A Voice Apart

Case Study! For many years we have been fixing people’s voices which have been affected by acid reflux…  One of the cases - of the year 2014 - stands out the most. A woman in her early 40’s walked into our studio and told us her story…  She was divorced from her very abusive husband, who happened to be a lawyer and also the father of her 10-year-old daughter.  So this beautiful woman of Middle-Eastern descent was now a single Mom and a kindergarten school teacher.  Due to her occupation (dealing with young children all-day), she had to speak a lot and also sing rhymes and songs with quite a large group of preschoolers… Meanwhile, she told us that she got a hole in her esophagus; and, due to that fact, her gastric acid was uncontrollably shooting to her throat…  Naturally, her voice was very-much-so affected; therefore, causing her voice to sound raspy and hoarse. I had to explain to her that she had two related problems: One of them was purely medical and the other one was a wrong app

Evidently not… It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Let’s analyze what has been happening in the last few years and, nevertheless, recently: Majority of our very talented artists had experienced vocal problems in one-way or another. A lot of them had undergone vocal operations: Adele John Mayer Joan Rivers Megan Trainor Sam Smith Roger Daltrey Steven Tyler Keith Urban Michael Buble And that’s to name a few… All of the above-listed people are talented artists, but obviously, the majority of them had been lacking the proper vocal technique; and thus, they ended up having vocal issues (and some of them more serious than others). Could they have avoided the interruption of their professional lives, careers, joy and monetary loss? No doubts they could - They just could have been more attentive to the technical aspects of their craft and not just rely on their talents and love for music. Could you imagine a figure skater trying to jump a triple or quad

How to Become and Remain to be a Professional Singer  (Part 2) But… What about the Vocal Style? Can it be taught? Let’s Find Out! In this article, I would like to talk about interesting observations that I have made over my 37 years as a vocal coach and voice repair specialist while being the founder of the Royans Professional Vocal School aka The Royans School for the Musical Performing Arts - since 1984. Since that time teaching voice has been our primary focus. Not too many people realize that there are several aspects that must be addressed with respect to the singing craft in general. Let’s elaborate on that, my dear reader: First of all, I would like to bring to your attention that when we begin talking about singing, we will be talking about two separate, but very much so related elements: physical sound and artistic performance. Before I will begin discussing anything further (regarding the above-described matter), I would like to bring to your attention, my reader, that the p

Since 1984, we have been receiving students who really wanted to make it in the music business. And a lot of them did. Many of them got signed with major record labels, as well as, had won many singing competitions including international ones. At the time, (end of 80s until the middle of 2000s) I primarily dealt with rock and pop singers (or wannabe singers)... Those years, especially our singing students, were very ambitious and inspiring young people. Many of them had their goals set and the majority of them actually achieved their goals with flying colours. I have to say, that the people those days, in general, possessed enthusiasm and inspiration, to say the least. They were very motivated to reach their goals whatever it took. They were not distracted by text, email and social media overall. They actually used their brains (and actually had them). Nowadays, they are using the internet instead of their brains - looking for instant gratification, so to speak. In a real sense, peopl

Lately, more and more inquiries I get are from people who suffer from a very nasty "voice disorder" called spasmodic dysphonia (SD) . In a real sense, it's not per se just a voice disorder - it can also be a neurological disorder, whereas the symptoms of the above-described, produce uncontrollable voice spasms. Below is the story of my female client (64 years old) from Missouri USA. She was diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia disorder and naturally thought that something just incidentally happened to her voice...? She was diagnosed by an ENT specialist, but was never advised what she could do about her voice condition. When I got her and her husband on the phone, I naturally started to ask them questions with respect to how and when that happened and of course, if they could think of anything that could have triggered that condition. They both replied that their lives were pretty much free of stress and they couldn't see or think of any possible cause of that disorder

Yes, it could! I, my reader, would like to introduce you to some stories that we had come across. In the year 2014, I got an e-mail from a person who said that she had been diagnosed with Muscle Tension Dysphonia . In that e-mail, she said that her speaking voice was quite compromised and that she was seeking help in that regard.  As usual, I responded and asked her to give me a call so that I could hear her voice - and would know what I would potentially be dealing with in order to help her to the best of my knowledge. She had never called; thus it was left up in the air… In the year 2015, I got yet another e-mail from her, reminding me that we had already communicated (via e-mail) a year ago. In this e-mail, she was revealing that now, her Muscle Tension Dysphonia had turned into Spasmodic Dysphonia. She also warned me that her speaking voice got exponentially worse. I have an extremely good memory, and I could recall right away who she was. So right from my p