Debunking Singing Myths: The Truth About Your Voice

I’m never sure where they originate from but students come up with the craziest ways to take care of their voices. Some tactics are simply underinformed or misunderstood. Others have genuinely left me scratching my head. So I’ve decided to rank the most common (and some nutty) myths I’ve heard and set the record straight.

Note: these are personal opinions based on training, professional experience, and teaching approaches but are not meant to replace the advice of a medical professional or specialist.

10. Hydration: All of it 

The first singing myth to debunk! Somehow the debate over how much water to drink is way more complicated than it should be. A few things: Yes, you can overdose on water. Yes, there is such as thing as too much water. And very few things will substitute the simple act of drinking water every day without impacting the voice.

There are a few simple rules I follow to stay hydrated. FIRST: Drink water consistently throughout the day, especially when my body is asking me for it. How much we need depends on a ton of individual health factors so ask your doctor and follow their recommendations.  SECOND: Pee pale. If your urine is totally clear every time you go then you are drinking too much water and your kidneys are working overtime to eliminate the excess. Pale yellow is the goal. THIRD: Limit sugary drinks and sodas. The jury is still mixed on the caffeine, but the sugar is undeniable.

9. Chest & Head: Opposing Voices

This concept is especially challenging for bass clef voices, those singing in traditionally male registers. Treble voices are far more used to these terms but also suffer from a spectrum of misunderstanding. So to set the record straight - voice is made in the larynx. Not the chest, not the head, not the mask, or by breathing a certain way. The sound comes from the voice box, also known as the Adam’s apple. The quality of that sound depends on the individual and how they use it.

So what are these ‘voices’? Chest and head are placements of that sound that are negotiated by the way we breathe and where we let the sound resonate. Young female singers often describe this as a ‘flip’ and in men, it’s usually mistaken for their falsetto ( sigh don’t worry, I’ll get there). But the truth is, for all genders, the voice can resonate in the cavities of the face or the openness of the chest but it’s all their full voice. Instructors can become confused by this because men are said to sing where they speak, while women sing far above that so it sounds like two completely different ways of creating sound. The bottom line? It’s one voice, different resonant spaces. And it makes all the difference in helping students understand how their instrument works.

I’ll get into this again further down the list. 

8. Singing + Ibuprofen = Vocal Hemorrhage 

I’m calling this a myth because it’s part of a larger issue about vocal health and singing while unwell. Listen to your voice, it makes sound for a reason. If it’s too tired or not responding the way you’d like then it’s telling you you're too tired to sing. Taking a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication on top of being unwell and on top of vocal fatigue can absolutely cause vocal damage, including hemorrhaging. But if this is the situation you probably shouldn’t be singing to begin with until recovery has occurred, which is typically when this injury happens. 

Now in instances where I’ve had a splitting headache before going on stage? I took some ibuprofen and sang away without issue. So if you have a headache, a bum knee, or period cramps just take what you need to and check in with the rest of your body before hitting the stage. 

7. Diaphragm: Singing or Breathing?

Ok, I’m splitting hairs here but we’re talking about the bare fundamentals of phonating right now so I want to get it right. As I mentioned, we sing from the voice box or larynx, so why does it get confusing? Well, it doesn’t, we just opt for a simpler, age-appropriate way to say it.

The diaphragm has two functions: [1.] to keep the lungs in the chest instead of the abdomen and to create space for the lungs when we inhale and [2.] to help carbon dioxide exit the body when we exhale. That’s it. When training to sing we’re actually retraining ourselves to breathe like we did in infancy. Ever wondered how a baby can cry and cry without going hoarse? Watch their belly when they breathe and you’ll see how it works - a huge inhale that seems to fill the abdomen and the cry of a banshee follows. But that’s the aim of diaphragmatic breathing - let the body pass the air through the voice without relying on the secondary breathing muscles in the neck or back. This process is pretty much the entire field of voice science, aka vocology.

6. Women Don’t Have Falsetto & Male Falsetto Is Head Voice

Say this with me: vocal anatomy is the same for all genders. The only difference is the length of the cords, but the parts are the same. So yes, females can sing in falsetto. And yes, men have head voice. I start with these three building blocks as definitions when working with young singers, especially low voices:

Chest Voice = Chest Vibration (i.e. belting)

Head Voice = Face Vibration (i.e. opera singing)

Falsetto = ‘false voice’ (i.e. Mickey Mouse voice)

I won’t get into the how since we all approach vocal pedagogy differently, but both men and women are capable of making these sounds in the same way they just do not have comparable timbres, making it harder to identify. But the science proves both are happening across all vocal fachs. 

5. On Dairy: Be Wary But Relax

It feels like dairy is fighting for its life these days. And for good reason, it’s not that great for us. A doctor once said to me, “Think of it this way: name a single mammal on earth that continues drinking milk after its mother stops giving it to them.” We’re it. Humans are the only ones that do it. 

Dairy can cause issues with acid reflux, excess mucus production, and coating the mouth and throat so if you’re prone to these issues limit your consumption but there’s no need to chronically deprive yourself unless there is a severe or medical issue. 

So enjoy your dessert! Just listen to your body.

4. The Mask: Or Imaginary Concepts

What is ‘the mask’? Made simple, we call the area of your face that includes the upper half of your mouth (oronasopharynx), nose (nasal passages), and cheeks (maxillary sinuses) the mask. When we sing, we talk about where we place the sound so it has the most impact with the least amount of effort, or where do we get the biggest clearest sound without any pushing or straining.

I wasn’t personally trained with this imagery myself so it caused some confusion for me as a new teacher. When I’m working with students, I prefer to say what’s physically happening and then use imagery to help them realize the concept. But at the end of the day, I like my students to physically understand what’s happening first.

If you’re in a position where ‘the mask’ isn’t getting the results you or the student are looking for, use another tactic. Sensation is my favorite approach. By discussing humming, ‘ng’ or ‘forward’ sounds, ‘ring’, ‘ping’, or ‘slice’. Ultimately though, I find making the anatomy and physiology understood and then moving on to imagery or physical sensation gets the best result.

3. Vocal Rest: A Diagnosis

We’re in the top three, which means this ranges from dramatic to downright laughable. 

We all know the person who for some unexplained reason is on constant self-imposed ‘vocal rest’ for vague reasons. They won’t sing in rehearsals but chat with their friends in the hallway or go out for dinner and drinks. These are primadonnas. This is not vocal rest.

There is a difference between resting our voices and being on Vocal Rest. Limiting the amount we speak or use our voices throughout the day so we have enough to sing is resting our voices. Celine Dion is known to be virtually mute in her daily life, Taylor Swift notably hasn’t met any fans before or after her Eras Tour shows because she needs to sing 3 hours straight every night, and Pavarotti famously said if he wakes up and can’t hit a high C he goes right back to bed to try again tomorrow. Again, this is resting the voice.

Vocal Rest on the other hand, typically comes from a medical professional that you have seen for a vocal issue and means you cannot make any sound that is generated from or utilizes strenuous movement of the larynx. You should not speak. You should not whisper. You should not hum. You should not whistle. You should not laugh out loud. You should not clear your throat. You should not cough. (Remember the nanny being interviewed at the end of Mrs. Doubtfire?) Texting, writing, and whiteboards are how you communicate to people during this time. And typically the risk of doing so will cause irreparable damage. That's the difference: risk.

I sustained a vocal injury in grad school and saw one of the best vocal surgeons in the world for it and even he didn’t put me on total Vocal Rest. I say that to make it clear: total vocal rest is not a common thing for a doctor to do because, for singers, it risks atrophying the muscles we’ve built up. But like all treatments the benefits must outweigh the risks - so if you’re on medically advised vocal rest, take it seriously. Otherwise, rest. 

2. Salt helps to open the throat

sigh what does this even mean?! I had a friend in high school who was always eating extra-salty potato chips because ‘someone told [him] salt opens the back of your throat.’ 

Salt does not do anything for the voice or the throat, except absorb all the moisture on its way down. At minimum you’re singing on a stomach full of junk food, at max you’re probably dehydrated and have a headache. You need water.  Opening the throat is a concept with a lot of room for myth and legend to grow.

The boring answer? It's a matter of positioning the back of the mouth (pharynx) so that the sound produced below in the larynx has a place to resonate before it leaves your mouth. This is what makes opera singers so loud - a tall mouth, open throat, and proper breathing are critical. However, it’s accomplished by training our muscles to keep the soft palate raised and the back of the tongue low. It is a voluntary action that we train to do for years as part of learning. 

There is no food or drink on the planet whose sole job is to open your throat for singing - that's so niche - so all of those foods and drinks fall under this myth (except Throatcoat, that stuff is magic in a mug)

1. Eating peanuts is dangerous because they can slice your vocal cords

This is hands down the funniest vocal myth I have ever heard and it was one of the first things I was told as a young singer.

I….I don’t even know where to start. A teacher said this to me in high school one day and a core memory was formed. Why? Even as a dumb 17 year old I knew that didn’t sound logical. Otherwise, this would happen all the time and they'd be banned, right?

No food or drink ever passes through the vocal cords. This is not an opinion. The science is not debatable. End of discussion. 

At the base of your throat are two tubes - one to the stomach (called the esophagus) and another to the lungs (called the trachea). When you swallow, a flap (the epiglottis) covers the trachea to prevent food or drink from getting in. If it does, we have a reflex that makes us cough until the foreign object is removed. If it isn’t it can cause big problems. If the object is too large and obstructs, we begin choke. 

So I guess if you eat a peanut and it goes far enough down into the larynx, you cough like crazy and/or choke? Sure, I guess that could nick a cord? But frankly, in this situation, you wouldhave bigger problems to deal with first. Otherwise, please continue to enjoy your peanuts, tree nuts, and trail mix as you normally would.

It’s crazy what kind of misinformation spreads in our field, but it is understandable at the same time. Vocal science didn’t really come into fashion until the 60s & 70s with pioneers like Vennard. Until then, the great singers had phenomenal technique but it wasn’t wholly informed by the science of vocology which is a large reason why the technique changed so much in the 20th century. That’s a topic for another day.

Ultimately, we have to remember setting the record straight and debunking the misunderstandings about our instruments are part of our jobs.