I just got over a short cold myself.  So, I am reminded of how being sick can really screw with a singers voice and their performance schedule.

It only lasted a week.  It started as a dry slight cough and then went up into my head and clogged my nasal passages. 

The cold is gone now, but it reminded me that the after effects can often last longer than the cold itself in terms of singing.

Colds cause all manner of strange things to happen to the tissue in the throat and the nasal passages.  Usually you will have some swelling and dryness that needs to be tended to.  Also the nasal passages usually need to be cleared out as well.

It’s important to not sing if you can help it during a bad cold.  Singing while congested and while tissues are swollen will hurt your voice and put your technique out of balance.  You’ll probably hurt your voice by singing harder because things aren’t working right.

Once the cold is gone load up on water and vitamin C.  You should also be steaming with a personal humidifier to unclog the nasal passages and ease the tissues of the throat and nasal passages.

Avoid coughing fits.  Coughing disturbs the vocals folds badly.  It won’t do permanent damage but if you have to sing you won’t sound good doing it within a couple of minutes of a coughing fit.

When going back to training make sure to ease back into it and start out slowly.  Because of the cold much of your vocal skill will be lost for a while.  If you force it to hit notes you hit before the cold you will compound the problem by adding stress to your voice.

Just slowly build you voice back up little by little each day.

The act of singing itself will help to unclog the nasal passages, clear the throat, and dislodge buildup in the lungs.

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