How to Clear Your Throat For Singing – Should Singers Clear Their Throats?

Did you know you should take a small step and clear your throat before singing? Well, you should! Here’s how ..

You took lessons, studied singing tutorials online and practiced singing scales to help you reach the high notes. But, the day of your big junior local vocal auditions, your throat is stopped up and you let out some giant coughs to get the mucus out.

Wrong Idea! Here are some tips for clearing your throat so that you don’t damage your vocal chords and make your voice worse.

Step by Step Instructions for How to Clear Your Throat Before Singing – How do I Clear My Throat to Improve My Singing Voice?

Singers and musicians alike are to me no different than any athlete or really, any person.

We in our daily lives need to communicate with our body and mind in order to strengthen and improve our functionality.

Practice makes perfect and to me, visualization is key.

With these elements comes a key tip and that is using proper techniques.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do things, and the wrong way can lead to injury, or at the least poor performance on stage.

The right way will lead to functional strength and conditioning.

Breathing methods and techniques, along with proper ways of clearing your throat will help the young singer with:

• hitting high notes
• singing in scales
• and with overall vocal performance.

With the proper vocal know how, you will gain the confidence to go into any local or junior auditions, talent shows, or even karaoke competitions and really show your stuff.

What’s the Best Way to Clear Your Throat Before Singing? 2 Methods..

Method 1:

What are the correct ways of throat clearing? Some vocal coaches recommend to start with a really modest cough, one that should make very little sound.

Dispose of any expelled mucus (In other words, spit it out), then continue until your throat is completely clear.

If you still have too much build up, try some lemon juice in water (not ice water).

Sip this drink slowly for a period of a half an hour and see if that helps. If you still have too much mucus build up, you may want to consider changing your diet.

Method 2:

Other singing instructors say not to clear your throat at all. Here’s why.

When you make that sound (you know what it is), to clear your throat for singing, you want the mucus out, right? Well, the clearing sound slams your vocal cords together.

And, your body produces more phlegm to take the place.

So, instead of clearing your throat with that sound, sip a warm drink. A good example is warm ginger tea w/honey, which is great for your throat.

These two methods are good choices. But, you’ll need to test each one to see what works best for you.

But, for my singing, I opt to use the warm drink method – can’t go wrong with keeping your throat lubricated.

Now, check out these other solutions to sing better.

Avoid the Milk & Dairy

Eating things like dairy products can lead to too much mucus in the body, and will thus affect your singing ability.

Reaching those high notes on the upper end of the scale is challenging enough without having a clogged throat to hinder your ability. Talent does not help if your voice is not clear.

Get Fresh Air into Your Lungs Through Breathing Methods

When it comes to breathing, you want to breathe like you’re doing for a dive.

Breathing in and out fully and completely will allow more fresh air into your lungs, and drive out the stale old air from them as well.

Breathing deep from the diaphragm helps to make your lungs stronger and will extend your lung capacity.

This is great for hitting and holding those long tough notes. You will come across as relaxed and confident to your audience when you breathe correctly.

Exhaust all Avenues to Clear Your Throat

You may be doing something unconsciously – Consult a doctor if problems persist.

Keep in mind that there is always more than one way of doing things.

And, if you find that you still can’t get your mucus levels down, you may be doing something unconsciously and should consult a doctor.

Things like smoking or being around allergens can add to your breathing and singing problems.

Just remember to practice consistently. And, continue learning how to do things the right way to avoid vocal problems later on.

This way, improving singing voice has never been easier!

Now that you have studied this important tip for a clear voice, you can have Singorama teach you everything you always wanted to know about speech level singing.

I highly recommend the Singorama program to take your singing voice to a higher level.

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I hope you found this lesson about how to clear your throat for singing helpful. If so, please let us know in the comments box below.

Also, please add your experiences with this issue – other singers can learn from what you found. Thanks a lot! – Bob

From the video; “this was from yesterday’s show. I had to clear my vocal chords and I wanted to show you all how I “actually” do it.” Not a long singing tutorial, but I hope you enjoy.

Filed under: Singing Tips