#221 Building Healthy, Resilient Vocal Athletes with Dr. Reena Gupta

First of all, that you are an incredible host because you-

Oh

... gave such a perfect synopsis right there, and I'm gonna take that language [laughs] because I think you really encapsulated my approach, which the take-home is this.

Vocal performance is a sport.

It is a high, high level of demand, but the only difference between vocal sports and traditional sports is that singing lacks the infrastructure and support that it deserves, and the credit for being as taxing as it is, the grace and forgiveness that it requires, and the holistic approach that I think all other athletes in all other sports get.

So if we start with that framework of this is a taxing, challenging human endeavor, the output might be a song rather than a basket, but it is nonetheless extremely human, extremely challenging.

And by caring for it with an eye to that understanding, we can respect and support our vocal athletes that much better.

I am bowing to you-

[laughs]

... right now.

I totally resonate with that because I look at all my singers as vocal athletes.

In fact, I had to do a presentation for a singing teaching organization in Melbourne a couple of weeks ago, and the whole thing that was underpinning the presentation was we are vocal athletes, and it was about vocal health, about vocal load, vocal pacing.

And underpinning all of that was this idea of us being vocal athletes, and that may stop a lot of people in their tracks.

And I think we all need to start thinking of singers as these vocal athletes.

So why is it important that we make the shift in thinking towards that?

I think that when we consider it solely from an artistic lens, we don't honor the body and the human difficulty that comes with exercising this craft.

So what that means is that we don't focus on preventative healthcare.

A lot of singers, and I'm shocked to this day, names that you would know, they come to see me for the first time five years into their career, never having seen a laryngologist, not having a coach, and really just hanging on by the skin of their teeth, just hoping that the next show won't do them in, the next session will go the way they want it to.

If you look at every other sport, we look at preventing injury by screening proactively, optimizing health, and investing in training from day one.

I know I mentioned my kids play sports.

One plays water polo, one swims.

The skill set is scaffolded year upon year.

They need annual physicals to clear them for performance.

If somebody found, you know, okay, my son is hypermobile, how do we prevent injury in a hypermobile water polo player? A singer doesn't get that same preventative evaluation, so what that often means is that they find out they have an issue when they get injured.

Then, because we have not honored the challenge of this sport, the singer takes the blame on themselves.