As singers, we often think about how to recover our voices after something goes wrong — but what about protecting them before it does? In this week’s episode, Amber Mogg Cathey shares how to keep your healthy voice… healthy, especially as cold and flu season hits.
Learn simple, science-backed habits to maintain peak vocal wellness all year long — from hydration and rest to vocal budgeting and smart warm-ups. Amber also explains why your overall health and stress levels play a major role in vocal resilience.
Whether you’re performing, recording, or just keeping up with lessons, this episode will help you stay ahead of the curve and keep your voice strong, steady, and ready to sing.
00:00 Introduction to Vocal Health in Fall
02:31 Importance of Sleep and Rest
07:30 Listening to Your Body and Mind
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Hello friends! This is my first episode in November of 2025. November here in the Northern Hemisphere means we are deep into fall, very soon into winter, which means germs abound. We are moving into that sickly time of year for the next many months. It also means temperatures are dropping, the heat is kicking on, all of these different things that can really impact us.
as singers and as vocalists and voice users. Even if you are somewhere in the world where you are moving into the warm, lovely, healthier time of year, we're still gonna be talking today about things that can help you. We're gonna be talking about ways that you can keep a healthy voice, a healthy body, feeling healthy. Because that's ideal. We're all gonna get sick sometimes. I get it about once a year. I feel like I need to knock on wood, hold on. And an even amount, all right, I feel better. About once a year, amidst this sickly season,
I usually get sick. It turns into some respiratory thing. It's always a big bummer. So next week, spoiler alert, I'm gonna be talking about what to do when you are sick, how to know when it's okay to sing even if you're not feeling great, how to recover as quickly as possible. But this week, what I wanna talk about is keeping a healthy voice healthy.
Because that's ideal. The more we can be proactive instead of reactive, it's a lot easier.
And what I want you to think about when you think about vocal health is vocal health is health. Our body is our instrument and our mind is so intertwined with our body. So I want you to think about it very holistically. You are a whole person. You're not just a voice out there floating around, Another way that you can think about holistic is biopsychosocial. That means biological. That's everything that has to do with your body.
the physical mechanism of your voice, your overall physical health, any other conditions you might be dealing with like allergies, reflux, anything because if impacts your body, it can impact your voice because the body is the instrument. The psychological component, is the mental piece, is how you feel emotionally, how you're dealing with stress.
we're also right now moving into the holiday season, which I love. I am such a sucker for the holidays. And also it can be an extra busy time of year, an extra stressful time of year, sometimes an extra emotional time of year.
So keeping in mind that all of that really impacts our health as well. And then the social piece is how we live our life. What do you do day in and day out? Are there repeated motions you do all the time that could cause physical issues? Do you talk over ambient noise all the time? Are you around chemicals? Are you around smoke? Whatever that is, really looking at things holistically.
So the first thing I wanna talk about is sleep. Sleep impacts you, gosh, all the way across the board, right? It hugely impacts how you function physically.
I am not a pleasant woman if I have really not gotten my Zs. I will cry at the drop of a hat. I am way more emotional. if I don't have good sleep, So sleep is huge. And sleep can be hard, especially like I said, a time of year that is extra busy. You can be like, look, I just don't have time. I encourage you to prioritize your sleep. Getting ample sleep.
can keep you so much healthier in every way.
If you get good sleep, your immune system is bolstered. You've given your muscles, your voice, your body rest. Your mind has had time to recuperate. We rebuild when we sleep. So sleep is just hugely important and especially in these sickly times of year. Also, when I talk about sleep, I want you to think about rest.
and taking vocal naps when you need them. Vocal budgeting, I know I talk about this a lot. I feel like if we could really all focus on vocal budgeting, we would all feel better, sound better whenever we sing and use our voice in any way. What do I mean by that? What I mean is we all have a certain amount of energy, vocal energy and otherwise that we know we can spend every day and still feel great. And we wanna really think about that and plan and budget.
how we spend that energy. So we have that energy when we need it. If you've got a big rehearsal, if you've got a big performance, if you've got whatever it is, you feel good to go when it's time to do that. And you haven't wasted your vocal energy throughout the day on things you could have skipped.
So really looking at everything you have to do vocally and that's not just singing, all the singing you have to do, all the speaking you have to do, the environments you will be in. I touched upon earlier, if you're in really loud, noisy environments and you are constantly speaking over that noise, you are pushing and working way harder than is ideal.
So think about your vocal budget, make sure that you take breaks, give yourself vocal naps whenever you can when you need them so you feel your best when you need your voice to be there for you. The other thing I would be remiss if I didn't mention, take the time, even if it is five minutes, to do a little bit of a warm up, again, especially when it is cold, when we have the heat on, when we're fighting, whatever, we're fighting, when we're dealing with just...
not optimal conditions, it's especially important to take the time to give your voice a quick warm up. And I actually have in the show notes a completely free sing-along audio track that will take you five minutes It's a warm up that can be really impactful in a short amount of time. I also include a bonus belt exercise that has nothing to do with vocal health.
other than helping you belt in a healthier way. So, ching ching, bonus. That is down in the show notes for you. Take the time to warm up, and then when you can, I promise you, you will thank me. Take the time to cool down.
The great thing is you can use those same two exercises that I'm giving you in the sing along warm up track to cool down. What you're going to do differently is when you warm up, you start at speech level and then you spread out to this broader range, you're getting ready to use for singing. When you cool down, you start at a broader range and you bring it back to speech. I always tell singers, think about it's like taking your instrument, wiping it all down, putting it in its comfy case so it's taken care of.
It's our way of going, okay, You're back in your nice comfy speech set up. So you're not gonna work any harder than you have to. So you'll be ready for me the next time.
Another huge thing that seems simple, but I just can't overstate how important it is, is hydration. Internal hydration is the absolute best thing you can do. It makes our vocal folds work less hard. It makes them connect more easily, vibrate more easily, stretch more easily, feel better, sound better. It makes a massive...
Difference and I actually did a whole episode about hydration So I will link that in the show notes below if you're like, I hear it all the time. I don't really buy it I promise you it makes a world of difference and nothing can beat internal hydration drinking enough water Liquid eating water rich foods so that your body is optimally hydrated. So that outer layer of the vocal folds
is nice and oily so when they touch each other thousands and thousands of times it's this gentle glide
versus this thick gunky layer that feels yucky and lets our vocal folds just collide in a much harsher manner, which means they fatigue way more quickly. They don't sound as good, they don't feel as good. Internal hydration is huge. I will also say this time of year when the heat kicks on, surface hydration is huge. So using a nebulizer, using a steamer, that is getting hydration directly to the vocal folds themselves that won't make up.
for not having enough internal hydration, but it can be an extra bonus. I also sleep with a humidifier cranked up in every single bedroom in my house this time of year. As soon as the heat goes on, so do all of my humidifiers. So I'm breathing in when I'm sleeping at night and not able to take in internal liquid. I'm breathing in much moister air. Just that makes me feel a million times better.
then the last thing that I wanna mention today, listening to your body, your mind, your voice, prioritizing your mental health as well as your physical health. Very rarely do we go from feeling 100 % to just sick as can be, right? Unable to use our voice. Sometimes that happens, you get hit by a virus.
Most of the time we've been given hints. Our body, our mind is letting us know, hey, I feel really rundown. I really could use some extra sleep. I really don't wanna go to that holiday party. I'd love to see the people. I don't have the energy. It's okay.
this time of year to say no to some things. If your body is telling you it needs a break, if your voice is telling you it needs a break, if mentally you just feel overwhelmed and a little burned out, it's okay. It's also okay to go and enjoy yourself. That can be a huge thing for your mental health. While keeping in mind, let's go back to.
How is your vocal budget? Are you way over you're using your voice screaming at a party when you know you have a show the next day? Because you're not going to be happy the next day. It's finding that balance, but really just taking the time to listen to yourself, voice, body, and mind. So if you start getting little hints of like, hey, I'm starting to get run down, I don't feel great, you can make changes right then to hopefully keep you staying healthy and feeling good. Like I said, next week I'm going to jump into what happens when we just get sick.
which is gonna happen and how do we recover as quickly as possible and when do we reach out for maybe some professional help. So that will be in next week's episode. I hope you all are feeling healthy as you listen to this right now. I hope some of these tips and just probably reminders will help you stay.
even healthier as we move into these next handful of months. Check out the freebies I have for you below and see you in the next episode.
