Renee Fleming Quotes

I find that touring keeps your voice in great shape.

I don't really strain my voice.

When I do a T.V. show, I hear all these artists in their dressing rooms doing scales - I've never done it because I've never had voice training. What I do to prepare is get in my car and sing along to the radio for about 20 minutes.

I have learned how to breathe, to use my cords differently. I had been tilting my head in a way when I talked that wasn't good for my throat. I've been working on all of that, and it seems to be helping.

I've found that if I limit my talking, just everyday talking, a couple of days before I have to sing, my voice is stronger. That really is about the only precaution that I take: I try to rest it as much as possible and keep the nutritional value of my food up.

My voice needed oiling, and then it took off.

I find an apple before singing really, really helps... It's like there's something in the pectin in the apple that helps get rid of vocal clicks.

I sing 'Nessun Dorma' when I warm up backstage.

I always want to pick songs that are really crazy rangy, and sometimes those low notes aren't there. But I started taking it way more seriously after a certain point, and I started doing vocal warm-ups every day, even when I wasn't singing, sometimes twice a day.

It's not like you have two sets of vocal cords. You only have one, and if you exhaust it from talking, then you're also affecting your singing.

The vocal cords are a muscle, and like any other muscle in the body, they can be strained. So you have to warm up.

As you get older, your voice changes, as well. Your voice should be able to last as long as you last.

Singing is incredibly physical.

When I was 12 and started to take singing lessons from a woman, she told me that I would probably spend the rest of my life taking care of my voice.

I never want to pick an easy song. I want to continue to challenge myself vocally.

I work on my voice through what I have to sing.

For me, one of the important things about keeping vocally healthy is warming up and making sure I'm aware where my voice is at, drinking lots of water and getting plenty of sleep, and just taking care of myself with exercise and eating healthy.

When you're insecure about your technique, you close yourself off. Your shoulders tighten. The first thing, you should open your body and sing. Be happy. Sing real vowels, real Italian vowels. When you're learning a good way to sing technically, you find it's very easy to sing well.

When I first started, I was much weaker of a singer because I wasn't used to singing so much. Now I've learned, when I'm singing on stage, not to go over. You can go over and mess yourself up. I used to do it all the time, wouldn't know how to preserve it for the next show.

Essentially, your voice is an instrument; it's a muscle, and you have to treat it like a muscle, and so you have to work it.

It happens to the best of them. You lay off singing and your throat gets out of practice. No excuses. I blew it.

I started singing in the bathroom. Nothing was coming out. It was ghastly.

Seventy per cent humidity is ideal for vocal cords.

As a singer, you can't hear what's coming out of your throat; you're only hearing it from the inside, so you need a trusted person who knows how your voice works. It's like a car. You take it to the same mechanic because they know it inside out, and every time you get it back, it works fantastic.

You do have to be a bit careful with your voice. It is an instrument.