You’re a professional voice user, and your voice is filled with crud. You’re stuffy and your throat feels thick and phlegmy. You have to track a piece, or give a speech, or sing for an audition or a show. How do you care for your voice AND do your job? Here are my top five recommendations:
 
5. Drink tea

1. Teas with ingredients that list Slippery Elm Bark are especially soothing to the throat. They create a nice, slippery coating that let’s your voice slide out easily. Try drinking warm liquids, not hot or cold; they open and relax you, without creating a backlash response to the extreme temperature. Many folks are strong proponents of honey, especially Manuka honey for various reasons. Every body is different, so pay attention to yours!

 
4. Hydrate
Hydrating thins mucus in your body. The thinner the mucus, the less stuffy and stopped up you’ll be. To thin out your body’s mucus:

• Water is life – your mother was right! Drink more fluids. And then drink more.
• Limit caffeine and alcohol – both of these dehydrate.
• The Dairy Controversy – If you read the mouth noise blog, you already know that some studies have shown that dairy does not create mucus, but other studies maintain that dairy does thicken the mucus in your body. Pay attention to your body and mouth after eating those foods – it may not have any effect on you, but it’s worth the experiment.
• Be careful with medicines that dehydrate (antihistimines, decongestants, etc), acidic foods like lemon, and medicinal lozenges. Again, every body is different – notice how yours reacts.

 
3. Gargle

• Gargle with a saline solution – dissolve salt in warm water and gargle. You can do this fairly often!
• If you are losing voice, add a little hydrogen peroxide to the mix. DO NOT SWALLOW. Use about a teaspoon per Cup.

 
2. Focus your resonance
Mask resonance and continuing consonants to keep the voice focused in the front of the face and not in the back of the throat. It’s easy to let vocal technique get lazy when we’re sick – it’s more important now than ever! This helps you sound more like your usual self, and works around that “sick voice” sound.
 
1. Neti pot/ Saline spray
This is my personal favorite. Because mucus is the enemy(!), and it’s the post-nasal drip that causes your sore throat and many vocal challenges, stop it at the start. Wash it out of your nose with a neti pot or saline spray. Blow your nose like crazy. Get that mucous out of your body so it can’t trouble your voice!
​I have heard from a rare client that a Neti pot has caused a sinus infection, so please use distilled or saline water, and keep your pot clean! See your doctor if you have any concerns about sinus infections.
 
Hope these are helpful to you in cold and allergy seasons! Please let me know your tricks by posting a comment here or tweet @jessActs 

Let’s face it: Mouth noise is icky. The sound of it can send a listener’s skin crawling. Most producers would rather re-track a piece than go over an audio file with a fine-tooth comb to remove all that noise. Many people have been asking me lately: what can I do about mouth noise? Here are a few things I’ve tried over the years, and what works for me. If you have more tricks that work, please comment, or tweet @JessActs using #fix­mouthnoise
 
An Ounce of Prevention…
To prevent mouth noise:

Hydrate! Drink water often throughout the day. According to the Mayo Clinic, we typically don’t get enough water. The standard “8 glasses a day” is actually too little. The Daily Mail offers this formula to calculate how much your body needs. It puts me at 13 glasses each day! Also, we lose water as we respirate during sleep, so try starting your day with a glass of water.
Limit caffeine. I make sure I stop drinking my coffee a few hours before I open the mic. Every body is different, and Morning Edition host David Greene drinks coffee the whole time he’s on air. So try a few things out, and see what works for your body.
Limit alcohol. Like caffeine, alcohol can dehydrate you. If you’re tracking or on-air the next morning, take care not to imbibe too much the night before….
Notice how various foods make your mouth feel. If you find that some foods make your mouth feel drier or “chewy,” avoid those foods before your session. For me, chocolate, pickles, bananas, and dairy cause mouth noise. Pay attention to your mouth 5, 15, and 30 minutes after you eat to see which foods cause mouth noise for you.
The dairy controversy! Studies have shown that dairy does not create mucus, but some still maintain that dairy does thicken the mucus in your body. Pay attention to your body and mouth after eating those foods – it may not have any effect on you, but it’s worth the experiment.
Don’t brush your teeth right before a session. While refreshing, toothpaste often has a drying effect.
 
A Pound of Cure…
To remedy mouth noise:

Sometimes all of the prevention in the world still fails and you can hear your mouth making those icky noises. What then? You’ve probably been directed to drink water to eliminate mouth noise. Did it work? Probably not…drinking water does NOT usually work for most people to get rid of mouth noise. So what to do?
Chew gum. Chewing gum gets the mouth to release your natural saliva. Chew a piece as you’re setting up, before you get started. Or, if you can, take a break midstream to chew another piece to activate those salivary glands. Be careful with this idea and don’t over do it — habitual gum chewing can overwork your jaw muscles and cause jaw tension, giving you a different problem to solve!
Floss. Yep! While brushing makes my mouth noise worse, flossing helps my mouth feel smoother and the activity in my gums helps stimulate saliva production.
Drink licorice or Throat Coat tea. The licorice and the slippery elm bark in “throat coat” teas are like putting a layer of slippery smoothness on your mouth. I love slippery elm bark for this (it’s also great for soothing a tired throat). Singers often use slippery elm bark lozenges, so give those a try, too.
Eat a green apple. A common trick in the voiceover industry is to eat a green apple or drink apple juice.

If none of the above are available, run your tongue around the full perimeter of your mouth, between your teeth and your lips and your cheeks. This can also stimulate saliva production and smooth out that dry mouth feel — even if you need to do it frequently.

These are my tried-and-true tricks for solving mouth noise daily. What have you tried? What’s worked for you? These tricks are geared toward solving mouth noise caused by dryness. Do you have mouth noise cause by extra moisture? Tweet me at @JessActs using #fixmouthnoise. Good luck in your next session on the mic!
For more on mouth noise, check out The Ear Training Guide for Audio Producers