Vocally Speaking; If your leg is broken, will it be wise to run a marathon, in a manner of speaking?

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 proper application of the voice, as otherwise, the vocal anatomy could be ruined in the nick of time, and without any warning.

I have to note that my potential client is a classical singer, and definitely has no knowledge on how to sing rock. It never ceases to amaze me that a lot of vocal coaches put all the genres and styles under the same umbrella. Let’s take for example, skating: There is figure-skating, there is speed-skating, and there is hockey skating.

All of them fall under the umbrella of skating, but the purpose and technique of each listed above styles of skating are vastly different. The skates are different, and the purpose of performance is also different. Meanwhile, in the music business, they mash all the styles together while concurrently saying that if the person knows how to sing opera, he can sing rock-n roll...?

In my potential client’s case, it happened the opposite, as he  revealed to them that he was a classical singer already, therefore  they decided to reverse the facts, and asked him to sing hard rock,  which was designed, according to them, to “strengthen” his voice. If you visualize an athlete, who while running ended up with a broken  leg, will anybody, in their right mind, suggest to him to run more on  a broken leg, and preferably to participate in a marathon?

I personally don’t think so.

Once the leg is broken, it has to be put in a cast and allowed to be healed. However, in my philosophy with respect to the vocal injury, you are  not necessarily have to have a vocal rest, as I provide rest for the  vocal anatomy via special speech and vocal exercises,  lifting and  restricting the sound to a different set of muscles, thus relieving  the vocal box from the pressure of the sound. Therefore, leaving the vocal anatomy alone, and allowing it to heal, I concurrently begin the actual voice repair, employing developed by me, unique vocal technique, and simultaneously using natural herbs and remedies to heal the vocal anatomy. 

To conclude: You cannot pretend, so to speak, that nothing happened while vocal  injury has occurred, but on the contrary, treat it with care, and yes,  give it a rest while, however, working on the problem, smart and not  hard.