By Lis Lewis 
@elislewis 
lis@thesingersworkshop.com
Cameron Crowe’s tour digest film Almost Famous
Beyoncé just announced she’s doing a world tour. Miguel just returned from one. Some singers tour the country in a van and some fly from city to city; however you travel, touring is essential to a successful music career. But how do you keep your voice in shape during a tour?
It’s exhausting. Not only are you traveling all the time, you’re singing almost every night and sometimes doing radio or Internet interviews during the day. Here are five tips to getting the most out of your voice.
- Drink water. You need to stay hydrated. Travel, especially plane travel, is dehydrating. Try to limit your salt and alcohol intake and drink lots of water. The rule of thumb is divide your body weight in half and drink that many ounces of water a day. You should drink even more if you’re sick.
- Sleep. It’s not easy to get enough rest when you’re sleeping in a different bed every night and playing shows till 2AM. But when you’re sleep deprived, you use more external muscles to control your voice, which wears it down.
- Rest your voice. Talking is almost as tiring as singing. If you’re talking all day, or shouting over the band playing before you in the club, you are wearing out your voice.
- Warm up. You are an athlete. Don’t even think about singing without stretching out your voice first.
- Don’t shout over the band. If you can, invest in in-ear monitors. If you can hear yourself, you won’t be tempted to yell. Shouting is your enemy.
Happy travels!
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Lis Lewis is a voice teacher and performance coach in Los Angeles, CA. She has been training recording artists for over 30 years. Learn more about her private voice lessons. She has also coached celebrities including: Miguel, Rihanna, Iggy Azalea, Bryson Tiller, Demi Lovato, and more. Lis is also the author of the books, “The Singers First Aid Kit” and “The Pop Singers Warm-Up Kit” both published by Hal Leonard.