Am I HURTING my voice? (Vocal Damage)

Author

Ivan Lu
February 06, 2025

A common question that I’ve been getting is

“Ivan, I’ve been watching your videos and realised I’m singing with all these bad habits, i feel like I’ve been doing everything wrong

My voice even feels a bit raw

Am I damaging my voice?”

And I know for some of us this gets to the point where we’re too scared to even start practising.

So let’s tackle this question today, and hopefully put you all on ease when it comes to this.

Real quick! For those of you who don’t know me. My name is Ivan, I love making music and also teaching singing to students all around the world. On this newsletter my goal is to make learning to sing simple. If that’s up your lane, consider subscribing. If you want to improve your voice faster, check out the links down below for ways to work with me

If you want to inspire our next episode! Drop in the comments below what you want me to talk about next.

Let’s start here. You’re going to be okay!

If you’re worried about damage. It’s pretty unlikely.

Generally for vocal damage happens when there’s

(1) Vocalising outside their capability, their boundaries

(2) When you have to push past your boundaries for an extended over a long period of time without recovery

Think professional singers who have long shows day in day out and have to perform even when their voice is gone. Or a teacher who has to keep raising their voice in a class to be heard even when they’re already feeling hoarse.

Now most of us don’t fall into this boat.

For most of us often when we feel discomfort, we have the luxury to rest. We have the luxury to come back at it another day and try to coordinate things better.

Now of course, vocal damage is always a possibility. So it never hurts to check in with an ENT.

But from personal experience and from people I’ve worked with. Vocal damage is usually not the case. Your vocal folds are more resilient than you think.

So you’re probably not damaging your voice. What are some steps you can focus on instead?

(1) Take a deep breath and be patient

Even if you logically understood better technique.

It’s probably not going to get better overnight.

It takes time to build correct habits and unlearn bad habits and consistently feel it.

So if your voice is feeling particular beat up or rough a day.

Just rest up.

And come back at it another day.

(2) Ease and efficiency is the goal for you

There’s a reason you’re feeling this hoarseness. This fatigue kick in.

And it’s because you’re not coordinating the right muscles efficiently.

Which makes singing harder and more effortful.

So really each day, you should be focusing on learning to coordinate the voice better.

Focus on simple scales that actually let you FEEL coordination correctly.

I’ve talked about this many times, isolating the stretching of the voice is key.

But what I also mean by prioritising fundamentals is if your fundamentals aren’t there. You should not be focusing on riffs and runs. Vibrato. Trying to belt.

Anyway! That’s all. If you found this episode useful, please share or give it 5 star wherever you’re listening from. This really helps spread the word and means the world to me. If you’d like to study with me, links are down in description. Take care!

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