Ageing with its associated effects is inevitable, yet we can reduce the impact they have on our ability to sing and speak. As the saying goes : Use it or loose it. Exercise and sufficient hydration can counteract many of the ageing effects.
I see it as my job to adjust your awareness of your own body to help you sing well which also might have an effect on your general health.
Possible effects of ageing:
Reduction of flexible connective tissue in lungs, vocal folds and bladder.
This tissue contains hyaluronic acid of which production is stopped as we age. Hyaluronic acid absorbs and retains water. In practice this means we loose control over our ability to expand our lungs so that we can’t take a quick and full breath. The flexibility of the vocal folds reduces as well as their ability to meet neatly- meaning the voice can become breathy and less strong as more air is able to escape. Our bladders will become weaker increasing the need to urinate more often.
Exercise:
To help the vocal folds, blow bubbles and hum through a straw into a glass
of water.
To help keep them lubricated drink a lot of water.
To counteract the need to then urinate more often do pelvic floor exercises.
Posture
Observe other’s and your own posture – are your ears in line with your shoulders and your hips on a vertical line to the floor? As we age we get tired more quickly and find it harder to maintain correct posture. The nature of our day to day activities can contribute to poor posture such as watching tv, sitting and working at the computer.
Exercise:
Be aware of your own posture and constantly strive to correct yourself
Stretch your chest and neck muscles : Kiss the ceiling
Tongue
The tongue looses flexibility as we age and drops back into the mouth giving a less articulate and clear sound.
Exercise :
Tongue twisters – repeat each one 5 times at the same speed and accurately
aim to increase the tempo. My favourite is “Red lorry, yellow lorry”
Coordination
Ligaments, muscle and neural tissue atrophy – muscles always work in pairs, if one of the pair is more activated then the other weakens, the less we do the less we can do and it is important to balance the muscle pairs.
Ossification of cartilages – cartilage slowly turns to bone, for men that happens after puberty and for women after menopause.
Exercise
Keep moving, even if it’s hard to do so, do not give in to lethargy (unless of course
you are ill) – if you are in pain consult with your GP/physio.
Work on balance exercises as well as strengthening ones.
Gradually increase your exercising as overdoing it can cause more harm than good.
Pitch changes/ hearing loss
As the ability to hear reduces people try to sing louder so they can hear themselves which can result in over-singing and pitching issues. Over-singing can result in damage to your vocal chords which could be permanent or require surgery.
Exercise
Listen to yourself when you sing and speak, can you feel the difference in pitch? Where in your mouth/body can you feel the pitch differences. Focus more on
the feelings vs hearing the sounds.
Teeth
Tooth loss affects tongue placement, this placement affects how you hear your own voice. If you get dentures then they can completely change your sound.
Exercise
Be aware of how dental work affects your sound, experiment with how you can
alter the way you speak to change the sound. Maybe you need to activate your tongue more or your lips.
Slower heart rate –
As the heart rate slows, oxygen will travel around body slower, less oxygen is transferred to the cells for repair and energy. All of this affects the ability to co-ordinate our bodies.
Exercise:
take part in an activity that increases your heart rate 3 times a week for 20 minutes
each.
Neural plasticity –
As we age our ability to create new neural pathways slows down and thus we find it harder to learn new things. However you can teach an old dog new tricks it just takes a bit longer and a bit more effort and perseverance.
Exercise:
Try a completely new activity for a few weeks
Play logic games
So you see ageing is inevitable yet we have some degree of choice in how we age
