In the last couple of articles I've talked about the care of your body and voice when you have a cold. Now that cold is over, why is it that your voice sounds and behaves so differently? What is going on and what should you be doing so that you can get back to work at full capacity?

I believe that a cold is nature's way of cleaning out toxic waste. According to that theory, laryngitis is a clearing out of toxins from your larynx, which should leave your larynx in better shape. And very often this is the case. Time and time again students have come back to the studio after a cold and their voices usually sound better. But now work must begin to restore the normal workings of the larynx.

Since a cold can take many forms, it is important to consider exactly what you've just been through. Did you have only congestion? Were you coughing constantly? Did you have a fever? Was the chest area congested? How long did the cold last? How severe was your cold? The answers to these questions will determine which exercises to do and how they should be done.

For example, if your only symptom was a stuffy, runny nose, then you've had only a mucous cleansing. In this case you should proceed on very familiar territory. This is not the time to learn new exercises. Sing the most familiar, the most boring vocalises you can find. The idea is to work your voice in a way that is patterned. No new tricks. Do the old material.

In the studio I use an exercises book called Master Vocal Exercises by Horatio Connell. For the students who work with me this is usually the most familiar and the most constant part of their training. I usually recommend that a singer do the lower keys in the book, singing softly and gently, taking frequent breaks and never pushing.

When your sinus cavities are clogged, they cannot help you to phonate. Actually, they aren't supposed to contribute to the phonation process anyway, so this is an excellent time to learn how to function without them. (By singing in the lower keys, you can also learn a lot about depth of sound.) When your sinus cavities are clogged, your body is forced to use the larynx more than usual. This is, of course, what the training of a singer aims at anyway -increasing the use and command of your laryngeal muscles. Direct your focus to your larynx and you can turn a bad thing into a learning process.

If you have been coughing frequently, then there are other factors to consider. Is the coughing because of mucous dripping or is it the dry burning cough of laryngitis? If it is the latter, then singing should be the last thing on your mind. You can severely damage your larynx by trying to sing with laryngitis. You can break a blood vessel in a second, you can pull or rupture muscles, you can even develop a nodule in one evening of singing in that state. Anyone who thinks I'm trying to scare you by saying this is absolutely correct!

This kind of damage is every singer's nightmare. Band members, agents, managers and club owners should respect that. I know that that is all too frequently not the case, but look at it this way -is it really worth losing days or weeks of gigs or running the risk of several months of therapy for just one night?

If you have been coughing frequently and not because of laryngitis, then you can still use your voice. Eat oranges and apples and drink lots of fluids. Do not, I repeat, do not try to make your voice warm up quickly. Use as little effort as possible and ease your voice ever so gently back by singing your scales lightly and as breathy as you can. Let your voice warm up in its own good time.

Always remember the value of frequent sets when you are warming up your voice. Your instrument has been sick and it needs extra special care now. Take your time. I like to practice with a cup of herbal tea near by. I stop frequently, think about what I'm doing, take a sip of warm fluid and then proceed.

You will find that sometimes your voice will crack and gurgle or you will develop a tickle. You may cough and your eyes may tear. Believe it or not, that is a good sign. A tickle is a neuro-muscular response. The brain sends out messages and receives messages through electrical impulses. When you get a tickle, the right message (frequently the result of the exercise you are doing) and the wrong message (frequently your old habit of singing that pitches) meet, the right message pushes the wrong message out of the way and you perceive a tickle (which is approximately 6 volts of electric current). The new, correct message now takes over and that part of the muscle is permenantly changed for the better. Now there is a direct line from the brain to the point of the muscles that can carry the message you have implanted by doing a particular exercise for your voice.

Next month I will continue this topic and talk about vocal exercises that are suitable for each version of the common cold as well as fever, flu and other ailments that threaten every singer at one time or another.