Over the past few days, I have been losing my voice. Before you jump to conclusions, I'm losing my voice due to me being a little sick, not because I'm doing my vocals wrong. I have been doing extreme vocals for eight years, and haven't changed my style much. I always use my diaphragm and lots of air. I never ever EVER use my throat, cup the microphone, and make fucked up noises with my throat. I sing every day, so I'm not out of practice. But if you're still curious on if I do my vocals wrong, here's a video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91IbGK4slXs

I'm about to jam with a death metal band for the first time, on bass and lead vocals. I live 6 hours from the band, so i REALLY need to prove that I'm miles better than anyone else interested in playing with these guys.

My question is, does anyone know anything I can do to help bring my voice back? Like some kind of herbal tea or other drink I can have? Any help is appreciated.

Try honey mixed with warm water...it has worked for me. Though I would stop for a while before attempting to do any vocals.

How long do you have before you jam?

Yeah, honey mixed with milk and garlic, boil it a little so it gets warm. Should do wonders. And of course, rest your voice, don't talk or whisper at all. You might want to send an email to the band and tell them about the unfortunate situation, I guess they will understand. Maybe delay the rehearsal. Since you have cool vocals and you're willing to drive 6 damn hours for a practice you definately deserve to be in the band in my opinion. ^^

Thanks for the responses so far. I have five days until we jam.

I have been resting my voice most of the day. Lucky for me, my job has put me in a class all week, so I'm not talking at work as much as normal. My roommate left town today, so I don't have anyone to talk to. I haven't attempted to sing until about 10 AM today (five hours after I woke up). While it didn't hurt to sing (it never does), I could barely make a noise at all, especially on my lows. I would have to use as much air as I could, only being able to say about 4-5 words per breath, or else I would make no noise at all, just air coming out. I decided to stop there and post this bulliten shortly after.

The band is cool. I've met with them before, at a practice, but I didn't have any equipment with me to jam. I have a friend that lives up there who knows the guitar player, and I've been hanging out with that guitarist for about six months. The band formed 3 months ago. If all else fails, I'll just go up there and play my bass without singing. They seemed more excited that I played bass, but when they found out I can sing at the same time, and that I have experience, that only sweetened the deal

Thanks for the advice, and to Stormalv for the compliment. If anyone else has any advice, it's greatly appreciated.

It sounds like you're doing all the right things. I would be optimistic if I were you since five days is probably enough for a full recovery, although I could be wrong. Everyone's different.

Anyway, I concur with the advice so far. I would like to add that warm tea always helps with my voice; it helps relax your throat. Don't add any sweeteners the day of your audition, though. Then again, I do primarily clean vocals, so take that with a grain of salt.

I never ever add sweeteners to my tea. I am not a vocals expert, but I can't imagine the two vocals styles to be TOO different as far as your throat goes. Both require you to sing from the diaphragm and use lots of air, and if you do both styles correctly, you won't damage your throat. But I don't do clean vocals (only because I'm unable to ) so I'm not too sure. Thanks for the tip man.

They're generally pretty related except, of course, for the fact that clean singing tends to stress your vocal muscles whereas growls and screams don't but they can scratch up your throat. Thus, advice for one is generally applicable to the other, but not always.

Yeah, I hear ya. Thanks man.

I'm boiling water for my hot tea right now. I bought some honey as well If anyone has any other suggestions, that would be awesome. Thanks.

Cold-Eeze! Get a ton of that and start eating it like candy. The sooner you can defeat the sickness the better.

Other than that, all advice has been sound.. Avoid talking, whispering, or screaming until the sickness is gone, at which point practice your ass off to get into it for the band.