and it quote unquote goes down the wrong pipe.
That is it trying to go down through your vocal folds, trying to go into your respiratory system. And that's your vocal folds number one job, by the way, to protect the airway. They're going to close. You're going to get that coughing, gagging reflex. So that stays out of the respiratory system because we don't want food and drinks down there around our lungs. That is bad. So we are getting that hydration systemically. We drink the water. It works its way through our digestive system,
starts to hydrate our body at a cellular level, and eventually makes its way to hydrating our vocal folds.
It is ideal to stay optimally hydrated all the time. It makes our body function better. It makes our voice function better. And if you are a singer, you want to have access to your voice whenever it's needed, whenever you want to use it.
So it's ideal to stay optimally hydrated all the time. But the research shows, that for the water to go from your digestive system to a cellular level, it sounds like anywhere from let's say 15 to 45 minutes that starts to happen.
But many times I've read it can take about four hours, give or take. for it to really get to the vocal fold level. And ideally, we don't want to just chug a ton of water before we go out and sing because one, if you've ever done that, you know what it feels like to have a gut filled with liquid and you're trying to sing, which puts all this pressure on the abdomen. And there's no way all that liquid has made its way
to optimally, I know I feel like I've said optimally all the time, just ideally hydrating those vocal folds. So you wanna be drinking water that morning if you've got a performance that night. And instead of just chugging two big glasses of water, just sipping, drinking it throughout the day.
Systemic hydration, internal hydration, you just cannot beat it with a stick, you guys. Hopefully you can hear all of the major things that it does for your voice. And without it, all of the ways that your voice will have just a much harder time. And surface hydration, which the only way we can get hydration to the vocal folds themselves is steaming.
and or nebulizing using a steamer and or a nebulizer. Those can be huge, really helpful supplemental tools, but they can't take the place of lousy internal hydration.
And you know what? I did a podcast episode all about steaming versus nebulizing. So I'm going to link that down below in the show notes.
People will ask me a lot, which one is better? I use both personally because I'm a professional singer. I do it all day every day. I find them both really beneficial. It really depends on you. And I want to end this with saying hydration is key. Hopefully that's what you've learned from this. It is really important.
for your vocal folds to function, feel, and sound the very best that they can.
I'm stepping off my soapbox.
Go drink something or eat something nice and watery guys. I have got a couple free resources for you right now. I have a movement training all about how movement can make your voice feel better and sound better. Always what I'm looking for 25 different movement tools to take you from warm up through technique, their performance to cool down. I'll put that down in the show notes and then you can also try out my fab vocal pro membership for two weeks for absolutely free.
And actually three free resources. If you feel like you need a little more one-on-one attention than that right off the bat, you can book a free 15 minute consultation, a free Zoom chat with me or my fab associate coach, Cassell. And I will put that down in the show notes as well. singing everybody, happy hydration everybody and see you in the next episode.
