How to Sing Longer Without Getting Tired? Tips to Increase Your Vocal Endurance to Reduce Vocal Fatigue

You sing two songs and you feel breathless and your voice feels sore. If this sounds familiar, I want to tell you about vocal fatigue and how to increase your vocal endurance so you can sing longer without getting tired.

Vocal Fatigue and Vocal Endurance

Singers are vocal athletes. Our body is our instrument, just like how a boxer’s body is his/her weapon. Our vocal mechanism is made up of tendons, ligaments and muscles. They will get tired after use. The difference between a well-trained singer and a beginner singer is that a well-trained singer has more vocal endurance.

Practice More

A well-trained singer has had more training and practice. The more you practice, the stronger your vocal muscles get. As a beginner, you want to ramp up your practice gradually. For example, if you are practicing once a week for 30 minutes, add another short 10-minute practice session on a different day (with 1 or 2 days’ rest in between). Depending on how your voice feels, you can increase your practice frequency accordingly.

Vocal Health

Take care of your voice! Treat it like a million-dollar sports car or a limited edition Prada handbag. You cannot get a new voice if your current voice gets damaged. If you think about it that way, your voice is worth more than all the sports cars and handbags in the world.

Elite athletes take steps to care for their body. These steps may look drastic to a ‘regular’ person but they are essential to high level sports performance. As a singer, you need to take ‘drastic’ steps to care for your voice. Doing daily nasal rinse, drinking water and managing chronic illnesses such as reflux and allergies are great first steps. You would be surprised how much longer you can sing for when your vocal health is superb.

I use this nasal spray at least twice a day for better vocal health (not affiliated with this brand but I would definitely recommend it)

Know Your Limits Then Go Beyond Them Gradually

As mentioned previously, you want to ramp up your practice frequency gradually. If your voice gets tired after singing 2 songs, set a goal to sing 2 and a half songs in a session and see how you feel. When your voice gets stronger, sing 3 songs in a session.

Know your range and know what the highest note you can sing is. Stay below that note when you are singing songs. If a section of your song has lots of high notes, practice that section on its own. If there are a lot of high notes in that section, practice only half of that section, then the other half in the next session. When your voice gets stronger, sing the whole section, then the whole song.

Do Exercises Targeted at Increasing Vocal Endurance

There are so many vocal exercises out there. They serve different purposes. Basically, all vocal exercises will increase your vocal endurance but here are the ones to focus on: breathing exercises, onset exercises and agility exercises. (All of these exercises are covered in my Shower to Stage Academy)

Conclusion

To sing longer without your voice getting tired, you need to increase your vocal endurance by:

1. Practicing more
2. Taking care of your vocal health
3. Know your limits, then go beyond them gradually
4. Do exercises targeted at increasing vocal endurance (breathing, onset and agility exercises)

Singing for a longer time is definitely achievable but it will not happen overnight. Be patient, persistent and consistent!