A Voice Apart

Often watching figure skating (I'm the biggest fan), I'm also listening to the precise words of the commentators. The title which I gave to this blog is a quotation from one of the recent competitions I was watching on the TV. One of the Russian skaters representing Canada was showing a great talent on ice, but at the same time showing the lack of training and lack of maturity, which defines a professional skater. He was fresh from the junior competition, where he earned the title of the champion, but was still skating on a junior level, not defined and not strong enough with the execution of his jumps and even the overall skating. It was clear that he had the raw talent, but it was not supported by a professional coaching, at least it seemed to be that he did not have enough of it. The commentators expressed the hope that down the road, given his talent, he would be able to climb up on the top of the charts and perhaps, one day may be qualified for the Olympic Games,

Just several days ago, I have celebrated the 40 th  Anniversary of what was once called, The Royans  School for the Musical Performing Arts. In 1987, the school changed its name and profile and became the world-renowned, The Royans Professional Vocal School , specializing in singing, speech and non-surgical  voice repair . So generally speaking, the school henceforth specialized primarily in voice, and in whichever shape or form it does reflect the identity of a specific human being and defines the state of one's being. To date, the estimated amount of students and clients who went through our doors is over 30,000 people. I could sense their personalities. Therefore, I could simply guess the state of their relationships with their parents, boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses and even just friends. Also, I could see how all of the above affects a person's state of (vocal) being.  In fact, the voice is the hardest "instrument" to power... Even on an everyday basis

Over the years, I have attended to quite a few people with various voice disorders, speaking and singing. Interestingly enough, in the case of stuttering, in particular, singing could actually help to cure, or significantly minimize, this very annoying and unpleasant for the person and for the listener, disorder. In fact, watching the recent American Idol episodes, you could see a young, quite good-looking, contestant singing perfectly, but stumbling upon (stuttering), each and every word. It is quite a phenomenon, people might think. In reality, it is not. The Vocal Science ™ method, which I discovered, suggests that the speaking and singing sound should be placed and should come out off of the upper vocal chambers, (facial cavities) and not the vocal cords, at least, after the initial first syllable of the word is initiated. The contestant in American Idol does it intuitively and experientially, but not knowing the science behind it. Therefore, it works for him when he is singing, bu

The social skills psychology. In part 1 of the same titled blog, we were talking more about the voice as a tool for a successful communication and its application for a successful interview for the future desirable employment. Outside of the voice, the potential employee needs to know exactly how to answer, which could be very intricate questions, thrown at him by a potential employer. I was amazed how self absorbed and self centered my client appeared    when he introduced me to the potential questions and gave me an example of his answers back to the interviewer. It was all about him and what he wanted, instead of trying to convince a future employer that he would be an invaluable performer for the aforementioned company and his future position in it, and that’s the objective why he would want to work for this new company would be his potential professional growth, and thus, professional satisfaction, pride and joy. Instead, he was answering the questi