The Pitch Pipe - October 2008 - (Page 14) Travel advice to keep your instrument healthy. By Lori Decter Wright, Director of Education In over a decade of singing for my supper, I found myself with a highly developed travel routine — coping with the circumstances of flying in a plane for hours on end and needing to preserve my voice and health for arrival at my destination. Over the years, surviving a cross-country red-eye for a spur-of-themoment audition or that transatlantic flight to rehearse for a show that had to go from “nice to meet you maestro” to closing night in 10 days, became a precise science for me. It’s always a challenge to travel by airplane for 20 hours and end up rehearsing 3-4 hours on the same day of arrival, which in some cases, was actually still the same day of departure. Coping with crossing multiple time zones is extra fun! And then there’s the change in climate, air quality and the naturally allergenic surroundings that an unfamiliar place can bring. As many of you prepare to take the stage in Honolulu, I wanted to share these pearls of wisdom with you so you can have an arsenal of weapons against all singers’ dreaded fate of drying out on the airplane, catching a bug while traveling, dealing with jet lag and worst of all, the fear of not being able to sing at your final destination. PEARL #1: Pre-flight Preparation In addition to eating right, getting enough sleep, exercising regularly and just plain old distressing before traveling, the following is the routine I abide by the 3-5 days before departure. 1. Up your vitamins A, B, C and D intake. I generally cover these all with one of those fizzy tablets that you drop into water, such as Airborne. I know that there’s recently been lots of talk on the news about whether or not these actually work, but I will say that ever since I have been using them, I have never caught a flu or virus when traveling. 2. Stay hydrated. This will be a running theme, but it cannot be emphasized enough. Singing is a dehydrating process in itself; with all of the exhalation of air that we do, we must drink a minimum of 64 ounces or about two liters of water a day. And if it is a particularly dry or hot climate, we must take in even more. 3. Rinse your sinuses with either a neti pot or with nasal saline. This is the best way to keep those delicate tissues hydrated and also flush out any nastiness that may be trying to settle there and sabotage your throat and vocal folds. I use the one made by Sinucleanse. It’s plastic, so it travels really well and the refill packets are usually available in most drug stores. 4. If you will be traveling through four or more time zones, you’ll want to try to acclimate your body to the biorhythms of your destination’s time zone as quickly as possible. There is a great way to do this by gradually heading to bed and rising an hour earlier or later (depending upon which direction you’ll be traveling) every day for the number of hours you will be off from your normal time zone. Of course this does have it limitations, but if you are able to at least make the effort three to five days in advance of your departure, your body will thank you. When I traveled to sing in a city that was 14 hours ahead 14 October 2008
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