GINA MORGANO:
(:04)Hello, and welcome to The Practice Parlour. I am your host, Gina Morgano and today we are going to talk about six steps to showing up when you are tired. Friends, I am tired. I did not get a lot of sleep last night. Usually I am someone who wears multiple blankets in 90 degree weather because I'm always cold, but I was so hot last night for some reason, and I could not sleep. Here's the thing. I have a huge rehearsal tonight. So that is stressful. Have you ever been there? Have you ever had a day when you had to sing or you had a major event or rehearsal and you just didn't get enough sleep? Well, friends, the next time real life happens and you're feeling particularly sluggish, follow these six steps for showing up when you're tired, and trust your voice to sing well, despite your circumstances.
(1:28) So before the pandemic, I remember this crazy weekend that I had. There was a dress rehearsal at Lincoln Center, and I left straight from the hall to go to the airport. There was all sorts of traffic and thank goodness my flight was delayed because I never would have made it. So I got in very late and I had to be up super early for hair and makeup because I was a bridesmaid in one of my best friend's weddings. So we did the whole wedding day and had a great time, but it was a long day, and then I had to fly back super early to New York the next morning to get to the hall in time for the performance; in which I had a solo. So I literally left the hall, flew to be in a wedding, and then came back to the hall - never stopping at my apartment. My suitcase was packed for everything, both for the performance and for the wedding. It was an amazing weekend, but an exhausting one. And yet it all went well. So the thing is, we all have these days when we don't get enough sleep, whether it is due to illness or insomnia or staying up late to work on a project. Or maybe there's a special event the night before. But we all have these days. And so it's really important to learn how to manage them and to deal with them when they come up so that you are not in a complete panic of having to use your voice when you are tired and having to show up well, when you are tired. Of course these experiences should be the exception and not the rule. It's important that we take care of ourselves and that we do our best to get enough sleep and enough rest. Sleep is one of the most important elements of voice care. But sometimes the circumstances require that we perform on too little sleep.
(3:29) So what do we do? Well, lack of sleep can cause inflammation, it can make it challenging to focus, it can make it difficult to physically engage your body. It can cause mental health flare ups and so much more. So how do we put on a fantastic show when we'd rather be under the covers? Step one. Don't panic. Trust. Seriously, when you know that you didn't get enough sleep, it's easy to let your thoughts spiral. It's so easy to get down on yourself when your voice doesn't immediately respond the way you want it to or the way that it usually does. But instead of completely freaking out and panicking and saying oh my gosh, my voice isn't working today. Oh my gosh, I'm not playing well. I don't feel well. Trust your preparation, trust your technique and trust your process. That is why we prepare. We don't prepare for the good days when everything magically clicks and it's all going well. Most days are not going to be that. Most days there will be some less than ideal variable at play. So this is why we prepare and this is why we practice good healthy technique. Technique is meant to carry you through when things are not automatically clicking into place. This is also why it's so important to have a process. I believe in having a process, a system for everything that you were repeatedly do, and singing tired, whether we like it or not, is something that we will have to repeatedly do. Hopefully, not often and not all the time, but it's great to have a process for this in place. So step one is, trust, your preparation, your technique and your process. Do not panic.
(5:22) Step two. Practice self care where you can. Can you sneak in a five minute cat nap or a 20 minute nap or do a 15 minute guided meditation? I heard that 20 minutes of meditation is like a three hour nap. It is so restorative for your brain and for your body. If you don't have time to do a nap or meditation, are you hydrating? When we're tired, we tend to get dehydrated and to really feel parched. So make sure that you are hydrating with the foods and the drinks that you consume. And make sure that you're eating nutritious foods, make sure that you're moving your body in a way that supports you on that day. Practice self care where you can.
(6:14) Step three is to focus. When we are tired, it's really easy to feel distracted and scattered. I don't know about you, but when I'm tired, I start stubbing my toe and spilling things and dropping things. So focus is so, so important. Again, you can do some deep breathing or meditation to calm and center yourself. Also, what can you take off of your plate? Is there something in your schedule for the day or on your to do list for the day that doesn't need to be done, that you could maybe make space for rest instead of keeping that appointment or doing that task?
(7:22) Also, part of focusing is reviewing your material. Review your music, your text, your blocking or diction, your lyrics, your memorization. Now is the time for a last minute refresh. But avoid obsessing. Again, it goes back to trusting your preparation. I do think that when we're tired, we're more likely to miss some of the little details. So when you're tired, it's a great time to go back through and just give yourself a quick review or a quick refresher of things that you want to make sure that you remember and focus on without going overboard, right? We can all get to that point where we're like, oh my gosh, I don't remember, I don't remember. I just have to keep going over over over in my head, and then that starts its own panic cycle. So again, trust all of the work that you've done leading up until this point, but do what you can just to remind yourself of a few key things that you want to focus on.
(8:39) Step four is to stretch. Literally stretch your body. When we're tired, our instrument is usually fine. As singers and speakers, our voice is usually fine. It's the rest of us that is not. It's our minds, thoughts racing and our ability to focus. And it's our body's ability to engage our muscles. So what usually happens when we're tired is that we will push all of this air through without giving that air ample support and back pressure. So we'll end up just giving too much air and pushing the sound without engaging our muscles. So you can help yourself by activating those muscles. Stretch, expand, create space in your joints, flexibility in your body and start to engage the muscles that are there to support you. Muscles of your legs and your lats and your intercostals and your pelvic floor and all of the muscles that surround the larynx and the vocal folds because that's what supports you. Right? Your voice most likely is fine, even if it's not responding Initially, even if it feels like it's a little bit of a struggle to get going, most likely it doesn't have to do with your actual vocal folds and instead, it has to do with the rest of your body being tired. So stretching gently activates and wakes up the muscles of the body. So it's important for you to know which muscles specifically and especially get tense when you are tired. So sometimes it's an under activation of the muscles, and sometimes it's an over activation of the muscles. Usually, the jaw, the tongue, maybe the shoulders, they tend to grip. I know for me, it's my tongue. Always, always, always, when I am tired, when I am stressed, when I don't feel well, the very first thing is that my tongue will grip and pull back. So I'm constantly doing tongue stretches to loosen that up. Okay, so step four is to stretch to stretch your body, expand, activate your muscles.
(11:06) Step five is to warm up slowly. You know, I always recommend having multiple variations of your warmup. Having a warm up for when you just have like five minutes and you gotta get something in before you sing, having a warm up, that is maybe you know, 15 or 20 minutes, a little longer, but nothing, you know, too extreme. And then I have a performance day warm up, where I'm really taking my time and maybe warming up throughout the day. I would say that on a day that you're tired, that is a day that you are going to have to be a lot gentler and patient with your warmup. So I recommend starting with some SOVT's - semi occluded vocal tract exercises. This could be straw work, humming, some sighs on a blowfish. Just do some light vocalizing to get your vocal folds coming together gently and to get that back pressure so that too much air is not escaping. You can also do a lot on the OO vowel. A pure OO will help to raise the velum, your soft palate, and to expand the space inside of your mouth. Because again, when we are tired, things just kind of want to sag and collapse.
(12:32) The other thing is to take breaks, save your voice give it time to gradually and gently warm up. If you trust this process, you will eventually get there. It doesn't matter where you start, it matters where you end up. So I could start the day feeling like a bass and I'm just on vocal fry and my voice is so low and it just feels awful. But by the end of the day, by the end of my warmup and by performance time, my voice is bright and light and crisp and clear. So be patient with yourself. Warm up slowly bit by bit. Maybe you want to do some steaming. Maybe you want to start with just some light sighs and sirens and then work your way up to doing some vowel work. Work your way up to expanding your range. Work your way up to doing more vocally taxing work such as belting or the big loud high notes that you need to sing in your song. And, again, grant yourself grace. So step five is to warm up slowly.
(13:38) And Step six is to accept yourself where you are today. Your best is going to be different every single day. And a day that you did not get enough rest or enough sleep the night before is going to have a different 'best' than on a day when you are really well rested. Know that you can still put on a terrific and meaningful and impactful performance for your audience. You can still make a beautiful tone and immense progress in your lesson, your rehearsal or your practice session. You can still show up well, but it's going to feel different on a day that you are tired. So be gentle with yourself. Again, don't push your sound. Mark if possible. If you're in a situation where you don't have to use full voice, a day that you're tired is a great day to mark. Otherwise, be mindful to use your best technique, to engage the support muscles of your body and to sing a bit lighter and brighter than you may otherwise be inclined to. Again the tendency is going to be to sing heavy and dark and to push. Work against that. You know, some days you have to sing. You might have a big performance or a major rehearsal or an important lesson you don't want to cancel, and, you know, just being a little tired or not getting enough sleep isn't reason enough to cancel that or to call out. But sometimes you don't have to sing. And part of accepting yourself is knowing yourself and knowing when it is better to rest. So if you are able to take the day off, if you are exhausted, and if your voice is just not responding, and it is the struggle to warm up, take the day off of practice rather than risking building poor habits. Right? If you think, well, I have to practice I don't want to miss a day, but you are not singing with proper technique and you are reinforcing muscular patterns that you do not want to replicate, that is not doing a service to your voice or to your future self or to your audience. So know yourself and accept when it is better to rest.
(16:07) So to recap the six steps to showing up when you are tired. Step one is to trust or in the negative, don't panic. Step two is to practice self care as best you can. Step three is to focus. Step four is to stretch your body. Step five is to warm up slowly. And step six is to accept where you are today.
(16:37) I hope that this helps you the next time that you are feeling tired, that you are worried you didn't get enough sleep. This process is what helps me and I truly believe that it will help you too. So let me know how it goes. Let me know how it works for you. If you haven't yet subscribed to the podcast or left a review, please do so. I would really, really appreciate your help in spreading the word. We only have a few episodes left in season two before we take our summer break and then there are some very exciting changes in store for season three that I know you're going to love. So make sure that you hit subscribe and that you don't miss a thing. While you're at it, go to ginamorgano.com and sign up for my email list where you will be the first to know about upcoming concerts, courses I'm teaching, studio availability. Plus you'll get tons of resources, practice tips, inspirational quotes, a letter of motivation every week. It is truly the best way to stay in touch with me and to be in the know. I would really appreciate you joining my email list, sharing the podcast, reviewing the podcast, and hitting that subscribe button. Thank you so much for listening. Have a beautiful day!
