I stopped singing regularly to take up collecting.
Over the last few years I have taken it up again.
I found I got hoarse very quickly, my range had decreased (I had lost a few rangey songs), and I ran out of breath in long lines.
I returned to the exercises we had been given in The Critics group, basically, relaxation, 4 vowel (sort of) sounds to help me find my natural voice and singing exercises designed to handle pitch, tone, breathing and projection, and finally work of tone and efforts in order that my shanties didn't sound like my lyrical love songs.
Can't claim that I'm singing as well as I was in the early seventies but, thanks to the additional 'Critics' work we did on interpretation and relating the songs to your own experiences, I'm certainly enjoying it a damn sight more
Jim Carroll