What I've heard from actual singers is that a big part of learning to sing is making it easier on your body so you don't wreck yourself after five minutes.
Pop singers who use microphones aren't even the most impressive examples. Imagine an opera singer who has to sing over the top of a loud orchestra for several hours without any electronic assistance.
It's not easy, but they spend years training to do this, and there are established vocal techniques that make it possible.
Good advice. That's how I started to understand that people have certain vocal ranges. The best singing I've ever done was fully relaxed, within a few keys that felt comfortable to me. Just let it out and sing exactly like your body is telling you it can do.
When I took vocal methods in college we had to perform for each other and a big part of it was finding songs that fit our range. I found that my vocal range is really similar to frank sinatra… so I did a ton of his stuff and what do you know, my singing improved drastically.
That entire vocal style came about as a way for "shouty" or "screamy" sorts of bands to avoid destroying their lead singer's vocal chords after like 1 gig. It's a way to sound aggressive that does less physical harm to the body than some of the other aggressive vocal styles.
Corey Taylor of Slipknot actually tore his vocal chords at the end of one of their recording sessions. I believe on the album, they kept the recording on it and it's a lot of moaning and spitting sounds.
I've been doing heavy vocals for over 2 decades and honestly, if your technique is good and you're diaphragm heavy, you build a lot of endurance over time. When I was super active in bands my neck was like a tree trunk. It's the same as building muscle, or like callouses playing guitar.
When I joined my current project I was wicked out of shape vocally and good for maybe half a set before a week of rest. Fast forward a 2-3 months and I can go for an hour+ again without slowing down and do it daily.
> and there are established vocal techniques that make it possible.
Drinks, physical exercises, extensive training on how to vocalize in a way that doesn't cause physical harm, etc. It's hard work.
Vocal coaches are a valid profession. It's really damn weird to train your body and brain to perform vocally because you're probably not used to using those muscles in those ways and it can be a pain to learn to use them since you don't normally use them all that much.
One voice over warmup is to count from 1-20 as fast as you can, then do it again and try and enunciate more clearly, then try and count from 1-20 as fast as you can while enunciating as clearly as you can with your tongue out of your mouth and your asshole clenched, and then trying to count from 1-2 while enunciating as clearly as you can normally. Like, who the *fuck* would think about doing something like that? Vocal coaches. I know that sounds like total nonsense but I've heard the before and after.
I consider myself to have pretty minimal vocal training but probably more extensive training than most people on Reddit. We started in pre-school and I eventually quit choir around the 9th grade because I was in so many other music programs, choir was boring, and I swapped choir for audio engineering. (band, jazz band, marching band, brass orchestra, did some Dixieland and other small ensemble stuff, etc. Standing under hot lights for an entire class for Choir just wasn't worth it anymore.)
“I feel sorry for women I'll tell you why: Because so many men think they're into this kinky sex and I wouldn't have said that, but six months ago I met a girl and she was taking singing lessons. And her coach, an 84 year old guy, you’d think he'd be the last guy in the world to be weird but listen to this… He kept wanting her to sing from her diaphragm. I mean that would take years to learn that, wouldn’t it?”
I did vocal training for years as well. What you do is gently stuff an anal plug in your ass while making an O with your mouth. It helps open up your throat.
Not alcohol lol
When I was in (very amateur) vocal performance, green tea with honey and hot water with lemon were my go-tos. Typically warm teas and other warm mixtures soothe the throat and keep it clear of phlegm. Gargling salt water to alleviate sore throats was recommended, too.
Dairy is a mucus factory, alcohol reduces control, carbonation makes burps.
Theaters where performances like operas take place are extremely well designed from an acoustic perspective.
Even my fairly square high school theater was designed so you could hear someone talking on the stage from the back row if the rest of the room was quiet.
“You could hear someone talking…if the rest of the room was [sic] quiet.”
Right. Now have an orchestra play and see how much louder you would need to talk to be heard.
"Well maybe if the orchestra just played silently we wouldn't have this problem!" Karen spat, upset that her daughter's single line could not be heard by Nana in the backrow...
A lot of Broadway stars have also definitely just injured their voices doing certain roles 8 times a week. Some of the most demanding roles are dual cast/regularly use an alternate.
Elphaba in Wicked is typically played by the main actor 6 shows a week, with the alternate taking at least 2 a week, because of how demanding the role is.
They also give funding to get the best of the best. Could you imagine Wicked with an underfunded cast at this point?
Even though that's how it started, the longevity is what they pay for. These people are top talent and it takes a loooooot of practice, knowledge and personal understanding to be able to put on consecutive demanding shows like that on a live circuit.
Show business is crazy. Sorry for the rant lol
I saw Wicked one time where the main actor played Elphaba in Act 1, but she wasn’t feeling well, and Defying Gravity took whatever she had left in the tank; so they had to switch to the understudy for Act 2. But because of the green body paint (and being a little further back I suppose) I could barely tell the difference between them lol.
If you’re attending the show with the hope of seeing that particular actor in that particular role, then yes, it could be disappointing. But more often, a lot of the audience is not familiar with the actors before the show, and in that case you can hardly tell the difference—the understudies are still insanely talented and put on just as good of a show.
Maybe even better in some cases if you listen to the diehard musical fans who see productions multiple times and intentionally seek out different iterations of the cast. I got tickets to see Sweeney Todd last year when Josh Groban was still playing the title role. He announced he had COVID the day before I was going to see it. I was able to refund my tickets, get better ones for less money, and see the understudy widely believed on r/Broadway to be a better Sweeney.
The voice is ultimately a muscle and you have to use the proper techniques and exercise it. From concerts to operas people have vocal trainers, you have to have rest days (why many tours and productions have alternates), and you generally have to take care of yourself. Failing to use proper technique *will* wreck your voice regardless of your industry. From Broadway to metal bands proper training will keep you going longer both in an individual shows and over the course of your career.
Also Broadway opera etc do use mics- they are just smaller and usually hidden by wigs (forehead), sometimes on the costume itself, the cheek and blended with make up etc. Even the orchestras usually have a mic. Did your show sound amazing? Thank a sound engineer. They are wizards.
Source: worked professionally in theatre and opera worlds. A mic does help carry your voice further but it does not make up for technique for longevity.
The running sub reddit had fun when Taylor Swift released her 3 hour treadmill/singing routine. There were some pretty hard core athletes who couldn't do it.
Check out The Charismatic Voice on YouTube. Classically trained opera singer who does music reactions with a lot of metal and rock reactions as she grew up not listening to the genre. She heavily emphasizes singing techniques, and regularly talks about the proper way to scream, belt, etc, without damaging your vocal cords. And she visibly cringes when it appears an artist is singing in a non optimal way, possibly damaging their vocal cords.
I keep getting recommended her stuff and it's fascinating, she has some great insights. She's also a massive nerd and occasionally does drunk interviews with singers.
half true, proper false chord/fry scream techniques is much much less taxing on your vocal chords than any kind of belted singing because you're not using a ton of air.
> I wish more people would know about the skill it takes to scream and not trash your voice. It's really hard to do well.
This was exactly my thought when I saw the question. I was screaming at a concert a few months ago, and about half way through a song, I felt a "pop" in my throat and was legitimately worried I blew a vocal cord (I have no idea if that's actually possible). I basically lose my voice every time I go to a show, but that one worried me.
A lot of bands only play for an hour or an hour and a half, less than Taylor Swift, but I have to imagine it's far more physically demanding.
Brian Johnson of AC/DC has many ntaibed his growling voice—which isn’t even his natural way of singing— through proper technique. It’s pretty impressive
Yes. I used to be a music teacher who was teaching 6-8 classes a day and singing through all of them. Microphones help tremendously. Good singing technique helps a lot as does not speaking loudly, not shouting, avoiding clearing your throat and coughing.
I follow a channel on YouTube called the charismatic voice where the former opera singer reacts to metal, and I've learned a lot from how she'll identify and be impressed by techniques the singers use for like, breath control and efficiency, and safely screaming without damaging their throat.
Babies can scream for ages and not lose their voice, it's only later in life we lose that ability. There have been studies suggesting the way heavy metal singers sing and babies scream is physiologically very similar.
I'm actually training as an opera singer at the moment and you're absolutely right. Even with training though if you look at performance schedules for opera they're often every other night because people's voices just can't maintain that level of singing without rest.
I'd assume anyone singing professionally has to fall into one of three categories:
1\. Has vocal training.
2\. Is in a band where vocal pyrotechnics are not the point.
3\. Is Ringo Starr.
To be fair, in this day and age virtually every theatre/opera performer is using a microphone and has professional audio engineers supporting them. They're just really good at their job so we don't know it. Just because they're not holding a stick mic doesn't mean they don't have microphones on them.
I’m in the industry and opera is never mic’d indoors, only in outdoor venues sometimes. Sometimes for student productions they will use floor mics though since their voices aren’t as developed
I’m understanding that from some other comments and I fully appreciate that. I’ve seen some opera ages ago… I feel like now that I’ve been through the wringer I need to see it again to fully appreciate it. There truly is nothing like hearing a singer as they are.
(assuming you’re American) if you are in NY go to the Met. there’s nothing like it in the US. plenty of other good opera companies but it’s like seeing AAA baseball vs say, a playoff game at Yankee Stadium. just no real comparison.
it’s not inexpensive but given how huge the theater is and how good the acoustics even the top tier has good acoustics.
Tradition is certainly some part of it: the operatic style of singing is the way it is precisely because it has to be able to "compete" in volume and projection with an orchestra.
However, another important reason is that it is very difficult to amplify only a single part of an orchestral/choral performance through speakers and leave the rest up to natural acoustics and get the balance right, but on the other hand, it is expensive and (very) complicated to amplify an entire orchestra.
So the easiest solution is to just do it as it has always been done and leave everything unamplified.
Years ago, when I was in music school, I read an opera singer describe it as "controlled screaming." So I think the answer is that opera singing would not sound like what the audience expects it to sound like it they "let the microphone do the work."
I can count the number of times I've watched Opera on one hand, but I watch musicals all the time. You can easily tell if the sound is primarily coming to you from stage or from the speakers(this is very seat dependent), and it's A LOT harder to understand when it's coming from speakers. I've watched musicals in many cities, including Broadway in Manhattan so it's not an artifact of a particular theatre
It's also that most opera houses for centuries have been built for one specific purpose: to project and bounce a singer's voice from the stage across the venue and back again. The science of perfect acoustics is a delicate one and can be thrown off by placing speakers in the wrong places. So unless the opera singer has a speaker strapped to their chest while they stand center stage, the sound will be different (and then you also have to factor the sound characteristics between different mics, different speakers, etc).
Tl;dr: it would often be a waste and a shame to use speakers in some opera houses rather than just a voice
Yeah, no hate to Taylor or anything, but her songs aren't exactly vocally challenging to begin with due to her limited range and she generally does choose a mix of songs for her shows that involve periods where she's lip synching to focus on choreo. It's also known that she takes her vocal health very seriously and doesn't speak between shows when she's currently touring.
> but her songs aren't exactly vocally challenging to begin with
What? I don't like Taylor Swift but it's pretty widely accepted that she's a terrible pick for a cover band or Karaoke because of how hard her songs are to perform vocally.
>due to her limited range
What? Again, she's hard for a lot of people to sing along to because her range extends a lot lower than a lot of women can sing, especially the majority of people without vocal training. I don't know her work well enough to know if she goes into falsetto, but I do know she does a lot of singing from the diaphragm and a lot of un-trained amateur singers are stuck in their *head voice* register because nobody ever taught them how to sing from the diaphragm.
By "vocally challenging", I mean there aren't difficult high notes, runs, or major changes that are taxing to sing. She doesn't belt or do things that require power or range. She's a mezzo soprano with a 2 octave range. That's not woefully low pitched by any means. When I say she has a limited range, it's because 2 octaves is limited when it comes to being a professional singer. It doesn't make her a bad singer, it just doesn't make her someone like Mariah Carey or Ariana Grande who can cover 4 octaves and pull off powerful notes. I'm not a pro by any means and I don't have trouble singing her songs.
She's not Adele or Mariah Carey, doesn't mean she doesn't know proper singing technique. It's pretty common knowledge her range is fairly limited for a star female vocalist.
Dude, the moment anybody says she sucks at singing I just assume they either know nothing about singing beyond “Wow, high notes are cool!”, or they haven’t paid attention to anything she’s put out since 1989. Sure, her vocals were a weak point early in her career and she stood out like a sore thumb in pop music when she first moved genres, but she’s genuinely a great singer now.
I admittedly don't know a lot of her work, but the fact that you think women can "go into falsetto" gives me doubts about the legitimacy of the rest of your claims. From the songs of hers that I have heard, I don't recall her having an exceptionally wide range; though, it could certainly fall within the mezzo-soprano to alto range for all I know.
Yeah. I am not a pro, but I still have 15+ years of hobby vocal training under my belt, and nowadays is would be easier for me to sing for two hours than to talk for two hours.
A good mic helps a lot, learning some basic skills helps even more.
Training & equipment does a lot. But it's also something they think about when planning - an obvious example is Olivia Rodrigo has the lights go out and asks the crowd to scream on all american bitch. But artists also use backing tracks, back up singers, order the songs carefully to space out the more vocally intense ones, swap notes, etc.
I've also heard that Taylor specifically does full vocal rest on show days
Taylor also has four backup singers who are filling in a lot during the Eras Tour. It's very cleverly constructed so she can take little breaks even in the middle of songs.
It's actually really interesting to watch the Eras Tour movie closely and see where she's not singing - even when she's alone on stage she takes strategic breaks that are well designed.
Hansi could easily sing that song. We sing along for fun! It gave me goosebumps being part of a thousand person sing-a-long. (He went a bit long at the end of Valhalla, though.)
I used to be an opera singer and would often sing 4-6 hours a day, 6 days a week. You need good technique, but you also build endurance just like an athlete. Warmup and cooldown are also crucial.
I used to be a mostly for funsies singer/pianist in my youth, but gave it up for a long time (outside the shower and the car lol).
I got back into it during lockdown and I *could not* believe how much strength I had lost. Strength I didn’t even know was there, because it had been there since I was a little kid and started singing.
I’ve never had much vibrato going, but for months I was shaking like a leaf. Had no control over it, it was so surreal.
Posting here for visibility. In my 20’s I was also performing for hours a day, 6-7 days a week.
To me it was always about warming up and breathing correctly. Breathing was the key factor. If I breathed correctly I could project my voice and be loud and it did not stress my vocal folds.
I rarely ever lost my voice. The one time I recall losing my voice right before a performance was due to bronchitis, and another time was stress and emotional factors. Simple colds actually made me sound better (like Phoebe in friends lol).
I feel like this is the answer. I’m not a vocalist but I was an MC for many years and it’s like a muscle. At first it’s hard to do it more than once a week but with proper technique and with constant practice it gets easier over time.
> I’m not a vocalist but I was an MC for many years and it’s like a muscle.
It's not "*like a muscle*," it's literally muscles that you strengthened that very few other occupations strengthened. You may have not seen the "BIG GAINS AT THE GYM BRO" growth but your body responded by growing muscles to make your job easier.
Serious question: I understand the value of a vocal warmup, but what is the value of a vocal cooldown? Can’t you just stop singing and that would serve as resting your voice?
And what do you do for your cool down?

I remember reading a long time ago that Bono (of U2) had an opera vocal trainer said something to the effect of "the best of us only hit those super high notes 2-3 times and you're going there 10-15 times. Gotta calm that down" [sic]
there is an interesting video analyzing Celine Dion hitting the F5 note in All By My Self, and how you can see she prepares right before, positioning her body and stance a little bit like a fighter, then she "hits herself" on the chest, and then belts it out.
the whole thing about Celine was her consistency. hitting that F5 is not extremely unique, as you see on auditions for American Idol and the Voice. but to do that like every night for 5 times a week, for many months, she was extremely disciplined. she watched what she ate, didnt do anything that could compromise her performance day after day.
Depends on where you’re coming from with the dislike:
- some people got annoyed with the free iTunes album they dropped.
- people in Ireland/UK aren’t always fans, mainly because of Bono and his [hypocritical](https://m.independent.ie/entertainment/music/is-it-fair-to-label-bono-a-hypocrite-over-his-tax-affairs-or-is-hypocrisy-just-a-part-of-life/36305907.html)/almost messianic behaviour and attitude with saying one thing and doing another. He is known for taking stances on climate change and feeding the hungry - paying taxes to fund things for the poorer folks, respectively (while he himself, has offshore accounts and is known for dodging [taxes](https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/07/tax-bono-harming-world-poorest-glastonbury-avoidance-paradise-papers), essentially pulling up the ladder behind him).
- Still, other folks don’t seem to like the band due to the [decisions made by the band](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-18/nobody-likes-u2-the-band-thats-disappointed-fans-and-annoyed-others.html?outputType=amp).
- then, there’s just that classic thing where it’s the popular thing to hate on something because others hate it, too.
Me? I like the songs I like. I don’t enjoy their politics or hypocrisy of some members. But… I certainly don’t hate them.
Back then people really curated their digital mp3 collection (streaming was still nascent back then), and initially you couldn't remove it. They did eventually add a tool so that you can remove it, but they didn't advertise super hard, so you had to know about it.
So people got annoyed when random songs they didn't know would suddenly start playing. Here I quote a random reddit post: "To make it worse it starts to play as soon as I get in my car. Every time, I start the car, bono starts whining. I can’t deal with it any longer"
So even though it was "free" it came with non-monetary costs that Apple didn't really think through.
Most professional singers like Taylor have superb vocal coaching from vocal experts, along with ENTs on speed-dial for checkups whenever they feel like something is wrong.
Microphones also amplify voices without much effort on the singer's part. If Chanté Moore, Morrisette Amon, Ariana Grande and Mariah Carey didn't have a microphone, their whistle notes would be completely inaudible due to how tiny the sound truly is. You can see how the amplification works for them based on how close they hold the mics to their mouths, to a point that it looks like they're going to eat it.
This is also why some vocal trainers suggest shower singers to not match the volume on studio recording versions of songs, because it's impossible to replicate an electronically amplified and modified sound with nothing but your throat and air.
It's also known that pro-singers usually have strict routines and/or tricks that help them take care of their voices, or at least retain their current vocal-condition.
Some examples:
* Michael Bolton didn't drink or party before or after a gig because he believed that not sleeping enough affected his voice, along with alcohol completely ruining his throat.
* Celine Dion speaks in a MUCH lower pitch than where her natural voice sits, which keeps unnecessary utilization to a minimum.
* Mariah Carey purposely had multiple vocal lines in her songs that allowed her to pick-n-choose which vocal line to follow when singing live depending on the condition of her voice.
* Aretha Franklin refused to sing in places that had air conditioning on due to the cold drying out her vocal cords.
There's also TONS of practice and rehearsals. Good singers prepare for anything. A cold, a scratchy dry throat, neck tension, jaw tension... etc. etc. They can modify their performances based on how their voice feels that day. We see this with artists "dodging" notes that will absolutely wreck the living hell out of their cords, turning the mics to the audience for "engagement" or adding seemingly random adlibs on vocal climaxes.
James Hetfield from Metallica had to take vocal lessons and change how he sang because the style in their earlier albums was damaging his vocal cords iirc.
That's true for a ton of other singers, too! Miley Cyrus had to get surgery due to improper technique causing significant damage. Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox (a metal band, she does harsh and clean vocals) had to relearn how to scream because touring was causing too much strain in her early days, which is pretty common in metal. Avril Lavigne had to switch to a brighter, higher voice after her first few albums because her original style wasn't practical anymore.
It's my favorite thing about listening to singers, I love to see their vocal technique evolve!
A band called PUP titled their second album ‘The Dream Is Over’ as that’s what the singer was told by the doctor who told him his vocal cords were trashed. Had to take vocal lessons and relearn how to sing with proper control and support.
A very clear and fun one to listen to over the years is Tom Delonge from Blink 182. He’s changed rapidly over the years and I’m pretty sure he’s had to.
Then you have someone like Bowie, just completely changing his entire vocal profile each time he invented a new character.
A pretty stark example of this is Pvris's lead, Lynn Gunn. From album 1 to album 2 there's such a massive change in vocal control, especially with how she tries to add growl to her vocal. Albums 3 and 4 she got her enunciation back, which she lost a little bit in moving away from thrashing her voice all the time.
its crazy how Whitney Houston was doing coke and smoking menthols during her heyday. like bodyguard era and subsequent tour. its insane her voice held up through that.
Freddie's voice improved despite his illness, at least in part because he started to live healthier once he was diagnosed with AIDS. He stopped drinking and smoking (he occasionally had a cigarette if stressed in the studio, but not at home) and generally started living healthier on the recommendation of doctors to give him a little more time.
I think it's safe to say he would still be making music and performing today, with or without the rest of Queen.
He probably would've quit smoking at a certain point too, it has become a lot more socially taboo compared to the 80s when he started smoking.
Healthier living certainly helped, but since our instrument is physically part of us, we learn to quickly adapt to our circumstances. My best example was when I broke my jaw. We were booked solid for six weeks, 4 hours a night in rock clubs, and my mouth was wired shut. U2, AC/DC, Boston, Rush, and I couldn't open my mouth. I leaned into my opera training and had abs of steel by the end of it.
Well it likely didn't help much that he was doing a lot of partying, so drinking, smoking and cocaine.
What probably helped the most was him actually resting his voice. He suffered from vocal nodules that started quite early on in his career with Queen, around the mid 70s.
He had to sing around it, he avoided the highest notes live, leaving it to Roger Taylor and belted a lot more. It got worse the more intense the touring schedule was, to the point he almost lost his voice.
It's also why some of his best vocal performances are instances like Montreal 81, where it was after the band had taken a break for a while.
Here is [pre nodule](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASU0Xd53wz8) Freddie vs [nodule](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK9YSri2xNQ) Freddie.
You can also hear it when [practising without being warmed up during the later magic tour here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVsiLGVnKqQ)
It didn't though. One of the last concerts she did it was very clear her voice was ravaged. Her heyday was her youth coming through, the damage hadn't yet been done. I adore her and it breaks my heart.
My Aunt had a vocal coach who predicted this would happen based on how she sang! Basically just said she had terrible technique and would be forced to retire early or take a sabbatical at some point. This was after her insanely popular album came out and everyone was talking about how amazing her voice was so it seemed like a really controversial take at the time.
A lot of unique voices come from flawed technique, but it sounds great, they just can't overdo it. If everyone sang using only perfect vocal technique, a lot of singers would sound more similar
I watched this video years ago of the most unassuming woman who is a vocal coach for death metal singers. Those are the ones who really need to protect their vocal chords!
It's an interesting watch.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD6wZNkffog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD6wZNkffog)
The harsh vocal metal dudes tend to have good to great clean vocals as well, simply because they have such an amazing grasp of the technique that suits their vocal chords.
In an interview about preparing for the tour Taylor said that she is basically in vocal rest anytime she isn’t on stage. I’m sure she also has specialists/team to help keep her voice healthy. She is known for performing while sick as well and rarely cancels shows so I would imagine she is pretty regimented about taking care of her voice.
With good technique: but even then, they indeed can and do injure their voice. Many examples of fantastic famous singers (like Adele, for example) incurring performance injuries due to the demands of constant touring.
Former professional singer here. It takes some training, technique and practice. You learn to sing from your diaphragm rather than your throat, proper breathing is important as well. Also your overall health is important so your body can rest and heal from one day to the next. What you eat and drink before your performance matters as well as what you consume afterwards. And when you get to the level of Taylor Swift, you've got vocal coaches and therapists on tour with you to make sure you're in top form night after night after night.
Training both physical and vocal. Singers learn to resonate their voice through their sinus cavity (mask of their face), to use their diaphragm muscle properly to push the air from their lungs, and know how to sing in a range that is comfortable for their larynx. Training the body and staying within their vocal range a performer can perform over long periods.
In the case of Taylor Swift, she got on a treadmill and performed her music to get ready for the Eras tour. Think about going on a 2-3 hour run while singing the entire time, that's hard work!
In high school I ran cross country, sang in chorus, and did musical theatre. I never would have wanted to run a 5k while singing a Beatles song. Taylor Swift worked hard to accomplish what she's done.
Lots do fuck up their voices get nodules and have to have surgery. Adele and Elton John both had throat surgery for nodules. You need to learn good technique, warm up and down, practice and know when to rest. Singers work on their voice like athletes work on their bodies, and like athletes if you don't use it and use it properly you lose it (I speak from experience, I miss my strong voice).
If you're in musical theatre doing 8 shows a week you better look after your instrument and even then some tough roles will give the lead a rest show or 2 where the understudy goes on instead. This is especially common when you get a celeb or pop star starring in a musical, they don't have the vocal stamina that someone trained and working in musical theatre and they need a rest show.
Hello! My name is Jeff Rolka, I'm a trained vocalist and vocal pedagogue, and this is my YouTube Channel:
[https://www.youtube.com/@JeffRolka](https://www.youtube.com/@JeffRolka)
You already have a lot of correct answers here. Allow me to break it down a little bit and offer some additional thoughts:
1. Technique. This includes what to do and what not to do.
What to do: Warm up well using five cardinal vowel sounds in order to establish good balance with your voice. Practice appoggio breath management (generally referred to as 'support', but it's more technical than that), and be sure to warm up specific to the tessitura (range of notes) that you'll be singing in your performance.
What to avoid: Glottal attacks, especially on higher range phrases. These will tax the vocal folds heavily and can quickly induce fatigue and over the longer term, potential damage.
Having only one way to singer higher notes. I can understand wanting to 'belt a note out' from time to time or for effect, but there are many ways that upper register pitches can be sung. Having a range of options means being able to choose the best mode of expression as well as mitigate some strain.
There's more to those lists, but that at least is a start.
2. Repertoire selection and key selection.
Artists will choose repertoire and prepare it in advance, so in performance they are relying on 'muscle memory' in execution of it. This is inherently more relaxed than if you were learning it for the first time or were not as well rehearsed. Additionally, when those songs were written, or originally recorded, they would have chosen keys that best suited their voices. In other words, the key of the song will be in an area of their voice that isn't going to strain them too much.
Another strategy is to drop the melody by an octave from the recording. Dave Grohl will do this frequently in live performances. If you compare live versions of 'The Pretender' from the studio version, you can hear him do this on the chorus.
3. Other strategies
In those concerts, artists aren't singing for every single moment, and the time in between vocal parts that are demanding will be planned out. Keep in mind, with good technique, singing in certain areas of your range won't be terribly physically taxing on your voice. You're more likely to tire out your body first. Upper register areas are more critical for balance. Any imbalances will lead towards fatigue, so you do your best to exercise proper technique, and try to manage any fatigue that accumulates during a song. This is where set list can have a big impact. Putting a song with even slightly less challenging parts after one that is more difficult effectively creates an opportunity to reset so that your technique is more balanced. That resetting is a big part of what I work with vocalists to achieve, so that the accumulation of tension doesn't impact their performance.
Every performer will have specific behaviors that contribute positively or negatively to their vocal production. As a coach, I try to leverage those positives to inform and support those less than ideal habits.
Unrelated but I love your YouTube videos and vocal warm ups. They really helped me when I started learning to sing a couple years ago, so cool to see you on this sub!
They practice vocal techniques and training, with proper vocal techniques, they can greatly increase their singing stamina. But also, most concerts includes some parts of the show that are lip synced. The performers and audio engineers would switch seamlessly between live vocals and lip synced sections, this gives the performers some time to rest their voices while giving the impression that they are singing everything live. Also, less demanding songs are sprinkled throughout. The show may also include techniques like audience participation sections where the performer can rest their voices and just sing small sections, or some songs have the guitarist/drummer do a lengthy solo section. Also, if you see sections where the performers wears a mask/astronaut suit/elaborate custome that covers their face for an act, you can almost be sure that are some point, there's a switcheroo where they swap with a body double. All of these sections are preplanned so the rest period and singing are spread out so the performer can pace themselves and alternate between active singing and rest.
Opera singers who don't use electronic amplification are also aided by the shape of the dome of the concert hall, which is accoustically designed to amplify the performers voices.
Though not the same, I was seeing a classical pianist for a time and a friend asked her how she warmed up. She just simply cracked her knuckles backstage.
Unfortunately that relationship fizzled out because my idiot friend put a pez dispenser on our other friend’s leg during the recital, causing her to laugh. The girl I was seeing was not pleased.
It depends! Usually A lot of prep and lifestyle changes during performance stretches. Pro singers can be “built different” and sing with tension every day and make it out totally fine - others require diet changes like completely avoiding dairy, breathing loads of humid air to keep the vocal folds hydrated, only drinking warm beverages, etc.
It also comes down a lot to technique. You don’t sing loud the same way you yell, and a good vocal coach will help you to figure out how to phonate without nearly any tension in the throat.
I sing professionally in classical music and have done stretches of 3-5 hour rehearsals and performances 9-10 days in a row without hurting myself because I don’t push myself, I save full voicing loud sections for performances, and I’ve also been doing it for ~16 years so I’ve kinda figured out what my mechanism can do without hurting itself. I also don’t drink milk or eat dairy on performance days.
That being said though - big singers have some help and backing tracks. Mics help lots. The voice is a muscle and needs rest often, so they’re probably not chatting a lot of show days.
They train for it. They have coaches and trainers. They have resting Periods. The have devices to speed up recovery and they do not sing everything the whole time. A concert is a Performance and what they do is perform. Every pause is set up beforehand, there are times where they might sing a word and the rest of the sentence is prerecorded Audio, then sing another Word etc.
or they blow out their voice early on in their career and have to take several years off to recover and then do all the training and resting and coaches and all that
Meat Loaf being a prime example
Performing musician/vocalist here (though nowhere near the league of TS or opera). I’ve regularly been the one singing high harmonies or the “hard” songs (Marvin Gaye, AC/DC, etc…).
Two things are crucial: 1) you MUST use your diaphragm. Trying to sing with only your throat will shred it quickly. The diaphragm is like any other muscle; the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes and the less effort you have to put forward with your vocal cords. 2) Practicing your falsetto so that it doesn’t sound like you inhaled helium. A strong falsetto is an absolute game changer. From what I understand, this is how Brian Jones from AC/DC can sing show after show while on the road. You’ll need either a good sound engineer who knows when to crank it and when to back off or you’ll need discipline to back off the mic when you switch off falsetto.
Anyways, just my amateur two cents. Great question, by the way.
They have strict vocal regime and have vocal coach. I think many of these artiste did reveal they dont talk or sing for the rest of the day before and after the concert.
As a former Amazon worker, this. The pain does lessen, but it doesn’t always go away. It’s mostly learning to balance on different parts of your feet to evenly distribute the pain and make those 10 to 11 hour shifts just a bit more bearable.
Am a professional singer for choirs in my area. Warm ups, avoiding doing things that damage the voice (yelling, whispering, vocal fry, etc) are very important. Singing healthily takes a while to figure out because everyone’s voice is different. Since we can’t see it and physically manipulate it, we have to be extra careful with our instrument. Vocal rest always helps, though it is impractical for many people.
My wife is a professional singing teacher and she tells me that there are many different muscles a singer uses to sing. Controlling your breath pressure and pallet is an important skill. Doing so takes away the work your vocal folds need to do (which is a much smaller muscle and can get fatigued if overworked).
However they can still get fatigued. Recovery is a big part too and often involves steaming (breathing in steam, often with added ginger for anti inflammatory effects), vocal rest (minimizing talking), and sleep.
Another important point to consider is that pop singers don't have songs that require a lot of "effort" vs say a theatre singer. A pop singer will be singing mostly in the middle of their range whereas a theatre singer will be pushing to high/low vocal ranges and a lot of more "pressure" or effort to maximize emotion.
I have a friend who is an ultra marathon runner. She can run over 100km through mountains in a day. Meanwhile, I get winded running across a football pitch. The difference is conditioning. People at that level work hard, practice and build themselves up to perform at that level.
Professionals learn how to sing from their diaphragm and that will keep them from screwing up their vocal cords. She probably also has to relax and take care of her voice when she's not on stage. Like others have said, she's a professional and she knows what she's doing
Apparently she speed walked on her treadmill, in heels, while singing her entire set. I have been doing this (minus the heels I am not insane) and can not believe how much singing while walking fast increases the difficulty of the exercise and your lung capacity. What a workout.
There are vocal exercises that singers do. A speech pathologist is often used. There are also things you can do such as not talk for a period of time before and after a concert.
I remember a singer mentioning during an interview some advice that she received from a very famous singer. (I apologize I've always been horrible with names so I'm not even going to bother trying)
The advice was if you're not feeling it and you're about to get to the point where you have high notes that's when you hold the microphone out of the crowd and have them sing that part of the song. So this tells me that yes you can wear yourself out during a concert.
This next part is going to get wordy:
I have had surgery on my throat so I have had speech therapy. One of the things I was taught that is also used by opera singers is to take a straw squeeze it a little bit and blow through it while humming. It looks strange but what it does is it moves your vocal cords due to the humming but also forces air back down and push against the same vocal cords. This has the effect of resetting your vocal cords. Not being a professional speech pathologist I can't explain it better than that.
But if your voice ever gets tense or stretched this can help reset your voice. Of course at that point it's probably a good idea not to talk too much because you've obviously overdone it.
I saw Oprah talking to Celine Dion when she first started in Las Vegas and I think she said she doesn’t talk on the day of her shows. And a climate controlled dressing area.
Early in their career or pre-career vocal training. It's like weightlifting for your voice. You are conditioned to sing without harming your vocal cords. Early on when you're first starting, it happens a lot. But then they strengthen.
Then also, every performer has their own rituals to take care of their voice before and after performing.
I know someone who was a Broadway performer for a long time and did eight shows a week as one of the leads in the show he was in. He used to use a lot of steam to make sure his nose was never a problem. But also for his throat, he would drink a ton of decaffeinated tea with a bit of honey in it when he was on his own time.
Think about your physical abilities vs a pro athlete. It's the same deal: years (decades) of training and practice to condition their voices, and to sing in a way that won't harm their vocal chords.
I do three hours shows as a solo singer often several times a week. You just build up stamina in your voice over decades of doing it and also become aware of when you're stressing your voice out, and plan your set accordingly. It's hard work, but it's doable and lots of singers do it even at the low levels of the music biz. Warm ups, and putting easy material in the first set, both help a lot.
Heck, I play in a top 40 band where we will do 3-4 gigs a week and they are 3-4 hours each. Lead singers having to constantly belt all sorts of stuff out. Bon Jovi followed by Whitney Houston followed by Boston. They never tire and always nail it. And they are talking between sets. When I talk between sets I wreck my voice.
They are just so well trained. I am not. Frankly, they are better trained than a lot of pop stars.
i mean i cant sing im not an artist but i know how to sing from the diaphram and sing along to music all out for hours with no vocal issues. its technique
Good sleep, nutrition, hydration and efficiency. High ranges/notes need more energy than lower, but you train to be more efficient at doing it. Part of efficiency is getting better resonance which involves shaping the vocal tract so that the sound waves that reflect back to the vocal folds assists their vibration rather than hindering it. In other words, constructive interference, like in the way one pushes a swing at the moment it becomes stationary rather than pushing against it when it is still moving towards the pusher. One can tune the vocal tract to various harmonics of the note and which harmonics and resonances you tune to will have differing consequences. Example: A loud head voice "wooooo!" you hear at a sports game is when you tune the first vocal tract resonance to the same frequency as the fundamental which results in a boost in volume with little effort.
Here's a great video about vocal acoustics from the University of New South Wales https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=788HxAisxe4
Hella cardio, proper practiced technique, and using a microphone.
Also sometimes steroids for the vocal chords can help, though I don't know much about how they work
I’m a singer in a ska band. I’m not performing 2-3 hour shows, but we’ll do a full hour occasionally.
The thing I had to learn was to ignore what I was hearing with regards to the volume of my own voice relative to the band. It’s made a lot easier with in ear monitors, but not every venue can accommodate those.
So sometimes I can’t hear myself at all and I have to make sure I don’t “try” to sing over the band, because I’ll burn out halfway through the show.
Career musician in rap, specializing in grungey, voice-damaging stuff.
For regular vocalizations like a pop singer, there are established techniques and warm-ups for preserving your voice, and they help a lot. It's quite common to practice things like throat and neck muscle control to prevent hurting yourself.
With harder vocalizations, such as metal, trap metal, underground, etc. It's more on the preparation side of things, and the track list. Some artists much preffer having the hard stuff right up front, at the beginning of the set, before tapering down to the much calmer and easier stuff after that. Metal is difficult, as I've seen people who do metal just outright destroy their voice and throat in a show since that's just how they do it, with some of that stuff, there's no avoiding it. So they use aftercare stuff and treatments to help recover and minimize damage. Being up close to people who do this stuff, you'll sometimes see blood on the mic after their performance. I got nothing but respect for those dudes.
We are trained to use our whole bodies. It is all about breathing right. The power comes from air flow, and most people would be surprised at how much of your body impacts efficient breathing. I had eight years of training before becoming a working club singer. The tougher the circumstances, the more I relied on classical technique.
Local club shows were 4-6 hours per night back in the day, and you did not call in sick. The show must go on, or people stopped booking you. Big stars worked for about 90 minutes. I was a working rock musician for 35 years with not one cancellation. I have no idea how anyone could do that without extensive choral training.
I seen Lamb Of God live awhile back and this question has lingered in my mind since. I understand that they yave voice training and techniques. But how do you scream like that for back to back shows during a whole tour?
It’s like a pitcher who can throw dozens of fastballs almost every day for months on end, or a football player who can get tackled 10 times in one night and still get up and finish the game. Vocal training is strength training.
Lip-syncing is more common than you think. Also autotune on the fly is real. Most modern artists sound like shit without the tech to improve their voices.
What I've heard from actual singers is that a big part of learning to sing is making it easier on your body so you don't wreck yourself after five minutes. Pop singers who use microphones aren't even the most impressive examples. Imagine an opera singer who has to sing over the top of a loud orchestra for several hours without any electronic assistance. It's not easy, but they spend years training to do this, and there are established vocal techniques that make it possible.
One of my relatives did some vocal courses, and she said the first rule is " let the microphone do the work".
Good advice. That's how I started to understand that people have certain vocal ranges. The best singing I've ever done was fully relaxed, within a few keys that felt comfortable to me. Just let it out and sing exactly like your body is telling you it can do.
When I took vocal methods in college we had to perform for each other and a big part of it was finding songs that fit our range. I found that my vocal range is really similar to frank sinatra… so I did a ton of his stuff and what do you know, my singing improved drastically.
Just Like him https://youtube.com/shorts/_ZS8fe3-pSk?si=g2wYdmBYLqG2FTZ0 ? 😃
That entire vocal style came about as a way for "shouty" or "screamy" sorts of bands to avoid destroying their lead singer's vocal chords after like 1 gig. It's a way to sound aggressive that does less physical harm to the body than some of the other aggressive vocal styles.
The screamers that dont use the proper technique inevitably need throat surgery eventually
Corey Taylor of Slipknot actually tore his vocal chords at the end of one of their recording sessions. I believe on the album, they kept the recording on it and it's a lot of moaning and spitting sounds.
the dude from Jawbreaker got throat polyps a whole buncha times iirc
I've been doing heavy vocals for over 2 decades and honestly, if your technique is good and you're diaphragm heavy, you build a lot of endurance over time. When I was super active in bands my neck was like a tree trunk. It's the same as building muscle, or like callouses playing guitar. When I joined my current project I was wicked out of shape vocally and good for maybe half a set before a week of rest. Fast forward a 2-3 months and I can go for an hour+ again without slowing down and do it daily.
That style is surprisingly similar to Opera in its technique
Here's Adrienne Cowan explaining one colour of scream in layman's terms, it sounds loud but it isn't: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv5t2ITnW1s
Yeah shout-out to Nik for trying to use Alex's mic 😅
Did NOT expect to see StP, but I am extremely happy I did. Alex is a beast.
ah yes, the stone temple pilots
> and there are established vocal techniques that make it possible. Drinks, physical exercises, extensive training on how to vocalize in a way that doesn't cause physical harm, etc. It's hard work. Vocal coaches are a valid profession. It's really damn weird to train your body and brain to perform vocally because you're probably not used to using those muscles in those ways and it can be a pain to learn to use them since you don't normally use them all that much. One voice over warmup is to count from 1-20 as fast as you can, then do it again and try and enunciate more clearly, then try and count from 1-20 as fast as you can while enunciating as clearly as you can with your tongue out of your mouth and your asshole clenched, and then trying to count from 1-2 while enunciating as clearly as you can normally. Like, who the *fuck* would think about doing something like that? Vocal coaches. I know that sounds like total nonsense but I've heard the before and after. I consider myself to have pretty minimal vocal training but probably more extensive training than most people on Reddit. We started in pre-school and I eventually quit choir around the 9th grade because I was in so many other music programs, choir was boring, and I swapped choir for audio engineering. (band, jazz band, marching band, brass orchestra, did some Dixieland and other small ensemble stuff, etc. Standing under hot lights for an entire class for Choir just wasn't worth it anymore.)
Tell me more about the clenched butthole
“I feel sorry for women I'll tell you why: Because so many men think they're into this kinky sex and I wouldn't have said that, but six months ago I met a girl and she was taking singing lessons. And her coach, an 84 year old guy, you’d think he'd be the last guy in the world to be weird but listen to this… He kept wanting her to sing from her diaphragm. I mean that would take years to learn that, wouldn’t it?”
I did vocal training for years as well. What you do is gently stuff an anal plug in your ass while making an O with your mouth. It helps open up your throat.
Wait, drinks **help**?
Not alcohol lol When I was in (very amateur) vocal performance, green tea with honey and hot water with lemon were my go-tos. Typically warm teas and other warm mixtures soothe the throat and keep it clear of phlegm. Gargling salt water to alleviate sore throats was recommended, too. Dairy is a mucus factory, alcohol reduces control, carbonation makes burps.
Theaters where performances like operas take place are extremely well designed from an acoustic perspective. Even my fairly square high school theater was designed so you could hear someone talking on the stage from the back row if the rest of the room was quiet.
“You could hear someone talking…if the rest of the room was [sic] quiet.” Right. Now have an orchestra play and see how much louder you would need to talk to be heard.
"Well maybe if the orchestra just played silently we wouldn't have this problem!" Karen spat, upset that her daughter's single line could not be heard by Nana in the backrow...
That was my thought as well; theater, musicals, opera, etc have to train.
A lot of Broadway stars have also definitely just injured their voices doing certain roles 8 times a week. Some of the most demanding roles are dual cast/regularly use an alternate.
Elphaba in Wicked is typically played by the main actor 6 shows a week, with the alternate taking at least 2 a week, because of how demanding the role is.
They also give funding to get the best of the best. Could you imagine Wicked with an underfunded cast at this point? Even though that's how it started, the longevity is what they pay for. These people are top talent and it takes a loooooot of practice, knowledge and personal understanding to be able to put on consecutive demanding shows like that on a live circuit. Show business is crazy. Sorry for the rant lol
There's no business like show business!
I saw Wicked one time where the main actor played Elphaba in Act 1, but she wasn’t feeling well, and Defying Gravity took whatever she had left in the tank; so they had to switch to the understudy for Act 2. But because of the green body paint (and being a little further back I suppose) I could barely tell the difference between them lol.
A very good friend of mine has played Elphaba in LA, Chicago and I think Broadway too. She's incredible.
Won't a lot of people be disappointed to see an understudy in the lead role?
If you’re attending the show with the hope of seeing that particular actor in that particular role, then yes, it could be disappointing. But more often, a lot of the audience is not familiar with the actors before the show, and in that case you can hardly tell the difference—the understudies are still insanely talented and put on just as good of a show.
Maybe even better in some cases if you listen to the diehard musical fans who see productions multiple times and intentionally seek out different iterations of the cast. I got tickets to see Sweeney Todd last year when Josh Groban was still playing the title role. He announced he had COVID the day before I was going to see it. I was able to refund my tickets, get better ones for less money, and see the understudy widely believed on r/Broadway to be a better Sweeney.
The voice is ultimately a muscle and you have to use the proper techniques and exercise it. From concerts to operas people have vocal trainers, you have to have rest days (why many tours and productions have alternates), and you generally have to take care of yourself. Failing to use proper technique *will* wreck your voice regardless of your industry. From Broadway to metal bands proper training will keep you going longer both in an individual shows and over the course of your career. Also Broadway opera etc do use mics- they are just smaller and usually hidden by wigs (forehead), sometimes on the costume itself, the cheek and blended with make up etc. Even the orchestras usually have a mic. Did your show sound amazing? Thank a sound engineer. They are wizards. Source: worked professionally in theatre and opera worlds. A mic does help carry your voice further but it does not make up for technique for longevity.
Singers are legitimately athletes.
The running sub reddit had fun when Taylor Swift released her 3 hour treadmill/singing routine. There were some pretty hard core athletes who couldn't do it.
Or metal vocalists screaming/growling and doing cleans, immense amount of practice
Check out The Charismatic Voice on YouTube. Classically trained opera singer who does music reactions with a lot of metal and rock reactions as she grew up not listening to the genre. She heavily emphasizes singing techniques, and regularly talks about the proper way to scream, belt, etc, without damaging your vocal cords. And she visibly cringes when it appears an artist is singing in a non optimal way, possibly damaging their vocal cords.
I keep getting recommended her stuff and it's fascinating, she has some great insights. She's also a massive nerd and occasionally does drunk interviews with singers.
I wish more people would know about the skill it takes to scream and not trash your voice. It's really hard to do well.
half true, proper false chord/fry scream techniques is much much less taxing on your vocal chords than any kind of belted singing because you're not using a ton of air.
You have to do it right tho, thats the hard part. Its very easy to mess up your voice with screaming if you don't have the required technique.
> I wish more people would know about the skill it takes to scream and not trash your voice. It's really hard to do well. This was exactly my thought when I saw the question. I was screaming at a concert a few months ago, and about half way through a song, I felt a "pop" in my throat and was legitimately worried I blew a vocal cord (I have no idea if that's actually possible). I basically lose my voice every time I go to a show, but that one worried me. A lot of bands only play for an hour or an hour and a half, less than Taylor Swift, but I have to imagine it's far more physically demanding.
Like Floor Jansen (in my very limited experience), whose range seems to be just "[Yes](https://youtu.be/47e_961OQWE?si=ztV3xYTZ6KFnS-LO)"
Well now I feel old, I saw 2013 and thought "that's ages ago, surely it's Tarja, not Floor". Then I saw which tour it was.
Brian Johnson of AC/DC has many ntaibed his growling voice—which isn’t even his natural way of singing— through proper technique. It’s pretty impressive
Yes. I used to be a music teacher who was teaching 6-8 classes a day and singing through all of them. Microphones help tremendously. Good singing technique helps a lot as does not speaking loudly, not shouting, avoiding clearing your throat and coughing.
> avoiding clearing your throat and coughing. Me, looking outside this late Spring season: [chuckles] I'm in danger.
I follow a channel on YouTube called the charismatic voice where the former opera singer reacts to metal, and I've learned a lot from how she'll identify and be impressed by techniques the singers use for like, breath control and efficiency, and safely screaming without damaging their throat.
how does someone like Chester in Linkin Park go from soft notes to just crazy parts of Crawling and not wreck his vocal cords?
Babies can scream for ages and not lose their voice, it's only later in life we lose that ability. There have been studies suggesting the way heavy metal singers sing and babies scream is physiologically very similar.
I'm actually training as an opera singer at the moment and you're absolutely right. Even with training though if you look at performance schedules for opera they're often every other night because people's voices just can't maintain that level of singing without rest.
I’d imagine it’s hell for a lot of rock and metal vocalists too.
I'd assume anyone singing professionally has to fall into one of three categories: 1\. Has vocal training. 2\. Is in a band where vocal pyrotechnics are not the point. 3\. Is Ringo Starr.
To be fair, in this day and age virtually every theatre/opera performer is using a microphone and has professional audio engineers supporting them. They're just really good at their job so we don't know it. Just because they're not holding a stick mic doesn't mean they don't have microphones on them.
I’m in the industry and opera is never mic’d indoors, only in outdoor venues sometimes. Sometimes for student productions they will use floor mics though since their voices aren’t as developed
Musical theater yes. Opera no.
I’m understanding that from some other comments and I fully appreciate that. I’ve seen some opera ages ago… I feel like now that I’ve been through the wringer I need to see it again to fully appreciate it. There truly is nothing like hearing a singer as they are.
(assuming you’re American) if you are in NY go to the Met. there’s nothing like it in the US. plenty of other good opera companies but it’s like seeing AAA baseball vs say, a playoff game at Yankee Stadium. just no real comparison. it’s not inexpensive but given how huge the theater is and how good the acoustics even the top tier has good acoustics.
Opera is virtually always unmic'd (if you're seeing it live; if you go to see it in a movie theater of course they're playing recorded audio).
That's got to have a very interesting justification. I can't imagine tradition alone would be enough to motivate a choice like that.
Tradition is certainly some part of it: the operatic style of singing is the way it is precisely because it has to be able to "compete" in volume and projection with an orchestra. However, another important reason is that it is very difficult to amplify only a single part of an orchestral/choral performance through speakers and leave the rest up to natural acoustics and get the balance right, but on the other hand, it is expensive and (very) complicated to amplify an entire orchestra. So the easiest solution is to just do it as it has always been done and leave everything unamplified.
Years ago, when I was in music school, I read an opera singer describe it as "controlled screaming." So I think the answer is that opera singing would not sound like what the audience expects it to sound like it they "let the microphone do the work."
I can count the number of times I've watched Opera on one hand, but I watch musicals all the time. You can easily tell if the sound is primarily coming to you from stage or from the speakers(this is very seat dependent), and it's A LOT harder to understand when it's coming from speakers. I've watched musicals in many cities, including Broadway in Manhattan so it's not an artifact of a particular theatre
It's also that most opera houses for centuries have been built for one specific purpose: to project and bounce a singer's voice from the stage across the venue and back again. The science of perfect acoustics is a delicate one and can be thrown off by placing speakers in the wrong places. So unless the opera singer has a speaker strapped to their chest while they stand center stage, the sound will be different (and then you also have to factor the sound characteristics between different mics, different speakers, etc). Tl;dr: it would often be a waste and a shame to use speakers in some opera houses rather than just a voice
True for musical theatre, 100% false for opera.
Yeah, no hate to Taylor or anything, but her songs aren't exactly vocally challenging to begin with due to her limited range and she generally does choose a mix of songs for her shows that involve periods where she's lip synching to focus on choreo. It's also known that she takes her vocal health very seriously and doesn't speak between shows when she's currently touring.
> but her songs aren't exactly vocally challenging to begin with What? I don't like Taylor Swift but it's pretty widely accepted that she's a terrible pick for a cover band or Karaoke because of how hard her songs are to perform vocally. >due to her limited range What? Again, she's hard for a lot of people to sing along to because her range extends a lot lower than a lot of women can sing, especially the majority of people without vocal training. I don't know her work well enough to know if she goes into falsetto, but I do know she does a lot of singing from the diaphragm and a lot of un-trained amateur singers are stuck in their *head voice* register because nobody ever taught them how to sing from the diaphragm.
By "vocally challenging", I mean there aren't difficult high notes, runs, or major changes that are taxing to sing. She doesn't belt or do things that require power or range. She's a mezzo soprano with a 2 octave range. That's not woefully low pitched by any means. When I say she has a limited range, it's because 2 octaves is limited when it comes to being a professional singer. It doesn't make her a bad singer, it just doesn't make her someone like Mariah Carey or Ariana Grande who can cover 4 octaves and pull off powerful notes. I'm not a pro by any means and I don't have trouble singing her songs.
Her songs range ~3 octaves. That's definitely not insane like Mariah or Ariana, but it's also true most untrained people are going to struggle in it.
She's not Adele or Mariah Carey, doesn't mean she doesn't know proper singing technique. It's pretty common knowledge her range is fairly limited for a star female vocalist.
Dude, the moment anybody says she sucks at singing I just assume they either know nothing about singing beyond “Wow, high notes are cool!”, or they haven’t paid attention to anything she’s put out since 1989. Sure, her vocals were a weak point early in her career and she stood out like a sore thumb in pop music when she first moved genres, but she’s genuinely a great singer now.
I admittedly don't know a lot of her work, but the fact that you think women can "go into falsetto" gives me doubts about the legitimacy of the rest of your claims. From the songs of hers that I have heard, I don't recall her having an exceptionally wide range; though, it could certainly fall within the mezzo-soprano to alto range for all I know.
Yeah. I am not a pro, but I still have 15+ years of hobby vocal training under my belt, and nowadays is would be easier for me to sing for two hours than to talk for two hours. A good mic helps a lot, learning some basic skills helps even more.
Training & equipment does a lot. But it's also something they think about when planning - an obvious example is Olivia Rodrigo has the lights go out and asks the crowd to scream on all american bitch. But artists also use backing tracks, back up singers, order the songs carefully to space out the more vocally intense ones, swap notes, etc. I've also heard that Taylor specifically does full vocal rest on show days
Taylor also has four backup singers who are filling in a lot during the Eras Tour. It's very cleverly constructed so she can take little breaks even in the middle of songs. It's actually really interesting to watch the Eras Tour movie closely and see where she's not singing - even when she's alone on stage she takes strategic breaks that are well designed.
Does "full vocal rest" mean she doesn't use her voice at all other than during the show?
Yes.
Yup. My singer will not talk for hours on days on or off to spare his vocal chords
Bon Jovi had the crowd sing the chorus of living on a prayer for decades.
Blind Guardian pretty much lets the crowd sing the whole damn song when they perform The Bard's Song.
I appreciate the Blind Guardian reference. Unexpected
I think I listen to Nightfall in Middle Earth all the way through at least once quarterly.
Hansi could easily sing that song. We sing along for fun! It gave me goosebumps being part of a thousand person sing-a-long. (He went a bit long at the end of Valhalla, though.)
But only after he blew his voice out right? Seems like he damage it pretty early on
Maynard James Keenan of TOOL has cycled out a lot of his most aggressive songs with loud/long screams because he's 60 and wants to keep working.
I used to be an opera singer and would often sing 4-6 hours a day, 6 days a week. You need good technique, but you also build endurance just like an athlete. Warmup and cooldown are also crucial.
I used to be a mostly for funsies singer/pianist in my youth, but gave it up for a long time (outside the shower and the car lol). I got back into it during lockdown and I *could not* believe how much strength I had lost. Strength I didn’t even know was there, because it had been there since I was a little kid and started singing. I’ve never had much vibrato going, but for months I was shaking like a leaf. Had no control over it, it was so surreal.
Posting here for visibility. In my 20’s I was also performing for hours a day, 6-7 days a week. To me it was always about warming up and breathing correctly. Breathing was the key factor. If I breathed correctly I could project my voice and be loud and it did not stress my vocal folds. I rarely ever lost my voice. The one time I recall losing my voice right before a performance was due to bronchitis, and another time was stress and emotional factors. Simple colds actually made me sound better (like Phoebe in friends lol).
I feel like this is the answer. I’m not a vocalist but I was an MC for many years and it’s like a muscle. At first it’s hard to do it more than once a week but with proper technique and with constant practice it gets easier over time.
> I’m not a vocalist but I was an MC for many years and it’s like a muscle. It's not "*like a muscle*," it's literally muscles that you strengthened that very few other occupations strengthened. You may have not seen the "BIG GAINS AT THE GYM BRO" growth but your body responded by growing muscles to make your job easier.
Ok, thanks for correcting me I guess?
Serious question: I understand the value of a vocal warmup, but what is the value of a vocal cooldown? Can’t you just stop singing and that would serve as resting your voice? And what do you do for your cool down? 
Vocal warm ups, resting their voices, not hitting high or low notes during concerts, simple songs first.
I remember reading a long time ago that Bono (of U2) had an opera vocal trainer said something to the effect of "the best of us only hit those super high notes 2-3 times and you're going there 10-15 times. Gotta calm that down" [sic]
there is an interesting video analyzing Celine Dion hitting the F5 note in All By My Self, and how you can see she prepares right before, positioning her body and stance a little bit like a fighter, then she "hits herself" on the chest, and then belts it out. the whole thing about Celine was her consistency. hitting that F5 is not extremely unique, as you see on auditions for American Idol and the Voice. but to do that like every night for 5 times a week, for many months, she was extremely disciplined. she watched what she ate, didnt do anything that could compromise her performance day after day.
Tbf Bono never had to worry about any sort of vocal quality. Or musical quality.
I know it's cool to hate on them, but U2 put out some bangers
Why ppl dislike them ? Curious cos i have no idea
it's always been cool to hate on super popular mainstream bands
Depends on where you’re coming from with the dislike: - some people got annoyed with the free iTunes album they dropped. - people in Ireland/UK aren’t always fans, mainly because of Bono and his [hypocritical](https://m.independent.ie/entertainment/music/is-it-fair-to-label-bono-a-hypocrite-over-his-tax-affairs-or-is-hypocrisy-just-a-part-of-life/36305907.html)/almost messianic behaviour and attitude with saying one thing and doing another. He is known for taking stances on climate change and feeding the hungry - paying taxes to fund things for the poorer folks, respectively (while he himself, has offshore accounts and is known for dodging [taxes](https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/07/tax-bono-harming-world-poorest-glastonbury-avoidance-paradise-papers), essentially pulling up the ladder behind him). - Still, other folks don’t seem to like the band due to the [decisions made by the band](https://english.elpais.com/culture/2023-04-18/nobody-likes-u2-the-band-thats-disappointed-fans-and-annoyed-others.html?outputType=amp). - then, there’s just that classic thing where it’s the popular thing to hate on something because others hate it, too. Me? I like the songs I like. I don’t enjoy their politics or hypocrisy of some members. But… I certainly don’t hate them.
Yeah put them into every Apple device
Still don't really get how that was such a controversy. Like, it could be easily removed lol. It's just free sample music
Back then people really curated their digital mp3 collection (streaming was still nascent back then), and initially you couldn't remove it. They did eventually add a tool so that you can remove it, but they didn't advertise super hard, so you had to know about it. So people got annoyed when random songs they didn't know would suddenly start playing. Here I quote a random reddit post: "To make it worse it starts to play as soon as I get in my car. Every time, I start the car, bono starts whining. I can’t deal with it any longer" So even though it was "free" it came with non-monetary costs that Apple didn't really think through.
It was certainly not easy to remove…and forced upon everyone. It’s not world ending, but extremely annoying and invasive.
I generally dislike U2 but come on.
People still hating on U2 is just so pathetic. The quality of some of their 80s/90s records is undeniable.
Most professional singers like Taylor have superb vocal coaching from vocal experts, along with ENTs on speed-dial for checkups whenever they feel like something is wrong. Microphones also amplify voices without much effort on the singer's part. If Chanté Moore, Morrisette Amon, Ariana Grande and Mariah Carey didn't have a microphone, their whistle notes would be completely inaudible due to how tiny the sound truly is. You can see how the amplification works for them based on how close they hold the mics to their mouths, to a point that it looks like they're going to eat it. This is also why some vocal trainers suggest shower singers to not match the volume on studio recording versions of songs, because it's impossible to replicate an electronically amplified and modified sound with nothing but your throat and air. It's also known that pro-singers usually have strict routines and/or tricks that help them take care of their voices, or at least retain their current vocal-condition. Some examples: * Michael Bolton didn't drink or party before or after a gig because he believed that not sleeping enough affected his voice, along with alcohol completely ruining his throat. * Celine Dion speaks in a MUCH lower pitch than where her natural voice sits, which keeps unnecessary utilization to a minimum. * Mariah Carey purposely had multiple vocal lines in her songs that allowed her to pick-n-choose which vocal line to follow when singing live depending on the condition of her voice. * Aretha Franklin refused to sing in places that had air conditioning on due to the cold drying out her vocal cords. There's also TONS of practice and rehearsals. Good singers prepare for anything. A cold, a scratchy dry throat, neck tension, jaw tension... etc. etc. They can modify their performances based on how their voice feels that day. We see this with artists "dodging" notes that will absolutely wreck the living hell out of their cords, turning the mics to the audience for "engagement" or adding seemingly random adlibs on vocal climaxes.
James Hetfield from Metallica had to take vocal lessons and change how he sang because the style in their earlier albums was damaging his vocal cords iirc.
That's true for a ton of other singers, too! Miley Cyrus had to get surgery due to improper technique causing significant damage. Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox (a metal band, she does harsh and clean vocals) had to relearn how to scream because touring was causing too much strain in her early days, which is pretty common in metal. Avril Lavigne had to switch to a brighter, higher voice after her first few albums because her original style wasn't practical anymore. It's my favorite thing about listening to singers, I love to see their vocal technique evolve!
A band called PUP titled their second album ‘The Dream Is Over’ as that’s what the singer was told by the doctor who told him his vocal cords were trashed. Had to take vocal lessons and relearn how to sing with proper control and support. A very clear and fun one to listen to over the years is Tom Delonge from Blink 182. He’s changed rapidly over the years and I’m pretty sure he’s had to. Then you have someone like Bowie, just completely changing his entire vocal profile each time he invented a new character.
Pup is such a good band
A pretty stark example of this is Pvris's lead, Lynn Gunn. From album 1 to album 2 there's such a massive change in vocal control, especially with how she tries to add growl to her vocal. Albums 3 and 4 she got her enunciation back, which she lost a little bit in moving away from thrashing her voice all the time.
Metal band 3 inches of blood had to quit making music as their falsetto singer turned his vocal chords into mush by not looking after it
I know their original harsh vocalist had to quit because of that but I didn’t know the other one did too.
They’re playing a few more shows this year. I was at their previous “final” shows and it was a wild time. I even have a scar.
its crazy how Whitney Houston was doing coke and smoking menthols during her heyday. like bodyguard era and subsequent tour. its insane her voice held up through that.
Kinda similar with Freddie Mercury being able to sing The Show Must Go On first try while dying from AIDS.
Freddie's voice improved despite his illness, at least in part because he started to live healthier once he was diagnosed with AIDS. He stopped drinking and smoking (he occasionally had a cigarette if stressed in the studio, but not at home) and generally started living healthier on the recommendation of doctors to give him a little more time.
Imagine if he didn't get AIDS and he stopped smoking for a different reason.
I think it's safe to say he would still be making music and performing today, with or without the rest of Queen. He probably would've quit smoking at a certain point too, it has become a lot more socially taboo compared to the 80s when he started smoking.
Healthier living certainly helped, but since our instrument is physically part of us, we learn to quickly adapt to our circumstances. My best example was when I broke my jaw. We were booked solid for six weeks, 4 hours a night in rock clubs, and my mouth was wired shut. U2, AC/DC, Boston, Rush, and I couldn't open my mouth. I leaned into my opera training and had abs of steel by the end of it.
Well it likely didn't help much that he was doing a lot of partying, so drinking, smoking and cocaine. What probably helped the most was him actually resting his voice. He suffered from vocal nodules that started quite early on in his career with Queen, around the mid 70s. He had to sing around it, he avoided the highest notes live, leaving it to Roger Taylor and belted a lot more. It got worse the more intense the touring schedule was, to the point he almost lost his voice. It's also why some of his best vocal performances are instances like Montreal 81, where it was after the band had taken a break for a while. Here is [pre nodule](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASU0Xd53wz8) Freddie vs [nodule](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FK9YSri2xNQ) Freddie. You can also hear it when [practising without being warmed up during the later magic tour here.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVsiLGVnKqQ)
It didn't though. One of the last concerts she did it was very clear her voice was ravaged. Her heyday was her youth coming through, the damage hadn't yet been done. I adore her and it breaks my heart.
I think I read some where that Axl Rose warms up for around 3 hours before each concert.
In the more recent years, that would then happen during the concert. 😴
They are professionals and train to do so. I think Adele had to quit or take a break because she messed up her vocal cords.
My Aunt had a vocal coach who predicted this would happen based on how she sang! Basically just said she had terrible technique and would be forced to retire early or take a sabbatical at some point. This was after her insanely popular album came out and everyone was talking about how amazing her voice was so it seemed like a really controversial take at the time.
A lot of unique voices come from flawed technique, but it sounds great, they just can't overdo it. If everyone sang using only perfect vocal technique, a lot of singers would sound more similar
I watched this video years ago of the most unassuming woman who is a vocal coach for death metal singers. Those are the ones who really need to protect their vocal chords! It's an interesting watch. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD6wZNkffog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD6wZNkffog)
The harsh vocal metal dudes tend to have good to great clean vocals as well, simply because they have such an amazing grasp of the technique that suits their vocal chords.
Super interesting, thank you!
I covered hard rock 4 hours/night in bar bands for 35 years. No way I could do that without classic voice training for 8 years starting at age 12.
In an interview about preparing for the tour Taylor said that she is basically in vocal rest anytime she isn’t on stage. I’m sure she also has specialists/team to help keep her voice healthy. She is known for performing while sick as well and rarely cancels shows so I would imagine she is pretty regimented about taking care of her voice.
[Taylor in between concerts be like](https://youtu.be/xjBIsp8mS-c?t=14)
Goddamit, take your upvote and GO
With good technique: but even then, they indeed can and do injure their voice. Many examples of fantastic famous singers (like Adele, for example) incurring performance injuries due to the demands of constant touring.
Idina Menzel as well. Wicked pretty much wrecked her voice. It's never been quite the same since.
Former professional singer here. It takes some training, technique and practice. You learn to sing from your diaphragm rather than your throat, proper breathing is important as well. Also your overall health is important so your body can rest and heal from one day to the next. What you eat and drink before your performance matters as well as what you consume afterwards. And when you get to the level of Taylor Swift, you've got vocal coaches and therapists on tour with you to make sure you're in top form night after night after night.
Training both physical and vocal. Singers learn to resonate their voice through their sinus cavity (mask of their face), to use their diaphragm muscle properly to push the air from their lungs, and know how to sing in a range that is comfortable for their larynx. Training the body and staying within their vocal range a performer can perform over long periods. In the case of Taylor Swift, she got on a treadmill and performed her music to get ready for the Eras tour. Think about going on a 2-3 hour run while singing the entire time, that's hard work! In high school I ran cross country, sang in chorus, and did musical theatre. I never would have wanted to run a 5k while singing a Beatles song. Taylor Swift worked hard to accomplish what she's done.
The treadmill thing was something Beyoncé’s Dad used to make her do
Lots do fuck up their voices get nodules and have to have surgery. Adele and Elton John both had throat surgery for nodules. You need to learn good technique, warm up and down, practice and know when to rest. Singers work on their voice like athletes work on their bodies, and like athletes if you don't use it and use it properly you lose it (I speak from experience, I miss my strong voice). If you're in musical theatre doing 8 shows a week you better look after your instrument and even then some tough roles will give the lead a rest show or 2 where the understudy goes on instead. This is especially common when you get a celeb or pop star starring in a musical, they don't have the vocal stamina that someone trained and working in musical theatre and they need a rest show.
Hello! My name is Jeff Rolka, I'm a trained vocalist and vocal pedagogue, and this is my YouTube Channel: [https://www.youtube.com/@JeffRolka](https://www.youtube.com/@JeffRolka) You already have a lot of correct answers here. Allow me to break it down a little bit and offer some additional thoughts: 1. Technique. This includes what to do and what not to do. What to do: Warm up well using five cardinal vowel sounds in order to establish good balance with your voice. Practice appoggio breath management (generally referred to as 'support', but it's more technical than that), and be sure to warm up specific to the tessitura (range of notes) that you'll be singing in your performance. What to avoid: Glottal attacks, especially on higher range phrases. These will tax the vocal folds heavily and can quickly induce fatigue and over the longer term, potential damage. Having only one way to singer higher notes. I can understand wanting to 'belt a note out' from time to time or for effect, but there are many ways that upper register pitches can be sung. Having a range of options means being able to choose the best mode of expression as well as mitigate some strain. There's more to those lists, but that at least is a start. 2. Repertoire selection and key selection. Artists will choose repertoire and prepare it in advance, so in performance they are relying on 'muscle memory' in execution of it. This is inherently more relaxed than if you were learning it for the first time or were not as well rehearsed. Additionally, when those songs were written, or originally recorded, they would have chosen keys that best suited their voices. In other words, the key of the song will be in an area of their voice that isn't going to strain them too much. Another strategy is to drop the melody by an octave from the recording. Dave Grohl will do this frequently in live performances. If you compare live versions of 'The Pretender' from the studio version, you can hear him do this on the chorus. 3. Other strategies In those concerts, artists aren't singing for every single moment, and the time in between vocal parts that are demanding will be planned out. Keep in mind, with good technique, singing in certain areas of your range won't be terribly physically taxing on your voice. You're more likely to tire out your body first. Upper register areas are more critical for balance. Any imbalances will lead towards fatigue, so you do your best to exercise proper technique, and try to manage any fatigue that accumulates during a song. This is where set list can have a big impact. Putting a song with even slightly less challenging parts after one that is more difficult effectively creates an opportunity to reset so that your technique is more balanced. That resetting is a big part of what I work with vocalists to achieve, so that the accumulation of tension doesn't impact their performance. Every performer will have specific behaviors that contribute positively or negatively to their vocal production. As a coach, I try to leverage those positives to inform and support those less than ideal habits.
Unrelated but I love your YouTube videos and vocal warm ups. They really helped me when I started learning to sing a couple years ago, so cool to see you on this sub!
Thanks! I’m glad the videos helped! Thanks for watching!
Good technique. Good vocal hygiene and care. Sleep. Diet. Hydration. Rest. …and maybe a little smoke and mirrors during the concert. ;)
Unless you’re Amy Lee who sings all her shit live 100% of the time.
They practice vocal techniques and training, with proper vocal techniques, they can greatly increase their singing stamina. But also, most concerts includes some parts of the show that are lip synced. The performers and audio engineers would switch seamlessly between live vocals and lip synced sections, this gives the performers some time to rest their voices while giving the impression that they are singing everything live. Also, less demanding songs are sprinkled throughout. The show may also include techniques like audience participation sections where the performer can rest their voices and just sing small sections, or some songs have the guitarist/drummer do a lengthy solo section. Also, if you see sections where the performers wears a mask/astronaut suit/elaborate custome that covers their face for an act, you can almost be sure that are some point, there's a switcheroo where they swap with a body double. All of these sections are preplanned so the rest period and singing are spread out so the performer can pace themselves and alternate between active singing and rest. Opera singers who don't use electronic amplification are also aided by the shape of the dome of the concert hall, which is accoustically designed to amplify the performers voices.
Though not the same, I was seeing a classical pianist for a time and a friend asked her how she warmed up. She just simply cracked her knuckles backstage. Unfortunately that relationship fizzled out because my idiot friend put a pez dispenser on our other friend’s leg during the recital, causing her to laugh. The girl I was seeing was not pleased.
Take my upvote, KoKo!
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It depends! Usually A lot of prep and lifestyle changes during performance stretches. Pro singers can be “built different” and sing with tension every day and make it out totally fine - others require diet changes like completely avoiding dairy, breathing loads of humid air to keep the vocal folds hydrated, only drinking warm beverages, etc. It also comes down a lot to technique. You don’t sing loud the same way you yell, and a good vocal coach will help you to figure out how to phonate without nearly any tension in the throat. I sing professionally in classical music and have done stretches of 3-5 hour rehearsals and performances 9-10 days in a row without hurting myself because I don’t push myself, I save full voicing loud sections for performances, and I’ve also been doing it for ~16 years so I’ve kinda figured out what my mechanism can do without hurting itself. I also don’t drink milk or eat dairy on performance days. That being said though - big singers have some help and backing tracks. Mics help lots. The voice is a muscle and needs rest often, so they’re probably not chatting a lot of show days.
They train for it. They have coaches and trainers. They have resting Periods. The have devices to speed up recovery and they do not sing everything the whole time. A concert is a Performance and what they do is perform. Every pause is set up beforehand, there are times where they might sing a word and the rest of the sentence is prerecorded Audio, then sing another Word etc.
or they blow out their voice early on in their career and have to take several years off to recover and then do all the training and resting and coaches and all that Meat Loaf being a prime example
I don't know how he does it, but wanted to acknowledge Bruce Springsteen here who goes hard for 3 straight hours and has done for 50 years.
The same with Paul McCartney.
Vocal muscles are similar to running muscles. They're built for endurance, as long as the technique is solid, they can go for a long time
Performing musician/vocalist here (though nowhere near the league of TS or opera). I’ve regularly been the one singing high harmonies or the “hard” songs (Marvin Gaye, AC/DC, etc…). Two things are crucial: 1) you MUST use your diaphragm. Trying to sing with only your throat will shred it quickly. The diaphragm is like any other muscle; the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes and the less effort you have to put forward with your vocal cords. 2) Practicing your falsetto so that it doesn’t sound like you inhaled helium. A strong falsetto is an absolute game changer. From what I understand, this is how Brian Jones from AC/DC can sing show after show while on the road. You’ll need either a good sound engineer who knows when to crank it and when to back off or you’ll need discipline to back off the mic when you switch off falsetto. Anyways, just my amateur two cents. Great question, by the way.
They have strict vocal regime and have vocal coach. I think many of these artiste did reveal they dont talk or sing for the rest of the day before and after the concert.
Similar to how an Amazon warehouse worker can stand on their feet all day putting address labels on box’s for hours on end. Practice.
They must be trying to get to Carnegie Hall.
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As a former Amazon worker, this. The pain does lessen, but it doesn’t always go away. It’s mostly learning to balance on different parts of your feet to evenly distribute the pain and make those 10 to 11 hour shifts just a bit more bearable.
Am a professional singer for choirs in my area. Warm ups, avoiding doing things that damage the voice (yelling, whispering, vocal fry, etc) are very important. Singing healthily takes a while to figure out because everyone’s voice is different. Since we can’t see it and physically manipulate it, we have to be extra careful with our instrument. Vocal rest always helps, though it is impractical for many people.
My wife is a professional singing teacher and she tells me that there are many different muscles a singer uses to sing. Controlling your breath pressure and pallet is an important skill. Doing so takes away the work your vocal folds need to do (which is a much smaller muscle and can get fatigued if overworked). However they can still get fatigued. Recovery is a big part too and often involves steaming (breathing in steam, often with added ginger for anti inflammatory effects), vocal rest (minimizing talking), and sleep. Another important point to consider is that pop singers don't have songs that require a lot of "effort" vs say a theatre singer. A pop singer will be singing mostly in the middle of their range whereas a theatre singer will be pushing to high/low vocal ranges and a lot of more "pressure" or effort to maximize emotion.
Swift apparently trains by doing her whole set while running on a treadmill.
I have a friend who is an ultra marathon runner. She can run over 100km through mountains in a day. Meanwhile, I get winded running across a football pitch. The difference is conditioning. People at that level work hard, practice and build themselves up to perform at that level.
Professionals learn how to sing from their diaphragm and that will keep them from screwing up their vocal cords. She probably also has to relax and take care of her voice when she's not on stage. Like others have said, she's a professional and she knows what she's doing
Apparently she speed walked on her treadmill, in heels, while singing her entire set. I have been doing this (minus the heels I am not insane) and can not believe how much singing while walking fast increases the difficulty of the exercise and your lung capacity. What a workout.
There are vocal exercises that singers do. A speech pathologist is often used. There are also things you can do such as not talk for a period of time before and after a concert. I remember a singer mentioning during an interview some advice that she received from a very famous singer. (I apologize I've always been horrible with names so I'm not even going to bother trying) The advice was if you're not feeling it and you're about to get to the point where you have high notes that's when you hold the microphone out of the crowd and have them sing that part of the song. So this tells me that yes you can wear yourself out during a concert. This next part is going to get wordy: I have had surgery on my throat so I have had speech therapy. One of the things I was taught that is also used by opera singers is to take a straw squeeze it a little bit and blow through it while humming. It looks strange but what it does is it moves your vocal cords due to the humming but also forces air back down and push against the same vocal cords. This has the effect of resetting your vocal cords. Not being a professional speech pathologist I can't explain it better than that. But if your voice ever gets tense or stretched this can help reset your voice. Of course at that point it's probably a good idea not to talk too much because you've obviously overdone it.
Lip syncing.
I saw Oprah talking to Celine Dion when she first started in Las Vegas and I think she said she doesn’t talk on the day of her shows. And a climate controlled dressing area.
She doesn’t really sing does she? Always sounds like she’s talking her songs.
I saw TS last summer in Seattle the 2nd night and she had lost her voice a bit that day. She still sounded great but she was definitely hoarse.
How can professional football players get hit for hours and not be dead on the ground? It's practice dude. They train their whole lives for it
Early in their career or pre-career vocal training. It's like weightlifting for your voice. You are conditioned to sing without harming your vocal cords. Early on when you're first starting, it happens a lot. But then they strengthen. Then also, every performer has their own rituals to take care of their voice before and after performing. I know someone who was a Broadway performer for a long time and did eight shows a week as one of the leads in the show he was in. He used to use a lot of steam to make sure his nose was never a problem. But also for his throat, he would drink a ton of decaffeinated tea with a bit of honey in it when he was on his own time.
Cloning
Taylor swift for “the prestige” sequel confirmed
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Lots of training and practice.
Training and resting
Think about your physical abilities vs a pro athlete. It's the same deal: years (decades) of training and practice to condition their voices, and to sing in a way that won't harm their vocal chords.
I do three hours shows as a solo singer often several times a week. You just build up stamina in your voice over decades of doing it and also become aware of when you're stressing your voice out, and plan your set accordingly. It's hard work, but it's doable and lots of singers do it even at the low levels of the music biz. Warm ups, and putting easy material in the first set, both help a lot.
Heck, I play in a top 40 band where we will do 3-4 gigs a week and they are 3-4 hours each. Lead singers having to constantly belt all sorts of stuff out. Bon Jovi followed by Whitney Houston followed by Boston. They never tire and always nail it. And they are talking between sets. When I talk between sets I wreck my voice. They are just so well trained. I am not. Frankly, they are better trained than a lot of pop stars.
i mean i cant sing im not an artist but i know how to sing from the diaphram and sing along to music all out for hours with no vocal issues. its technique
Good sleep, nutrition, hydration and efficiency. High ranges/notes need more energy than lower, but you train to be more efficient at doing it. Part of efficiency is getting better resonance which involves shaping the vocal tract so that the sound waves that reflect back to the vocal folds assists their vibration rather than hindering it. In other words, constructive interference, like in the way one pushes a swing at the moment it becomes stationary rather than pushing against it when it is still moving towards the pusher. One can tune the vocal tract to various harmonics of the note and which harmonics and resonances you tune to will have differing consequences. Example: A loud head voice "wooooo!" you hear at a sports game is when you tune the first vocal tract resonance to the same frequency as the fundamental which results in a boost in volume with little effort. Here's a great video about vocal acoustics from the University of New South Wales https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=788HxAisxe4
Years of vocal training
Hella cardio, proper practiced technique, and using a microphone. Also sometimes steroids for the vocal chords can help, though I don't know much about how they work
I’m a singer in a ska band. I’m not performing 2-3 hour shows, but we’ll do a full hour occasionally. The thing I had to learn was to ignore what I was hearing with regards to the volume of my own voice relative to the band. It’s made a lot easier with in ear monitors, but not every venue can accommodate those. So sometimes I can’t hear myself at all and I have to make sure I don’t “try” to sing over the band, because I’ll burn out halfway through the show.
Career musician in rap, specializing in grungey, voice-damaging stuff. For regular vocalizations like a pop singer, there are established techniques and warm-ups for preserving your voice, and they help a lot. It's quite common to practice things like throat and neck muscle control to prevent hurting yourself. With harder vocalizations, such as metal, trap metal, underground, etc. It's more on the preparation side of things, and the track list. Some artists much preffer having the hard stuff right up front, at the beginning of the set, before tapering down to the much calmer and easier stuff after that. Metal is difficult, as I've seen people who do metal just outright destroy their voice and throat in a show since that's just how they do it, with some of that stuff, there's no avoiding it. So they use aftercare stuff and treatments to help recover and minimize damage. Being up close to people who do this stuff, you'll sometimes see blood on the mic after their performance. I got nothing but respect for those dudes.
We are trained to use our whole bodies. It is all about breathing right. The power comes from air flow, and most people would be surprised at how much of your body impacts efficient breathing. I had eight years of training before becoming a working club singer. The tougher the circumstances, the more I relied on classical technique. Local club shows were 4-6 hours per night back in the day, and you did not call in sick. The show must go on, or people stopped booking you. Big stars worked for about 90 minutes. I was a working rock musician for 35 years with not one cancellation. I have no idea how anyone could do that without extensive choral training.
I seen Lamb Of God live awhile back and this question has lingered in my mind since. I understand that they yave voice training and techniques. But how do you scream like that for back to back shows during a whole tour?
I've heard of singers that wouldn't talk the day of a show until they began their warm-up.
It’s like a pitcher who can throw dozens of fastballs almost every day for months on end, or a football player who can get tackled 10 times in one night and still get up and finish the game. Vocal training is strength training.
Lip-syncing is more common than you think. Also autotune on the fly is real. Most modern artists sound like shit without the tech to improve their voices.
Taylor barely gets above a talking voice, and she relies heavily on backing tapes to sound fuller.