I'm naturally blessed with a fairly strong voice and have a lot of endurance, so I've never dealt with voice strain before, not even when sick. Lately I've been singing tenor parts since I don't have the upper range of an alto, and our tenor section was very weak anyway. Saturday night I ended up standing next to a gent who has an immense and rich voice, but sadly is mostly tone deaf and has no sense of rhythm. He usually hangs back and is quiet and lets me lead, but for some reason (nervousness?) he started belting out really wrong stuff in the wrong key and was taking the whole tenor section down in flames with him.

Most of the tenor section relies on me to keep them on track, and I got wound up and pushed way too hard. Amateur mistake, I know. I doubt I actually gained any volume anyway, because I was too tense.

I had a little throat irritation afterwards, but was fine the next morning. I rested up as best as I could since then just in case. Last night all started out well and stayed loose and relaxed, but halfway through my voice starting cracking and I was hammered by the end. Today I'm not feeling any discomfort, but my throat does feel very dry and like there's a lump in it. Fortunately, that was our last performance and I have nothing to practice and no need to use my voice much.

Despite my funky range, it turns out I'm not half bad at this singing thing and I'd like to continue with it (with a better teacher this time) -- and when I'm healed up. Obviously, the solution is rest, rest, rest and avoiding stuff like alcohol and caffiene. As a habitual "car singer," it'll be tough to keep my mouth shut, but I think I can manage.

BUT... If it's like most strains, you can feel fine even though you're not fixed yet. How do I know when I'm healed up and it's safe to go back in the water?