A Voice Apart

Lately, listening to the radio, we hear a lot of monotone sounds. Nowadays, artists, seem to be, do not have an ambition to show off their voices, like before when they were trying to reach the highest notes possible, or even the lowest possible, for that matter. It used to be their pride and joy to say that they own a three or four octaves range. Today, the whole world is "stuttering"on one, or maximum two, notes in a non-indentifiable range, instead of what was known before as singing, at least by definition. What happened, you may ask? Honestly, I don't know for sure, but what I do know is that I have stopped listening to the radio, even in my brand new car, nevertheless, fully equipped with the sophisticated audio  equipment. All the songs sound absolutely the same and almost plagiarized, via music producers who are trying to follow the trend. They think that if the particular style of the song has once or twice made it on the charts, then they should im

Needless to say that, on a regular basis, I have been getting phone calls and e-mails concerning  voice/vocal problems from speakers and singers. To almost all of them, the doctors had prescribed certain medications to conquer their acid reflux (needless to say that, not in every case, the above diagnosis was correct). Practically all doctors (specialists or not) prescribed to people with voice/vocal problems, a vocal rest. "Vocal rest?" you may exclaim! - If so, how useful could it be? In fact, in the majority of cases, it is; as after all, if you break your leg, you should not be hopping on it and running marathons. However, the patient with the broken leg (at the very least) is offered a cast, or corrective surgery first... and then the cast. The ENT doctors evidently think that if the person would stop singing, or even speaking, the problems will correct themselves. And granted, sometimes since the pressure from the vocal box is removed due to the extensive,

Teaching and producing artists for over three decades in Toronto, I sadly have been noticing that the music industry in Canada and particularly in Toronto is subsiding to nothing.  In the previous years, the solo artists, the bands, the pop groups were, so to speak, popping out almost on an everyday basis. What is happening now in the precious present, you may wonder? Where are those exiting acts, what happened to them, and why are we not hearing anything about anybody from our own, so to speak, “backyard”? Three and a half years ago, the young Canadian band with a lot of passion, great aspirations, dreams and stars in their eyes, approached me with the idea of the vocal improvement for a lead singer (now she works for me as a junior instructor and personal assistant), and then the idea of the recording of their very good and original material, which I partially also assisted them with. Couple of weeks ago, I have asked my assistant if they are still playing, or at l