A Voice Apart

Should you continue singing the same way you have always been singing?  Should you ignore the unusual symptoms like hoarseness and dryness of the voice, loss of range, change of tone, etc.? These are your answers; You are a singer and have been for a long time. Your voice has never let you down for some time now, but, as musicians like to say, there is no gig lasts forever! Now you are not just getting mature, but you are also getting older and have had a lot of shows under your belt. Suddenly, you started noticing that you cannot reach the same high notes which you never had a problem with in the past, your tone of the voice is not the same and at times, you are even experiencing pitch problems, which you never had a problem with in the past. After the show, your voice and nevertheless, yourself, feeling exhausted and your voice sounds raspy and hoarse.  Those are very unfamiliar symptoms to you and now you are puzzled, concerned and even in panic. Your livelih...

 As technology progresses, more and more, I have been asked if I could do my instruction and an actual voice treatment via Skype, FaceTime, or phone.  The people who are inquiring sincerely believe that the above is possible.  I have news for them, IT IS NOT!!!  The problem with the voice is a serious matter and it has to be treated seriously.  Yes, perhaps, you can learn how to play guitar or even piano remotely, but the voice is an “internal instrument” and it requires special manipulations with the body and body language to discover it, uncover it, and recover it from within; especially when it’s trapped in the neck, shoulders, and chest, not to mention throat and nasal passages.  In this case the physical body has to be completely balanced and centred, the subconscious and conscious mind have to be aligned, the intellectual understanding has to be totally coupled with motor skills, and thus the wholesome mechanism has to be in p...

Nowadays, a lot of singers are susceptible to a variety of vocal disorders.  That happens because in the first place they never “owned” the right vocal technique , the kind which would prosper their voice to the fullest capacity possible; and at the same time it would save and protect their voice for life.  The result – Voice Disorder .  Now the process of restoration of one’s voice begins.  A lot of those students, “who were really very good students,” have learned the wrong technique really well and formed it into their vocal habits.  Not only do we have to fix their “vocal instrument,” so to speak, but also have to get rid of bad habits, like: dropping their jaws down, sticking their stomach out, scooping and sitting under the notes, excessively using their nasal passages, or their very throaty sounds.  It’s easier said than done, though.  Those habits are usually deeply embedded in the person’s psyche and the body m...