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"Mah ed id stoped uhp...
Uuuuhhhhh..."
"You poor dear. So - you're up in 5 minutes. Hope you got a real good song to get the crowd going."
"Ting??? I cahn't eeben tawk.."
"Hmm...I got it! We got a Hunchback of Notre Dame costume in back. Throw it on and we can pretend your doing an
impression of him singing...singing...Uh...what was it you were going to sing?"
"Ah ehrd da behls on Kismis deh"
"Perfect."
I don't wish this on anyone. You have a performance coming up and you've been attacked by the cold. You're nose is running,
throat is scratchy, and you're eyes are acting like they just saw the last scene of Old Yeller in a repetitive loop. AAAHHHHH!!!!
No, no, no no!!!!
What to do, what to do...
Well, my first advice would be to just not sing. Truly, the more strain you put your voice in, the more it will get damaged.
What your body needs is rest. See, what happens when we get sick is that your body starts to fight the infection that's invaded
the body. How does it fight? By creating mucus (oh yum!). Mucus is then spit out (how attractive) and the bad germs go
along with it.
Not an altogether pretty picture, but there it is.
Ok, so just use medications and get it taken care of.
Sorry, try again.
See, what a lot of medications do is stop the symptoms. Not the actual cold. They are used to primarily dry up the mucus.
Remember, mucus is used to get rid of the cold. If you stop the mucus, you slow down your recovery to the cold considerably.
So you have the cold for a lot longer time. Plus, the med's actually dry up your vocal chords, which, we know, need to be
well hydrated. So you're really forcing yourself to sing hard and damaging your vocal chords is you choose this route.
So what to do?
Depends on how much time you got. If you have a few days, get plenty of rest. That means laying down. Not, driving
to the store, sitting in traffic, going to work that is requires no physical movement. Stress free stuff here. (and if you're
able to do all that stuff while lying down, send me your license plate number...I want to make sure I'm far away from you
when I'm driving!) While you're laying down, get a lot of liquids in you to clean your system of the infection. Water, juices
(no soda!), and chicken soup. Ah the good old standby. This will promote the mucus to do it's job (and who doesn't want
a promotion?) and get you back to singing faster than meds. Also, gargle with salt water. It kills the infection and may
stop the cold from getting down deep in the lungs. That's when you get really big problems.
Now if it's the day of. Well, good luck. Sayonara. No more singing for you in your life.
Actually, you can still do it. Just get plenty of sleep before the performance. Warm up a lot on very easy stuff. Don't
strain you voice! For your performance, sing songs that are easy on your vocal chord. You'll pay for it later if you don't.
But of course the best thing to do is not get a cold or sick at all.
- Exercise
- get plenty of rest
- eat healthy (fruits and vegee's, minus the junk food)
- drink plenty of water (I believe a gallon a day..that'll hydrate your vocal chords and give you exercise too - cuz that's
a lot of pit stops to the porcelain throne)
OK...that's it for now.
I'm going to to get me some rest...
Ah got a code.
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