Just like your time and money, your vocal energy is a limited resource—and how you spend it matters.
In this episode of Vocal Tips in 10 with Amber Mogg Cathey, we’re diving into the concept of vocal budgeting—a practical, game-changing approach to managing your vocal load throughout the day or week. Whether you're performing, teaching, recording, rehearsing, or just talking a lot, this episode will help you stay mindful of your vocal output so you can avoid fatigue, reduce strain, and preserve your voice long term.
You’ll learn simple, effective strategies to help you protect your instrument, feel your best, and still get the job done.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
01:23 – Understanding Vocal Budgeting
03:48 – Strategies for Effective Vocal Use
04:20 – Prioritizing Vocal Tasks
06:58 – Seeking Help and Conclusion
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Hey singers, welcome to Vocal Tips in 10. I'm Amber Mogg-Cathy and I wanna jump into one of the biggest questions that I'm getting here at the start of the year. This is only our second episode of season two, 2025.
And certainly the questions I'm getting the most from singers right now in the studio, in one-on-one lessons, within the Vocal Pro membership for sure, is just trying to find ways to set up really successful habits. So whether that's practice habits, whether that's vocal health, whether that's goals for the year, just really trying to set themselves up for more success. And one of the biggest things I'm hearing right now is how do I kind of juggle everything I have to juggle vocally?
So that's what I want to tackle with you today.
I want us to think about that just like managing a financial budget. So I don't want us to overthink it today. I want to keep this pretty simple. We're going to say we have 10 vocal dollars. So that's US dollars.
translate to your currency to make it more meaningful to you. We're gonna say we have 10 US vocal dollars to spend a day. We can do things that cost us up to 10 vocal bucks and we will still feel great and be healthy at the end of the day. If we spend more than that, so if we use our voice more than that, we're gonna be in a deficit. And a deficit can start to mean we feel fatigue, we get some swelling, we find some loss of range.
There are going to be some activities, light, easy activities that cost us nickels, dimes, quarters, right? Activities that we can do all day and we will feel grand. So that's light, easy talking. We're in a quiet room. We're not talking over ambient noise. If you are talking in a loud environment like a restaurant or a bar, you are spending dollars. And think about that. If you're spending dollars every time you do that, you're gonna be out of money quick, which means you're not gonna have
vocal energy for a proper rehearsal. Certainly not for a proper show. that's heavy spending activities, but light spending activities are things like easy talking. We're not going too loud. We're not going too long. We're not talking over ambient noise. We're talking like I'm talking to you now. I can do this pretty much all day. Now I still want to take vocal breaks throughout the day because if I never am quiet, which is something that I definitely have to work on, and let's say my talking costs me
10 cents. Well, if I'm using dimes like this, I'm still gonna be more fatigued than I want to be before the day's over. So I wanna take breaks to save my vocal energy, Another light activity would be nice gentle singing, like humming along or doing a gentle like SOVT workout or a nice gentle warmup, easy singing. Again, none of these things are loud volume. None of them are super long duration.
Then we've got those activities that we know are gonna cost us a lot. We've got a two hour show, we're gonna be using good technique, we're gonna be relying on amplification, we're gonna be doing all of that. But we know that this two hour show, it takes a lot of energy. And even though it is very healthy, it's costing us five bucks.
out of our $10 budget. So if we know it's coming up that night, then we are not going to want to spend very much before that show happens. So what does that mean? That means maybe the hour long phone call with your bestie that you normally do in the car, that's over ambient noise. You do not realize how loud road noise is and how much more energy you spend talking over that road noise.
It's a big one for people. So we're not going to do that phone call. We're not going to sing in the car. We are going to talk when we need to. We're going to take a lot of vocal breaks throughout the day. Meaning when we don't need to use our voice, we're not going to. That's all that that means. We don't need to make this more difficult than it is. And yes, I'm talking in very simplistic terms today, but just so you can start to kind of have this to work with when you know, hey,
I've already spent two bucks of my budget, the equivalent to $2 of my vocal budget. I've got $10 to spend and I have a $5 show tonight. It's gonna cost me a lot. I know that it does.
So when you think about how are you gonna juggle all of your activities, the first thing you wanna do is just bring awareness to what are you really spending vocal energy on? And you might be like, well, Amber, all I had was a rehearsal and then I practiced maybe for 30 minutes on my own and then I had a show. But I'm gonna guarantee you that's not all you had.
Well, I mean, of course I talk throughout the day and then I've had this tickle so I was coughing and then I was singing in my car and then I was watching the show and I laughed so hard that I laughed for like, you know, 10 minutes out loud and then it caused a coughing fit. Whatever it is, anything you do like that, that is using your voice. All of it needs to be budgeted in. So a great way to make sure we don't overspend is one, we're gonna look at really realistically.
look at all of our tasks throughout the day, every single thing we do to use our voice. Then we're going to prioritize what are the have-tos. And the have-tos are what are going to go into our vocal budget, just like a financial budget. I don't have a choice, I have to pay my rent, right? You don't have a choice, you have to play the show that you've got tomorrow night. So that is a non-negotiable. You know you've got X amount of rehearsals, you know you've got to prep for those rehearsals. Those are all gonna be have-tos, you know you've got a job.
where you've got to talk to people at the sales counter, you've got to make phone calls or whatever it is. Those are all the have to's. And then we look and see how much are we spending in the have to's? Where can we take off anything from that vocal load? Do I really have to do all of that? Do I have to sing full out at the rehearsal? You probably don't. Are you using amplification at the rehearsal? Cause that'll make a big difference. That saves you vocal currency. And then we look and see how much do we have?
And what else can we spend it on? And if we're like, I don't really have hardly any activities today. Great. Well, that's a perfect day to make some phone calls, to use your voice doing activities that maybe you don't have the extra currency to spend other days. Or it's a great time to go out with friends that night and, you know, talk and laugh over noise in a restaurant. Because really, That's the only heavy vocal activity that you have for the day. It's all about one, making a realistic budget.
really looking at what you spend your vocal energy on, two, looking at where we can take off some energy, where we can take off work, whether that's through technique, whether that's through taking breaks. And I'm telling you guys, vocal breaks throughout the day are gold. I would almost, I hesitate to say that this will literally do this, but it's almost like if you have some good voice use during the day, if you really take some good breaks and then you do a gentle, really effective warmup before.
You might even earn a little bit of that currency back. So taking breaks throughout the day is really important, but it's just about really realistically looking and budgeting. And if you realize when you look at your vocal budget, just like a financial budget, that you are overspending every day and you have this feeling of like, I don't have a choice. I have to do all these things.
Well, obviously if you don't have the budget, if you don't have the vocal energy to do it and do it successfully day in and day out, you're gonna have to make some tough choices. And I know that that's easier said than done,
I think a great tip is to have a little bit of currency left at the end of every day, because that way we know we're not overspending. If you always have a little left in the budget, where if you had to do something else vocal, you could, it wouldn't be a heavy load. You don't want to, you're tired, but you still have some...
vocal energy left, some financial or vocal currency left, that's the most ideal way to do it. We can't always do that, right? But if you have a tendency to spend your entire budget every single day, you likely are overspending and that can really catch up with you. If you find that you are somebody who is overspending and you feel like you can't work out an effective vocal budget on your own, then reach out. I'll put my contact information below. I am here to help.
I can help you within my vocal pro membership. You can set up a one-on-one vocal rehabilitation session. You can set up a singing lesson. And it's just a good time to look at technique-wise, where are you? Are we optimizing things as much as we can? Vocal workload, vocal hygiene, vocal health. I'm happy to help you with that and help you get that budget so you can be as successful as possible.
I hope this is helpful. If this is helpful, I would love it. Share it with a friend, share it with a fellow singer, a fellow voice user. If you haven't yet, give me a review. It really helps me be able to continue to do this podcast and hopefully be able to share information that is helpful and beneficial with more singers and more voice users. All right, guys, thanks for being here. Happy healthy singing and I look forward to seeing you next week's episode.
