I was a sophomore in college and everything that I had worked for in the past three months led up to this cold weekend in the middle of November. I was scheduled to sing in the Minnesota NATS singing competition, but something happened the day before I left that threatened my entire preparation: my voice was raspy, tired, weak, and fragile. The next morning, it was pretty much gone. It was a combination of getting over a cold and the brutal dryness of a Minnesota autumn.
When we got to Collegeville, I was ready to tell my teacher the bad news: I couldn't sing in the competition. Unwavering, he reminded me that I didn't sing until the morning, so there were some things to try. Knowing how dry the air was, he told me to do three things: stop talking (or making any noise), start drinking water - and a lot of it, and use a humidifier while sleeping. The problem was - I didn't have a humidifier. I was hours from home, a broke college kid, and desperate for time. What he taught me changed how I thought about impromptu humidifiers.
This trick only works if you have a bathroom next to the room you sleep in, like a hotel. But if you ever need humidity for vocal purposes, run hot water in the bathtub and let it sit over night. You will be surprised (and maybe a bit grossed out, too) by how humid it is. To add more humidity, don't run the fan while taking a shower (though most hotel rooms don't have fans because there is no way for the moisture to get out).
This may be one way to help your voice when you are in a pinch.
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