Food and Drink

by Serguei Ourazov
(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

The biggest struggle most singers have nowadays is eating and drinking before singing. Everyone thinks that they need to eat before singing for more energy.

However, after eating, your stomach becomes filled and you have less air to use for singing, thus causing breathing struggles.

Best advice is not to eat anything for six hours prior to singing. Afterwords, you can eat anything in any amount as a reward.

When it comes to drinking, everyone makes the same mistake. Alcohol does not improve singing abilities, on the contrary, it kills the range, shriveling the vocal chords making it harder to reach high notes. No alcohol, especially beer before singing.

Same goes for cold drinks. If singing on a hot day, any cold beverage will shrivel up the vocal chords, even cause temporary loss of vocal ability depending on the temperature ad volume drank. Milk is the worst of all.

Suggested drink small amount of hot beverages such as tea or just hot water, best with honey and lemon. Honey lubricates the vocal chords for better durability while lemon expands the throat, making it easier to reach high, as well as low notes.

Coffee can work at times, but made sure that no milk in it, and should be drank in small quantities. Putting honey and lemon into coffee can cause dizziness and passing out if drank in large quantities.

Coffee is best drank black, not too hot, with some sugar in it.


If these steps are followed, there would be less of a struggle in singing.