Voice Artist? More like Vocal Athlete
Vocal performers are athletes of the voice. Voicing is their sport. This includes singers, actors, voice actors, audiobook narrators, public speakers, and anyone else that uses their voice for a living.
Over a decade caring for performers, guiding them through insult, injury, rehabilitation and surgery, I have learned this lesson time and again.
A team approach ensures the vocal athlete gets the care they need. Here, Dr. Gupta collaborates with vocal coach/vocologist, Mindy Pack to optimize a vocal athlete’s performance.
I’m calling for a mindset shift, one where we treat vocal performers as athletes. This shift is not just semantics. Having an athlete mindset shifts how performers will care for their bodies and voices. More importantly, it will create an institutional support network that reduces injury and provides resources to these vocal athletes. Doing so empowers self-advocacy and can transform us into a community of recognition around the demand these artists place on their body, at times and often at great cost.
What is an athlete?
Athletes are those who participate in a sport. They show a skill at a physical task that requires strength, agility, and stamina. Singing for an hour, doing a voiceover session, narrating a chapter of a book, speaking to a crowd of hundreds in an auditorium… the physicality of these vocal tasks is intense when done at a professional level.
Vocal performers are athletes. Why does it matter?
We treat traditional sports athletes differently than we treat vocalists. There is a deep infrastructure around professional sports. Even at the high school level, a player often works with a coach and trainer, attends regular practices, and belongs to a team. They are taught how to care for their bodies, working in a gym as a team under the watchful eyes of a trainer. They are educated about preventative care, how their bodies work, and warning signs of injury. They receive early intervention to prevent worsening, should something occur.
The growing singing athlete usually does choral or theater work in elementary and high school. Individual technique may not be addressed in school and students rarely learn how to care for their bodies and instruments. Worse yet, a destructive mindset may develop in these years - a “show must go on” mentality. Everyone, from the casual singer to the conservatory student, is exposed to this, driving them to push, and often lose, their voice. These vocal artists are not taught to seek regular care or take much needed breaks to restore their body and voice back to baseline.
These unhealthy training patterns create vocal athletes who don’t know how to advocate for themselves or, worse, may be taught that self-advocacy is ‘diva behavior.’ They fear being labeled as high-maintenance if they mention needing a rest or having an issue. They fear not being able to book the next role. They learn to keep their inner voices locked up and force their physical voices to do things they know they shouldn’t.
An injured sports athlete is put on the bench. An injured vocal athlete is taught that benching themselves puts the whole show at risk and lets the whole company down. This is where the ‘muscle through’ approach is born. As the voice athlete adopts this unhealthy programming and vocal training, it becomes the beginning of self-neglect and, eventually, risk of major vocal injury.
Currently the singer is not taught how their instrument works, how to protect it, how to know if it’s hurt, or who to call if it is. Professional speakers and voice and stage/screen actors are at an even greater disadvantage, as there is little vocal technique work outside of theater schools.
This cumulatively results in a group of vocal athletes who suffer from a lack of educational resources, individualized techniques, and a team of supporting personnel including trainers, therapists, and physicians.
What should be done differently?
Reframe the approach to the vocal athlete - place it in the framework of a sports athlete.
What does this look like?
The young vocal athlete should have:
• A trainer - a vocal coach who specializes in the athlete’s sport, be it acting voice, musical theater, classical, etc
• A cross-trainer - training in another genre/sport
• A physician who specializes in voice- this is called a laryngologist, not an ENT. A vocal athlete needs a fellowship-trained laryngologist, a specialist beyond general ENT training.
This physician will:
• Do an annual vocal physical exam including videostroboscopy
• Help manage medical conditions - asthma, allergies, reflux, connective tissue disease, ADHD, hormone issues… everything, even the Accutane prescription that seems vocally irrelevant, impacts the voice.
• Myofascial work of the whole body - voicing is a full body sport. Laryngeal massage as a primary modality is outdated.
• An understanding of how their voice works - this often takes the form of education in anatomy, injury, and rehabilitation. Workshops such as those held by The Svara Project are great starting points.
This should continue throughout the whole of the vocal athlete’s career. At times, a rehabilitation specialist may be required, as might other additional specialists. Vocal performance is a sport and when we consider our vocalists as athletes, and support them accordingly, we get more resilient, healthy performers with the longevity of an athlete.
Every time I see an injured vocal athlete, I find something in their story that could have shifted them on to a safer path. These are all opportunities, and there are many in a vocal athlete’s journey. If we create the shift that re-orients us to the artist as an athlete, we will gain improvements in their physical and mental health. We can create new conversations around injury as well, removing stigma and replacing it with understanding. The investment in our vocal athletes empowers them, and us, to care for the voices that move us so deeply.
Interested in working with the best professionals in LA for voice care and rehabilitation?
Meet Dr. Gupta, the top voice doctor in LA, and Tressa Cox, the leading voice therapist specializing in voice rehabilitation.
Learn more about their expertise and services at the Center for Vocal Health.