First of all: I am not a doctor. In this article, I am not going to claim that you can improve asthma by singing or give you medical tips on how to improve your asthma. I am a professional singer AND lifelong asthma patient.
I want to discuss how you can manage your asthma while singing using four questions:
Asthma is one disease, but it manifests differently in everyone. Most people with asthma can sing. For some, this causes hardly any problems, while others struggle significantly with their breathing while singing. For some people with a very severe form of asthma, singing may even be impossible.
When you take singing lessons, you often also receive breathing exercises. Controlling your breath is the foundation of good singing technique. Always listen to your body when doing breathing exercises. A teacher might push you too far. That’s not a problem: take some rest and see how far YOU can go. I’ve also experienced teachers being a bit too cautious because of my asthma. It’s definitely a good idea to tell your teacher about your asthma so that he or she can adjust the exercises for you. Remember that you will be doing the exercises yourself and it’s up to you to feel if they are good for you!
The same applies here: yes, most people with asthma can sing in a choir. The challenge in a choir is that sometimes there are long lines and long notes that you have to hold without breathing. It’s good to know that there is such a thing as choir breathing.
Because in a choir you sing a part with multiple people, you can ensure that you take turns breathing with the others in your voice group. This also allows you to breathe more often, even within a word if necessary.
Some conductors prefer no choir breathing. If the places they indicate for you to breathe are too far for you, you can sneak in a few extra breaths (see TIP 1). If you receive comments about this, you can talk to the conductor. If there are still problems, then maybe it’s not the right choir for you.
Imagine you have to sing the line ‘The earth is beautiful’ in a choir. After ‘is’, you run out of breath, but technically you’re not supposed to breathe there. Secretly take a breath anyway, but only start again after the ‘sch’ with ‘itterend’. This way your breath is much less noticeable.
Learn how to control your exhalation with breath support. You can sing significantly longer lines if you train the breath support. It’s best to do this with a singing instructor.
Many asthma inhalers CAN have a dry throat and hoarse voice as a side effect. Stopping your medication abruptly is never a good idea. If you have voice issues and think they are related to your asthma medication, see your doctor. They can check if your asthma is truly the cause and can then prescribe other medication if possible.
Discuss with your doctor if it’s a good idea to use a spacer with your inhaler. Spacers can reduce the risk of side effects on the voice.
Always rinse your mouth and throat thoroughly after inhaling. Additionally, drinking plenty of water is also beneficial. This website (English) has more great tips: Asthma.org advice about asthma and music
Remember this: your voice can only sound because you can also breathe. Breathing is so much more important than singing.
There are quite a few singing teachers who prefer not to have their students use asthma medication (or even any medication at all sometimes). I’ve had issues with this. This is not about one teacher, but several. Additionally, there are also doubts from fellow students about the use of asthma medication. Of course, if you’re studying to become a professional singer, you’re more concerned about having a healthier voice than about any other part of your body.
I was influenced by people who said that asthma medication is bad for the voice. That’s why I ended up using my inhaler only once a day. I did ask my doctor if that was okay. According to him, it was. He was not the best general practitioner for me. I had periods of four weeks where I felt short of breath. I began to think this was normal.
This was until I got a different general practitioner due to a move. This doctor called me in for a lung function test. It didn’t go so well. The assistant told me that I had the same lung capacity as a 74-year-old. While I was only 25. She told me: the medication in your inhaler only works for 12 hours. So if you only take it once a day, it’s never enough.
After a few visits to the pulmonologist and eight times the medication I previously took, my lungs were back to normal condition for my age. I consulted with my pulmonologist about halving the medication afterward (still four times as much), and now things have been much better for years!
Don’t listen to your singing teacher (or fellow singers) if they play doctor. If they notice something that you think might be right, go to a doctor to have it checked out. Otherwise, just pretend you’re listening.
As I mentioned earlier, learning good singing technique can help if you have asthma. You learn to sing with less effort, so you don’t waste energy.
There are days when your asthma will be worse, for example, when recovering from an attack or a cold or when you have allergies. Besides taking your rescue medication, there are a few other things that can help.
The tips below come from my own experience. It may work differently for you. The best advice for you might be to not sing for a few days or to sing easier repertoire. It’s also about trying what works best for you.
Make your practice session an interval training: take regular short breaks and drink some water during them.
During worse asthma periods, my breathing feels stuck. As a result, inhalation and exhalation feel strained, and I lose the flexibility I need to sing intensive pieces. It’s a bit like inflating your bike tire with a narrow tube: too much air pressure builds up on your vocal cords, preventing them from vibrating freely.
During such times, I always try to loosen up my breathing muscles by moving my upper body, shoulders, arms, and hips. The panting dog exercise can also help to loosen the diaphragm. The Accent breathing method also works. The exercises in that method ensure that your breathing muscles remain flexible but not floppy. The exercises do not heal your lungs, but they can provide relief.
I also suffered from a feeling of tightness when I was nervous or stressed. At one point, I even became anxious about getting nervous, leading to a vicious cycle of tension and breathlessness. There is no simple solution for not being nervous anymore. However, it helped me to realize that my asthma worsened due to nerves. Before a performance, I often take preventive rescue medication.
We all want to sound as perfect as our favorite artists, with just as beautiful a voice. But even they sometimes sacrifice their technique or intonation a little (or a bit more) for, for example, the message of the song or their unique vocal sound.
There’s a taboo on singing poorly (or feeling that you’re not so good). That’s a shame because most people can learn to sing better.
In this article, I give four reasons why you might feel a strained sensation in your voice. In other words: why you are probably too relaxed in your body, causing too much tension on your delicate vocal cords. The first two are physical and the last two are psychological. They reinforce each other.
