Haven't sung in 2 months and my voice is deeper and feels thicker~ WTH?

[BigVoiceTenor]

Well we've all heard the saying "use it or lose it" and I think it's happened. I sing for a classic rock cover band and we usually play 2 or 3 gig's a month and practice every week. Well we took the summer off as a group after our last gig on July 4th. Since that time I haven't sung at all. I'm a natural tenor with a big range and singing comes easily. We practiced a week ago and my voice felt thick, was deeper, I had to keep clearing it and it was not comfortable to sing higher. No I didn't warm up, nor have I done any exercises in my recess from singing. In the past a break would always feel nice and I'd come back strong singing, yet this time my voice isn't bouncing back like in the past. We have a couple of gig's coming up in October and I'm kinda worried about my voice, It went from a sleek fast sports car to a mug bogging 4x4 truck in 10 weeks! I haven't been sick or strained my voice to my knowledge.

 

Has anyone else taken a long delay from singing and noticed a significant change in their tone, timbre or quality?

 

Slightly worried, but I'm hoping it will come back after a few more practices.

[1001gear]

I'm on the noob end of singing. If I lay off for a while my voice recovers and I'm able to sound pretty good until I wear it out again. Muscles is muscles.

[highmtn]

Your voice can atrophy if you don't use it regularly. I think you should do daily workouts of at least an hour a day, to gradually build your voice back up. Don't try to take it to the top of your former range immediately. You have time to get there. Don't push too hard for notes that don't want to come yet, or you will get hoarse in your upper mid-range.

 

All the best!

 

Bob