A Voice Apart

Everybody knows, and will be awaiting with anticipation, of what the predictions are - THE END OF THE WORLD... which is supposed to take place on December the 21st of the year 2012. I personally do not believe in it, but you never know... In Russia we say "there is now smoke without the fire". Therefore, every one of us has to have a reasonable doubt in our minds, hearts and souls... If it is the truth, have we accomplished everything we planned for this short or long life we've lived? Have we lived our lives to its fullest, have we sung to our heart's content, have we expressed our love to the world and to that particular one we truly have loved? In other words, have we succeeded so far and to the best of our knowledge in the time we have had, being present on this Earth? Running my own music business for nearly three decades, I've been hearing a lot of justifications: "not now, can not afford it now, some other time, when I find a better payi...

Yesterday, again, I was religiously watching yet another X Factor episode, which was dedicated to the American Thanksgiving Holiday. It was very emotionally charged, as the top 10 and the judges, especially the female clan, were crying, as for some reason, the participants were talking about the events which happened to them in the past, but not exactly the positive ones, for which they would want to be thankful, but rather, in my opinion, quite disturbing and intimate ones…  I suppose that was good for the show, but I am not sure if it was good for the performers, as a lot of them lost the quality of their singing , which is, in this instance, quite understandable.The question is, though, should they have had been driven to that state of mind, heart and soul, or rather, would that be more productive, performance wise, if it was a little less dramatic? For some of them, the emotions definitely took over, and their voices were not in their usual state. That, ...

Ever since 2002, I have been religiously watching all the reality TV shows concerning vocal performances. It started with American Idol , then it was followed by Canadian Idol and then, we got The Voice and almost right at the same time, we got X-Factor . Some of them are better than others, but all of them are quite entertaining. Sometimes, actually, they are almost too entertaining... What I mean by that is that the entertainment part is overshadowing the vocal performance part. In some cases, it looks ridiculous, as not every vocal performer is strong enough to offset the very good and strong dancers, not to mention tons of effects and "fireworks" on stage, so to speak. It does not actually help the artist to showcase their vocal talent. On the contrary, in my opinion, it is pretty distracting for the artist and for the audience. Also, especially this year, the quality of the vocal performance by the remaining top 10-12 participants has quite deteriorated...

In this article, I would like to talk a little bit about how to deal with voice problems. As much as I wish it wasn't the case, most untrained singers put unnecessary strain on their vocal cords and will as a result damage their voices. This is especially true for rock 'n roll singers who often strain to hit high notes to cut through the sound of distorted guitars and heavy drums. I don't know how many times I've heard amateur singers say that their throat is sore for quite a few days after a practice. And the problem is actually worse for professional but untrained singers; they go on long tours and have to sing every night in a smoky environment. These are the singers that you hear about having to cancel tour dates because their voices are giving out and hurting to the degree that they simply cannot perform. It also concerns professional actors, who act 24-7 and have to use their voice nonstop. Very often they require the same services as professional singers because,...