How Dairy Products & Cigarettes Affect the Singing Voice

Video Transcript

"JAMES MENY: So let's just talk, sort of, generically about anatomically things that we know do affect vocal chords. And I've worked with varieties of amateur and celebrity students. I know people who are hyper sensitive to dairy, You'll see that in most vocal books or from most vocal teachers that'll say, "Stay away from dairy." I know people that drink a glass of milk before the show. So that could work or not work. It totally depends on your body and how it assimilates dairy products. I'm not a big advocate of dairy. I think that if you don't have to have it in your system, you shouldn't. But test it out for yourself. If you have to drink water, like, similar to, after you eat ice cream or if you feel thirsty after you eat dairy of you feel like gucked up, there's, like, guck in your throat, then that's the sign that your body doesn't assimilate dairy very well and then you might hear that sort of guckiness on your throat when you're singing. It's not going to cause vocal damage, but it just makes your ultimate sound, sound a little bit distorted or gurglely. Smoking, you know, obviously we know the things about smoking that can cause damage. They do damage the vocal chords because that smoke goes through the voice. But I know people that smoke until they're 90 and sing just fine. So you may want to consult your doctor about that and, ultimately, how that may affect your vocal chords. A good idea is to take a picture of your vocal chords now and compare them a year later. In that way, you can see if there's progress in the damage that's being done by you smoking."