[Note: This is one in a series of posts on being prepared to weather the best and worst of times when you depend on your voice for your livelihood.  As stated in the preface for this series of articles these tips aren't meant to take the place of advice from a Medical Professional, if you need to see a medical doctor, see one!]

There’s a story I heard that was credited to a well known piano accompanist (I don’t remember who) about accompanying a famous diva. The accompanist was on stage and the diva walked out to begin the program. Just as the accompanist was about to start playing, the diva, leaned across the piano and hissed in a stage whisper “Don’t play too loud.”  Taking a moment to recover from being startled by the outburst, the accompanist was just about to start again, when the diva leaned across the piano again and hissed “But don’t play too soft.”

While that story doesn’t speak specifically about phlegm, it does speak about something directly related to it; balance. While it’s pretty much there all the time, the only times you notice phlegm, mucus, snot or whatever you want to call it, is when you have either too little or too much of it.

Phlegm is the axle grease of the human body

Phlegm protects your nasal passages, throat and vocal folds by trapping all sorts of things keeps it from interfering with the works and it keeps them lubricated so things don’t get irritated or grind and cause more damage. The big difference is that a car doesn’t produce its own axle grease. The body does and because of that, it also has to get rid of it on a regular basis. That’s usually done by absorbing it or expelling it (yeah, I don’t want to know what you’re thinking right now). If that gets out of balance, then there’s trouble usually. You don’t want too much and you don’t want too little (Hello diva!).

Whenever the seasons change, I tend to have an issue especially when the weather turns colder. That also tends to coincide with one of  my busiest singing times of the year. If I get out of balance, then I can be sick through the entire season and that’s neither good nor fun.

So what can you do?

I start doing a daily Saline flush. I know some people use this as a last resort when they’re so congested they can barely breathe or they have a really bad case of post nasal drip that leads to what I call the “Naso-Pharynx of Fire”. I use it to flush the system and give it a fresh slate to do it’s work. I know it sounds gross to a lot of people, but it’s very similar to gargling with warm salt water (same principle). It cleanses the nasal passages without prohibiting production of more phlegm; giving a good base for the body from which to work. Once you’re used to the process, it can be pretty soothing too.

There are two main ways to do this: a Neti pot, which uses gravity to circulate the Saline through your nasal passages and a squeeze bottle, which combines gravity with the force the fluid as you squeeze the bottle. You should figure out what works best for you, but always be careful and read all instructions first. There are specific ways to use these flushing techniques and you need to know what you’re doing before you do it. If it’s done right, it’s a very good thing and if it’s not, you can easily damage yourself, so be careful. It takes a little getting used to.

Stay hydrated.  Yes, you’ve heard that you should drink water, but or the most part, as long as you’re drinking something, you’re hydrating. I’m not going to give you a set amount of fluid to drink in a day, you can figure that out by paying attention to how you feel. You might have to focus on that or a bit until it becomes a habit, but if you feel dry, drink something.

The exception are fluids that dry you out or make your vocal folds feel thick. That can vary from person to person, but things like red wine, caffeinated drinks (yes, that means a ton of those energy drinks), heavy sugary drinks and even milk. It all depends on you, but you know what affects you in which way, so be smart about it. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of remembering (Oh yeah, I’m singing for six hours tomorrow, maybe I shouldn’t drink red wine tonight).

Just some things that I do and make my habits to keep it all in balance and my phlegm friendly. I’ll talk about some other things that can have an afect on this, but aren’t directly related to this topic in future posts.

Up next: Protecting your energy.

Phlegm is your Friend originally appeared on Jim & Tim on January 24, 2013. Tweet This

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I am NOT a Medical Doctor.

Who I am is a professional singer with a Masters Degree in Vocal Pedagogy (Teaching Voice) and over 25 years of professional performance experience.

Having said that, I’m currently in my busiest time of year as a singer. Which means that I’m pushing myself as hard as possible. And that means I’m concentrating on taking care of myself and my voice to make sure that I perform to the best of my ability.

That includes a lot of things that I have learned over the years through training and experience that I can pass on as tips to you. So I’m starting this series - Keeping Vocally Fit.  I’ll try to keep them short and I can’t guarantee a set schedule for posting them, but they’ll be here.

These tips aren’t meant to take the place of advice from a Medical Professional, if you need to see a medical doctor, see one!

First up: Phlegm is Your Friend!

 Photo Credit: The Local Tourist

Keeping Vocally Fit – Preface originally appeared on Jim & Tim on January 24, 2013. Tweet This

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Photo Credit: bradleygee

If you follow us, you know we had a gig at El Sombrero Restaurant last Saturday night.

We had a great time and from all the indications, so did everyone else. There was a lot of dancing in a room with no dance floor (the aisles were packed), a few of “That’s my most favorite @#$*in’ song” proclamations and then singing every word along with us, a request for a ‘foot’ song (I don’t think I can tell that story by myself if I wanted to, but ask me sometime and I might try) and a couple of impassioned pleas to the bartender to let us sing ‘One more song’ at the end of the night. But the one that got me thinking was when one of the dancers danced close to us and at the end of the song was looking around to the side of us and on the floor, looked at us and asked

“Where’s your tip jar?”

And we replied in unison “We don’t have a tip jar”.

First, let me tell you, I’m all for tipping. If you want to tip us, we’re going to let you. We just don’t have a tip jar. And that got me to thinking about it and why we don’t.

I think that like all things, tip jars can be used well and abused. That goes for musicians as well as anywhere else you see them. I expect to see tip jars when I see:

• Someone Busking
  It’s the way they’re making money, after all
• A piano player at a piano bar or a house band that appears more than once a month at a venue
  They’re usually taking less money per performance, they take a ton of requests and are building a fan base and that’s the way people will show their appreciation

Where I don’t expect to see tip jars:

• A band playing at a festival
  It’s a one time shot, or you’re looking to get asked back next year
•  A band booked into a venue once or on a long rotation (every other month)
  Same reason as above

Jim & Tim setup at El Sombrero

Last Saturday’s gig falls into that second category. In that case it’s not about us, it’s about you. Now before you go thinking I’ve gone all saccharinely sweet “our music is all for you” on you, there’s a business reality to that statement too. If the owner thinks that having us back to play will get you back as a customer, we’ll be back to play.

So dance in the aisles, tell us that’s your most favorite song, sing along with us, beg the bartender to let us play longer, tell the staff you’re having a great time listening to us play and even ask them when we’ll be back there. Have a great time and let the staff know about it. If that happens, we’ll all be back together to do it again.

And if you feel like it, feel free to tip us. We’ll take it, just don’t expect to see a tip jar at our gigs anytime soon.

Where is your tip jar? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on July 10, 2012. Tweet This

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Well, it took awhile and a learning curve, but while we can’t play near everyone, you can still see us in this video.

I’d say come up and say hi, but that might be a little uncomfortable, talking to your computer…or maybe not, so feel free to come up and say hi if you want to after watching this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkZz3HEhFLo

And now you know where to go or music that you love to sing along with as well. Right here.

I wanna SEE you! originally appeared on Jim & Tim on March 27, 2012. Tweet This

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The quick math rule of thumb we use is that the average song is three and a half minutes long. So take 68 multiplied by 3.5 and you end up with 238 minutes worth of music, or just 2 minutes shy of 4 full hours…If we played them back to back, non-stop with no talking in between. Which never happens.

Depending on the gig, we play anywhere between 1 – 4 sets and a set is either 45 or 50 minutes. That means we basically have 5 full sets worth of music at our disposal.

So how do we pick a set? It’s different every time. While we have some “standards” (considering we play covers, does that go without saying?) we use most of the time,  what order they go in depends on the gig itself. But yes, we like to try and mix it up  so that if we have fans coming to multiple shows, they won’t hear the same songs in the same order every time we play. We use a 15 song base for a set. That gives us some wiggle room at the gig to see how it’s going and make adjustments on the fly, because the best plan is to plan for the plan to not go as planned and make it work from there.

So that’s how we do it, one gig at a time.

And we thought you might like to try it and pick your perfect set from our song list (And I wanted to play with the polling plugin – Jim).  Below is our full song list as recently updated. Pick 15 songs that you think would be the perfect set and then click the Vote button. That’s all there is to it.  Enjoy!

To pick a perfect set originally appeared on Jim & Tim on February 16, 2012. Tweet This

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And we love that. We love the time of year and we love the music too.

That doesn’t mean we stop making music. Far from it. We understand that there are many events and parties that aren’t holiday related. You know we’re there for those whenever and wherever they may be. And we’ll even do a holiday song or two when they’re wanted/requested by popular demand.

It just means that in December you’re less likely to see something like this in your Twitter stream:

From Eric Clapton to Queen - love @jimntim!

August 21, 2011 1:51 pm via HootSuiteReplyRetweetFavorite

@theresalc

Theresa L Carter

Just keep watching, these will start popping up again very soon and we’ll be having a great time doing what we do best. Singing for you.

Happy Holidays from Jim & Tim.

 Photo Credit: mikecogh

Why don’t we see Jim & Tim this holiday? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on December 1, 2011. Tweet This

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Jim & Tim at Elburn Days 2010

Hey, it’s this coming Sunday and if you’re not busy…

We had our rehearsal and a couple of weeks ago we determined the songs we were going to use for the day. Elburn Days is always a fun gig for us, we’ve been playing a for a few years now. It’s the site of the infamous seven and a half hour gig  a few years back and it’s been a favorite of mine ever since then.

I don’t think that we’ll be playing that long this year (you never can be sure, can you?), but we’ve got our set list all ready. Come out and join us, it’s a great place and it supports the Elburn Lions Club. A worthy cause and a great group of people.

Even if you’re thinking about coming out, do, you’ll have a great time and I just don’t think…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoMgRnygok8

Photo and Video Credit: Theresa Carter

Hey, what are you doing the 21st? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on August 18, 2011. Tweet This

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoMgRnygok8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCJWpKD97-s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95d5vpanVYk

Just playing around originally appeared on Jim & Tim on July 4, 2011. Tweet This

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Now for that open door. I also just found out that Jim & Tim will be playing at Elburn Days this year. It’s at Lions Park in Elburn on August 21 and it’s one of my favorite gigs because of its history. We’ll have some fun and probably even play some songs you haven’t heard us play before. In the meantime, we’ll be looking to set up some more gigs in the area so you have a chance to hear us play. Because that’s what we love to do.

Photo by Steve Snodgrass

One door… originally appeared on Jim & Tim on June 25, 2011. Tweet This

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But wait, how can that be? Jim, are you some sort of Svengali that can transport himself through space and time in the blink of an eye? Hmmm, can you…Can you?!

While I’d like to say yes, the answer is no, I’m not. I have to get back the old fashioned way in this case, by driving. So you might ask yourself  ”How are Jim and Tim going to perform Friday night, if Jim’s halfway across the country?”. Well, it’s simple, really and it happens a lot in the music world. The role of Jim will be played by someone else Friday night. Ken Overbey will be filling in for me and I’m glad he is.

So please, make sure to go out and See Jim (Ken) & Tim at the Beacon Tap in the Beer Garden. And come up and say hi to me when you get there.

Who is that mysterious Jim? originally appeared on Jim & Tim on June 17, 2011. Tweet This

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