[The views expressed in this blog are from my personal experiences from 25 years of leading non-auditioned community choirs in the UK, as well as adult singing workshops. My focus is on teaching by ear using a repertoire of songs from traditions across the globe. Your experiences may differ from mine, so do feel free to leave a comment and let's begin a conversation! A version of this article first appeared as a post on my blog From the Front of the Choir]
As singers, we’re often told to drink plenty of water.
But why is that, and how much is ‘plenty’?
Relatively few studies have been carried out to date to investigate the effects of hydration status on the voice.
Singers are often told to drink plenty of water before they sing. But there is a lot of misinformation out there about why that’s important.
Hydration within the body allows the vocal cords to stay flexible. It also helps us to maintain the protective lining of mucous which surround the cords.
In fact, hydration in general allows our body and internal organs to function properly. It’s only when we’re seriously dehydrated that problems can arise.
Many professional singers and actors avoid things that might dry out their vocal folds (smoke, alcohol, caffeine, arid environments) and may regularly take hydration treatments such as steam inhalations.
These measures are widely accepted as being beneficial to the voice, but without any scientific basis.
I did come across one study from 2003: Effect of hydration and vocal rest on the vocal fatigue in amateur karaoke singers. Its conclusion was that:
“subjects who sang continuously without drinking water and taking rests showed significant changes in the jitter measure and the highest pitch they could produce during singing.”
Which could just mean that singing continuously for a long time without resting the voice is not a good idea!
If it turns out that hydration status does affect the voice, how do we make sure that we’re sufficiently hydrated?
Whatever we drink doesn’t go straight to the vocal cords. It takes time for ingested fluid to reach internal parts. So there’s no point in having a quick glug before you go on stage. It won’t make any difference.
In fact, there’s not much point in having water available during a rehearsal or performance. To stay properly hydrated you will need to have drunk sufficient amounts several hours before.
The simple answer to avoiding dehydration is to drink when you’re thirsty. Simple!
Claims such as “everyone needs to drink at least eight glasses of water per day,” have no basis at all. There is no evidence to back this up.
The notion may have started in 1945 when the US Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research Council recommended approximately eight glasses per day.
But what people missed was that much of this water comes from what we eat during the day.
Where hydration is concerned, our bodies don’t care whether we’re drinking water or coffee or wine or coca cola. They all contain water, as does the food we eat.
The only downside of coffee and alcohol is that they’re diuretics which means we go to the loo more often and pee out some of the precious water we’ve taken on board.
Based on the above, the simple takeaways are:
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Chris Rowbury
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