How to prepare my voice for a performance? I'm about to give you some of the tips, tricks, and hints that speakers, actors, and performers  utilize every single day for every performance.

So you may wonder, can a singer  still sing if they're sick? Yeah, I'm going to reveal how they do that in this  video. And what are some of the top tricks for getting ready for a performance? You're about  to check these out. Is your sphincter loose?

Have you ever heard someone say that? You're  like, how can he say is my sphincter loose?

Well, did you know you have a sphincter in your  throat? It's just what happens in our body. And so, when we have a sphincter that is loose in our  throat, we have some problems with our voice. I'm going to share more about that. So by the end  of this video, you'll know much more about how you can ready for your performance whether it's  singing, performing, acting, speaking, everything.

and get ready for every single show. Let's  go. Hey, I'm Jason Hewlett, keynote speaker, Hall of Fame speaker, and award winning  entertainer. I've used my voice for three decades to have influence, and I've used  my voice for two decades to make a living.

And so these are some of my tips and tricks  that I feel that you'll really benefit from.

Number one, choose wisely what you drink. Yeah,  well, if you drink alcohol, if you drink coffee or caffeinated drinks, these types of things  matter to your voice. If you drink soda pop, that kind of fizziness can actually affect  your voice. And so a lot of artists, especially singers, they like to have some  warm water with lemon and some, you know, some honey, something to coat the vocal cords.

And so what are you drinking before a performance?  It matters. For example, if you drink milk.

Did you know that that causes  phlegm? That's what happens in our voice and our throat when we drink  too much milk or if we eat yogurt, those types of things. If we drink orange  juice, that creates acidic reflux, acid reflux and that's where I was talking about the  sphincter thing. We don't want that to get loosened and it gets loosened from what  I understand. through caffeinated drinks, as well as by using the wrong things to drink.  So if you're a performer, a singer, an actor, speaker, don't drink orange juice before a  performance, because then the acid could come up.

If you drink soda and other things like that, it  can also create acid reflux. And so what I like to use is an over the counter omeprazole. It's  something that you can take for yourself and pop before a performance. It just helps me to settle  my stomach and any kind of acidic behaviours down in there. The second best way to prepare your  voice for a performance is to get some sleep.

Yeah, if you don't rest the night before or if  you don't get enough rest, you're going to have a really hard time. Your voice is going to struggle.  You're going to be straining the whole entire time to get everything out. Sleep is the secret  weapon of every single voice. So the third method is really a fascinating one that I learned  a few years back and obviously I'm not a trained or certified speaker professional in this sense  about this technique, but it's called the Titze Method. It's the straw method. Now, what's  interesting about that is you could get any straw. Actually, this is kind of a bigger straw.  You could use one of those really thin straws that you've probably seen or used it, you know, to  mix your coffee or your drink. But here's what you do. You go from the lowest to the high and  then back down and that opens up your voice.

It's almost like if you were to play a trumpet,  it opens up your vocal folds and it opens up the chamber of your throat. In such an interesting  way. I've purposely not done this for a minute so that you can hear the difference after I  do it. Let's see if there's a difference.

Now listen to my voice. It's actually  different. Do you notice that? We didn't change the microphone or anything. But that's what  happens when you do the Titze Straw Method. It's amazing. If you get an even smaller straw, it's  even better. I can do other vocal warm ups like, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um.  Um, uh, uh, uh, um, um, Um, And when I do these things, it opens up the folds.

It makes everything healthier in there. It opens  up the chamber of our voice. The Titze Method, you should look it up on YouTube. It's a  fascinating thing. I use it before every performance to give my voice that resonance  that you can possibly now hear in my voice.

Get your straw. It's pretty cool. So before  I share a few more techniques for your voice.

I'd love it if you'd type in there whether  you've heard of or done that Titze straw method before. Isn't that a cool one?  Put in the comments if you've done that or heard of it before and how much it  helped. Okay, so for our fourth one, let me talk about foods to avoid. And here's a  reminder, it's just kind of a basic disclaimer.

I'm not a doctor. You know, I didn't study  these things in college or I just... have made a living using my voice and going and seeing  specialists in order to help me to know how I can preserve it for so long. So the fourth one  is foods to avoid. And from what I've found, chocolate, unfortunately, is  one that loosens the sphincter.

I'm sorry. I know that's a  bummer, right? But chocolate, acidic fruits like even strawberries and  oranges, things that we love, it's a bummer, but it's real. And so you have to choose  which foods you're willing to put to the side in order to keep your voice functioning  properly. That's hard for a lot of people.

Some people say, I don't care. I'm  just going to fight through it. Well, those people have a harder career. I mean,  obviously there's things like hot sauce on your food. That's so bad for your voice. That  is a terrible thing to eat hot sauce the night before a performance. It can actually ruin the  way that you perform the next day because it's like eating your vocal cords while you're  asleep with the acid reflux popping up.

And so we don't want to do those types of things.

But you have to choose how committed you're  going to be to it. I call it the promise, and I promise myself that I'm going to be my best.  That means. I'm going to only eat the foods that help me perform at my best. I'm only going to  drink the things that make me perform at my best.

And so what's your promise to yourself?  When it comes to the foods that you avoid.

So years ago, I had so many vocal  challenges. I had to go to a doctor constantly to figure out what was happening.  And eventually, I was put on a prescription called prednisone. I had never heard of  prednisone. I didn't know how it helped.

But you know what was interesting is that once  in a while, I would have to have some prednisone when my voice stopped working. For example,  I was at an event in Florida. In the winter, it was nice weather, just between the  airplane, and the hotel, and the travel, the sleepless nights my voice was gone, and I  got pneumonia and bronchitis at the same time.

When I got to the hotel, before the gig.  That's a problem, my voice was gone. I had absolutely no voice, I couldn't talk at all.  I remember calling the client who booked me, and I said, I'm so sorry, I don't know  what I'm gonna do. The performance was in a few hours. I was opening  for a band called Diamond Rio.

That's a big deal. They're a huge band and I was  about to give a message in performance where I was going to sing and tell stories and motivate  and inspire. How do you do that? Well, this was a desperate measure, but I popped a prednisone  pill and for a few hours all of a sudden my voice came back. It was a miracle.

And so, even though I'm not a doctor, I can  tell you that when I had that in my pocket, to be able to pop one of those one time, it made a  big difference. Should you use that very much? No, that's a bad idea. Some people get hooked  on that stuff, and that can really hurt you. But I can tell you, in a pinch, when  your voice is gone, you can do that. If you get a prescription from a doctor who says  this could help you in a vocal emergency.

And yes, there are such things as vocal  emergencies. There's another level of craziness to this. Because as you might know,  prednisone is a steroid. There are people that have gotten a shot of steroid in their  throat before going on stage. That's a real thing. Do you have to get that far? Hope  not. But if you take care of your voice, if you do all you can from all the  previous ideas I've already given you, hopefully you never have to go that far and  use a steroid shot or a prednisone pill.

But it's always good to have something  in your back pocket in an absolute emergency. You do your performance and  then literally your voice disappears again. It's really interesting, but I  hope that you never have to go through it. Now the sixth one might seem absolutely  obvious. But to warm up your voice and to cool down your voice before and after  every performance, that's essential.

A lot of people just think, I'm going to get up  on stage and I'm just going to la la la la. Well, that might not be the case for everybody.  Most people have to do some warmups. And so that's where the Titze Method of the straw  helps a lot. Or if you don't have the straw, or if you feel you need to use your voice more.

Find a stairwell, find a hotel room, find a  back corner where you can go lalalalalalalala....

Whether you're a singer. Whether you're a speaker, whether you're an actor, utilizing  these vocal techniques, doing vocal warm ups and then coming off stage  after you're done and doing a vocal cool down.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

Those things help our voice to recover.  So I just have one more reminder that if you're worried about your vocal cords or your  voice or you're noticing lots of problems, maybe lots of phlegm, maybe no  way to keep your voice strong, maybe you're exhausted after a performance  vocally more than physically in your body.

You should go see an ENT, it's an ear, nose and  throat specialist. These are people that will know exactly what to help you with. They've  seen it. They've been there. They've done that. I had them stick a video camera down  my throat and take video of my voice while I was singing. And it shows your vocal  folds and it's a fascinating experience.

They showed where it was damaged or  inflamed. What I could do differently, such as stop eating chocolate, stop drinking  soda. Don't drink alcohol and other things like that. If that's a problem for you, well,  it depends on your level of commitment to healing your voice. So go see an ENT, a  specialist who can help you with your voice, and maybe they'll prescribe you  what you need in an emergency.

And so if you're prepared with these habits  and tools, it'll improve your performance in such a way you will be blown away. You'll  be able to not only do just that one speech once a week and get away with it, but  you'll be able to speak day after day, seeing performance after performance and  do what you need to do with your voice.

It's a wonderful thing. It's very important  for yourself. And I hope you've enjoyed this content. Thank you for joining me  here. I hope that you'll subscribe down below because I have so many other cool  videos about performance presenting and being our best on stage. I'm Jason  Hewlett. Thank you for joining me.