Richard Fredricks, Voice Teacher in Los Angeles | Voice Lessons Los Angeles, Vocal Coach Los Angeles, Singing Lessons Los Angeles, Singing Lessons Los Angeles

“THE COLD!” is the bane of a singer’s existence! In New York City, where I lived as the hub of my career, I spent a lot of time on the four-train Subway trip each day, from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, going to and coming from the N. Y. City Opera, before my career took off and I was able to move into my apartment at Lincoln Towers ... from which I could walk to Lincoln Center.

There are A LOT OF PEOPLE traveling the Subway–especially during rush hours–many of whom go to work with a cold–or the plague–most of whom blow their respective noses into a handkerchief ... and then grab the pole or a hand strap ... potentially passing it on to the next hundred of so, unsuspecting recipients. Or they may simply sneeze in your space before you can assume the defensive pose, handkerchief to nose, wide-eyed in sheer panic and fear, the thought arising, “Will this be the one that gets me ... the one that takes me down for two or three weeks of lost income?” And, don’t forget the occasional, unthinking “sicky” who shakes your hand, just having put away a virulent nose rag or Kleenex ... sneezes over your shoulder in the elevator. They are out there, insidiously, waiting to get you, to take you down! Aaaauuugh!

The answer for me is Alkalol ... it is a Mucus Solvent, and it costs about $4.00 a bottle ... a lot less than a number of doctor’s visits and antibiotics. The times when it wasn’t available ... like that really tough time, during the Lucia di Lammermoor, in Santiago, Chile ... I use simple saline, which I describe below. I hasten to say, I have no medical training and am not pushing the Alkalol. I give a bottle to each of my students, when they are coming down with a cold ... and they universally swear by it, as do most of my non-singer friends, because it is soothing and, if properly and consistently used, it really works.
I use Alkalol every night–a shot in each nostril–before I go to bed and the first thing when I get up in the morning. If you go to sleep with those germs of the day still in your nose, from those many vis-a-vis conversations, there is a good chance it’s gotcha! It is also wonderful as a flush during allergy seasons, to purge the nose of all those allergy spores. I had a bottle in my car and gave it to the secretary of the Los Angeles Rams ... to ease the effects of her alternately stuffy and runny nose. Five minutes later, she caught me at my car to tell me how she instantaneously felt better, with the flush.

Assume for the moment, you catch the cold, of one of these nefarious creatures, lurking out there. What chance have you? Nothing over the counter works, except those preparations that dry up your nose, exacerbating the condition. Years ago, when he first started his practice, to become the pre-eminent Otolaryngologist, Dr. Charles Schneider, now in Los Angeles, gave me the best information about the cold, I had ever heard.

The concept is simple: the cold virus only lasts for approximately 72 hours. The trick is to aggressively jump on the problem and keep the cold virus moving through your nasal pharynx, before the nose dries out and secondary infection sets in, knocking you out for another two or three weeks.

Say, for starters, you pour a little Alkalol, into a small pocket you make in your left hand, about the size of a quarter. Then with your right index finger, close your right nostril. Stand slightly bent forward over the sink and bring your left hand up to your nose, not your nose down to your hand. Stick it up into your left nostril, holding the right one closed, and draw the solution up into your nose with velocity. You want it to go all the way up and through the nasal pharynx and down the back of your throat, for you to spit it out. (No harm done is some of it goes into your stomach) Then hit the other nostril, repeating at least twice ... depending upon what comes out of your nose.

If you keep flushing the cold virus through every hour and a half or so, for the first day or two, until the nose stops running ... and then every three/four hours until I feel that it is gone, usually five or six days. I reiterate: this routine generally keeps the virus from finding a nesting place ... to allow it to turn into secondary infection ... which can knock you out of the ball game, for two or three weeks. I usually get through a cold in four or five days, most often not losing my voice. It has saved many a performance. I have only had to cancel six times, in all of my career, because a cold got away from me. I lost two performances, the first time and four the second.

THIS MAY SEEM LIKE A LOT OF WORK ... THE ALTERNATIVE CAN BE THREE WEEKS OF MISERY ... AND LOSS OF INCOME ... I LOST TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ON THOSE FOUR JOINT CONCERTS I HAD TO CANCEL.

Call your neighborhood RiteAid and they get it for you in one day.
In the meantime, you can make up some normal saline, use it as soon as you get up, in the morning and about every hour and a half ... for the next 72 hours. Even use it if you get up for a potty break, during in the night.

Normal Saline: The hard part is in approximating the correct amount of salt to add to the water. You are aiming for 8 grams per liter, to make ‘normal saline’ as it's called. Use a teaspoon measure used for cooking. I find that a very slightly heaped teaspoon is perfect for a liter of water, approx. 5 ml. A quart is close enough to a liter, so you don't have to worry if that's what you have, just make sure it's a full quart.
Since these proportions produce approximately the same ph as your bodies saline (tears), THERE WILL BE NO BURNING SENSATION!

Use table salt and don't fret if the water is out of the tap.
Read and approved by Dr. Schneider.

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