Caring for your voice is a very important aspect of singing. No matter how much vocal training you do, if you damage your vocal cords your singing will not be all it can be. What follows is a number of things not to do to your voice and it is especially directed to those who are very serious about their singing or who wish to be professional singers.

While no one can eliminate yelling from his or her life completely, do it as little as possible. Yelling strains and hurts the vocal cords. Just think about the last time you went to a rock concert or a hockey game and came home with a hoarse voice at the end of the night. Would you be able to sing after that?

Stay away from smoke, because it burns the cilia that line your lungs. This can eventually cause you to be short of breath which will affect the quality of your singing.

Nicotine is also a drug, which alters your metal state and may make it difficult for you to express the feeling the words in your songs are intended to convey. If you smoke, then you may want to consider looking for ways of stopping that addiction. It also means that you need to stay away from second hand smoke as much as possible.

In addition to the above, be mindful of the following. Do not let any doctor perform surgery on your vocal cords because you may never sing again. The way we regularly speak wears out our vocal cords, so on the day of a performance it is important to talk less than you normally would talk. Gargle with half a teaspoon each of baking soda and salt rather than just salt because salt is too abrasive. Stay away from a lot of dust. Do not sing your loudest for an extended period of time, do not sing out of your range, and do not do more than three performances (one hour or more in length) per week. Finally, stay away from the wrong singing techniques as they can ruin your voice.

Taking a day off per week is good to rest your voice. If you have a sore throat, then eat apples and/or pears or drink their juice.

This list is full of a lot of do not's and very few do's, and this may seem discouraging. Most of these things are generally beneficial to your health anyway and most are very simple to accomplish. The next time you run into any of these situations, just assess the importance of the situation relative to the possible effect it may have on your singing.

For example, your oldest daughter is getting married and there will be smoking that night at the celebration. Do you skip the wedding? Probably not. If you are singing on the club scene it will be very difficult to stay away from second-hand smoke as well, but these gigs may be your bread and butter.

Take each situation as it arises and evaluate. Most importantly, listen to your instinct because it will never steer you wrong.

Gordon Lee has been singing as far back as he can remember. His vast experience and thirst to learn how to sing better has led him to create a free report on Learning How To Sing at http://www.learn-singing.com