A Voice Apart

More and more, I am getting inquiries from people who have problems with their voice . Some of them ruined it due to wrong application of their voice while incorrectly speaking and/or singing. Some of them acquired some kind of a virus-like strep throat infection or random various respiratory inflammations. Others had weird accidents, like bicycle, car or construction; the results of which actually, physically, damaged their vocal anatomy. Some people have had even unrelated surgeries where the breathing tubes were installed incorrectly and thus, their throats were, literally, ruined. However, independently of the cause, all of them have had some similar symptoms like 'raspiness', hoarseness, difficult and slow speech, and in some cases, slight or heavy stuttering/involuntary spasms. So, independently of the cause, all of them have been in need of a voice repair , and needless to say, all of them were hoping for a non-surgical solution.  Is it possible, you ma

Lately, I have been having more inquiries about almost all types of growth on the vocal folds (vocal cords). The most “popular” inquiries are about nodules on the vocal cords and, nonetheless, also polyps on the vocal folds. Over the years, I, non-surgically, have treated all kinds of unpleasant vocal disorders, and I have to say that the polyps are the most stubborn of all. Moreover, they have tendencies to multiply even after they have been removed surgically. A good example of that would be the case of a singer named John Mayor.   Polyps have some kind of a viral nature, opposed to nodes and nodules.   I believe that due to that, they could multiply and multiply fast. I also know the cases where those nasty polyps turned cancerous. Not too long ago, I got a phone call from an apparently quite known solo Artist’s husband.   According to him, his wife, a solo guitar player and singer, was diagnosed with a polyp on the vocal cord 6 years ago. She was offered surgical removal of

Evidently, and independently of age, social background or education, the majority of people like to sing, some of them recreationally, but a lot of them have dreams of one day becoming a professional singer/performer. Some people think; how hard could that be?? Let’s just open the mouth and produce the loud sound from the bottom of the throat and from the top of the lungs? However, it would be easy if it wasn’t so hard. These unaware and naive people also think that the harder they push, the more they will accomplish. To their surprise, it works exactly the opposite, and sometimes those experiments produce vocal injuries, which are not always easy to reverse. For some reason the structure and the training is not recognized in the field of the voice work. If the inexperienced figure skater decides to jump triple axel without proper training, he will definitely injure himself, and will be out of commission for some time.  Needless to say, it applies to gymnastics, bal

While talking to one of my European clients the other day, who has  been diagnosed with quite serious vocal injuries, I found out that he  went to one of the most renowned voice institutes in Europe where they  promised that they will fix everything non-surgically, and after that  he will sing and speak the way he used to. Meanwhile, nothing has improved and the former professional singer is still out of commission, and still searching for ways to fix his voice, and fulfill his hope to go back on stage and do the real live singing again. When I ask him, what exactly has been done to improve your voice condition? He answered, that they were strengthening his voice by asking him to sing in rock-n roll style....? I nearly fell off the couch that I was sitting on while talking with him. The rock-n roll genre is the most “honest”, and thus the most difficult to perform. It requires a really good vocal apparatus, healthy anatomy inside of it, and absolute knowledge of the prop

It Could Be, Very Much So, A Life Altering Experience. For the almost three decades of the Royans Professional Vocal School's existence, I've been attending to people of all walks of life -- all heights, weights, colours and genders. Needless to say, some of them had more vocal talents than others; and some did not have any at all. But all of them, evidently, wanted to express themselves through music. Some of them came purely for singing lessons; some of them had other agendas. A lot of them were trying to find themselves through the means of music and singing, as some of them were lacking their own identity. The voice is an expression of a person's being. It is also an identification of who that person is. Throughout my practice, I have sometimes pictured the person completely differently while talking to them on the phone. Sometimes, for example, I wasn't quite sure if I was speaking with a woman or a man. Those people, have been experiencing the most prob

Evidently, Rock style singing requires more precise vocal technique than any other style. The fact is, that Rock singers are using much more aggressive sounds and, in the majority of cases, they are almost forcing their voices to perform the high level of what I call, "Vocabatics". I compare it to the "Snowbirds" airplane show here in Toronto at the CNE, where they do all kinds of aerobatics which indeed, are very fascinating to watch. No doubt, that the pilots have to be very experienced and have a lot of flown hours under their belts, to perform a high intensity and synchronized show like that, in the air. The Rock singing style is a very honest genre in my opinion. You either can sing and put your voice almost through the ringer, or you can't. You can not fake it. Like figure skating, you can either jump a triple axel or acquire a serious injury if you don't know how. It takes a lot of hours of training and proper technique to be able to surviv