A few weeks ago, I could feel my sinus getting stuffy. Since I teach, this isn’t unusual. I would often joke that when teaching, you’re around 20-30% sick from October to April. So when I felt myself getting something, I did not think much of it.
The next few days got worse fast but it just made my voice scratchy. Everything started a week before I was to have my first gig of 2023. On the day of the gig, I came home from work and took a short nap. When I got up, I started warming up my voice and…couldn’t sing. I panicked. I called my contact at the venue and no answer; I sent a message too. I started looking at songs and finding which ones I could sing if I lowered the key and which I should avoid.
I left for the venue early and arrived and talked to the manager. She couldn’t have been nicer and more understanding. I went home and went to bed. The next day, I was worse and went to urgent care. I took off almost the entire next week. Another gig was approaching, so I contacted the manager and cancelled. I rested the weekend. Work started back up and still not much of a voice.
When you sing, your head resonates as you sing and helps give tone to your sound. When I go into singing mode, my voice squeaks and I can feel it. The shelf in the back of your mouth between mouth and sinus, that is acting like a reed on an instrument and I sound like someone learning clarinet when I sing.
Yesterday, I had to cancel gig number 3 of 2023. I’m hopeful that I can sing for the first gig in February. I’ve been planning some cool things for that show and I hope my voice is ready to support what I’m doing.
Just sharing in case other singers have been hits with some viral stuff and makes their voice squeak. Here’s to getting better and getting live music rolling.