Trust me: this isn't off-topic: What can I use to hydrate my voice without getting

**sophia_shapira** · 04-07-2011, 10:51 AM

fat? When I practice singing, it's inevitable that my voice gets worn out. To replenish my voice, I have to drink something that re-hydrates my voice - and then wait a bit.

Problem is --- the only thing I have found that really works well is soft-drinks. And as you know, those drinks contain syrup, which is rather fattening.

My mom suggested I try Club Soda. Well -- I tried it -- but it really didn't work. (Not to mention it goes flat *really* quickly once the bottle is first opened.) Seltzer water also didn't work too well.

I have also tried water, as well as other similarly-obvious things.

Tea sweetened with honey also kinda works --- only (a) it doesn't work as *well* as soft drinks do -- and (b) it can get fattening too (especially when you consider the larger amounts of it that I'll need to make up for the fact that it doesn't work as well as soft-drinks).

If you suggest I'm doing something wrong in my training if my voice has to be re-hydrated that often --- then you're touching on to why I am posting this question in the LGBT section rather than in the performing-arts section. I am a transsexual woman -- and I need to raise the register of my voice. I have heard all the adages of how the register of the voice is just one of many factors in gendering voice -- but it still *is* a factor --- and not dealing with it does increase the odds of being clocked. Furthermore, in speaking, the register is one factor --- in singing it is a MAJOR factor. I have verified that adjusting a song just a few semitones can effectively change which gender the singer is perceived as. Living my life without singing isn't a way that I want to live -- and I can not afford to sound like a man when I sing. Therefore, when I practice singing, I always practice a few semitones higher than I sing when I'm singing in front of someone.

This works very well --- and I've gotten my singing (that is singing-in-front-of-others) voice high enough that I am finally perceived as the woman I am inside --- rather than the man I was mistaken for at birth, and that doctors injected me with hormones during adolescence in attempt to force me into being.

It works really well --- and (as a side effect) it even makes my *speaking* voice much more passable (except when I stop doing this drill) ---- but the problem is that it requires me to after a few minutes practice to take some soft-drink - and then take a ten minute break. And this is a problem, because the soda is very fattening --- and that's what's at times made me stop doing this drill.

Also note --- for personal health reasons, anything containing alcohol is out-of-the-question. So if you suggest alcohol in any form - I'll know you're someone who doesn't bother even reading the question before answering.

**RAWR i'm a dinosaur** · 04-08-2011, 09:40 PM

perhaps fruit or vegetable juice?

**Bazinga** · 04-08-2011, 10:08 PM

i Really don't know if it works for that at all, but they do have this stuff that's a spray for when you get dry mouth from medication and things like that, and it's not prescription or anything, so i guess that May help with that too. i really don't know though =\

**Germy** · 04-08-2011, 10:11 PM

tea with honey in it (not sugar)

**djthrenody189** · 04-09-2011, 10:28 AM

Perhaps instead of honey try maple syrup. Not the pncake kind, but real grade b stuff like molasses. And if soda works why can't it be diet? I'm surprised because anything but water makes my voice gargle....how strange the human body.

**cheap11** · 05-25-2011, 02:36 PM

Perhaps instead of honey try maple syrup. Not the pncake kind, but real grade b stuff like molasses. And if soda works why can't it be diet? I'm surprised because anything but water makes my voice gargle....how strange the human body.