The way you maintain your voice has a lot to do with the type of progress you can make. Just as athletes must tailor their diet to suit the needs of their bodies, you must also incorporate some changes in your lifestyle to get the most out of your voice.
Keeping your vocal cords wet is an important part of improving them. Drinking at least 64 ounces of non-caffeinated fluid spread throughout the day is a must to keep your voice lubricated. Caffeine is a diuretic that will cause your body to flush out water instead of retaining it as needed. Drink more fluid during drier days. This is especially important during the cold and dry months of winter, for instance.
Avoidance of fattening foods is also suggested when trying to improve your voice. Foods that are high in fat will compromise voice quality. You should also avoid ingesting dairy products before you are to perform, as they encourage mucus production. Excessive mucus production will make you want to clear your throat, which is can be damaging to the vocal cords. Instead of clearing your throat, try drinking a sip of water or using more air. Although stereotypes may suggest that people who are heavier have better voices, it is a proven fact that regular exercise improves the health and quality of your voice.
Voice improvement will not only come through its care, but also through the way you use it and how often. While it is important to maintain your instrument properly to maximize your gains, you will make no sustainable improvement unless you use your voice often.
Start by warming up your voice using vocal exercises. Align your warm-up exercises with the way you want to be using your voice. If you are a singer trying to improve your voice, you will want to warm up your voice using progression scales. If you are a public speaker, you may want to warm up your voice by laughing or performing tongue twisting sentences. This targeted approach when warming up your vocal cords will help prevent damaging your voice.
Practicing your craft to improve your voice is one of the most important phases in improvement. Singers should seriously consider getting a vocal coach that will help them to remain on a steady practice schedule. If this isn't a possibility, then you should practice by mimicking the pitch and tone of artists that are in your vocal range (bass, tenor, alto and soprano) after listening to their music. Start out slow by practicing for no more than an hour a day in the first week and increasing over subsequent weeks. Improving your voice for public speaking purposes means that you should put training emphasis on diction, enunciation, volume and delivery. With sufficient use, rest and time, your voice will grow stronger, just as a muscle does with exercise.