Singulair has long been the recommended allergy med of choice for singers since it doesn't dry the vocal cords, unlike many other allergy meds. But recent findings make me much more cautious about recommending it: it now has a 'black box' warning that it can cause depression, sleep issues, and suicide. If allergies are getting in the way of your singing I'd explore alternative remedies first.

     I just finished reading James Nestor's fascinating book Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art: highly recommended! All singers will benefit from this book. Among many other recommendations, Nestor extols the benefits of nasal breathing, which has also been recommended by numerous cultures around the world for centuries. This is trickier for singers since mouth breathing is faster and often we don't have a lot of time in-between phrases for a nasal breath. But if you read the book I bet you'll be sold on breathing through your nose more often. 
     In the past I've often told singers to breathe through the nose when not singing, and also when warming up if one is having placement issues, has allergies or 'gunkiness' going on, or is singing flat. In the past I said breathe through the mouth when singing the rest of the time since it's faster. I've modified my thinking now: all the time now when warming up I breathe through my nose as much as possible, and when singing [if there's enough time in-between phrases or sections] I take a nose breath in there as well. 
     As singers we've learned to breathe deeply into the diaphragm and we've learned to slow the exhalation as we sing with good breath support. So we're ahead of the rest of the world on these healthy breathing practices. Check out the book and his site and you'll learn some new methods that could change your singing life for the better.

The pandemic has made 2020 a rough year for singers physically, emotionally, and financially. I write about this and how to safely get back to singing in this new blog.

I've learned a few new vocal healing methods since The Vocal Recovery Warmup was released, so I just updated the ebook. The 2019 updated ebook will download automatically if you purchase the method. If you purchased the warmup via this site sometime in the past contact me and I'll send you the updated ebook for free.

It's touted as a sometimes miraculous method for helping singers. I've never been to one and I wasn't experiencing vocal problems, but I wanted to find out what happens at a session and if it made a difference in my singing. Here's my report.