A Voice Apart

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 t...

Feeling uncertain, anxious, scared and even hopeless?  WE CAN HELP! When a sudden voice problem or vocal issue occurs, the person becomes quite confused (not understanding what had just happened with their speaking and/or singing voice and why their voice became not only raspy and hoarse, but also their throat had gone on fire with a lot of pain...).  Nevertheless, the sufferer also begins to experience not only a lot of pain in the throat, but also experience severe tightness in their neck - to the point that the person would actually be reluctant to speak at all... What is happening…?! Why is it happening?!  They were exclaiming in their minds! These people have been desperately searching for answers!! But, apparently, it is not as easy as it sounds! They urgently ran to their family doctor and of course, those sufferers had gotten a referral to see an ENT specialist. However, they still haven’t received any definitive diagnosis or even satisfactory answers ...

Please think again!! Needless to say that, for over four decades of my voice and voice repair business, I have been getting a lot of calls where I was asked if I am a registered speech therapist and if I accept insurance which would cover  speech therapy and speech pathology . A majority of those inquirers had already been through numerous conventional ENT doctors and speech therapists. Nonetheless, according to them and, throughout my observations, they had never achieved any tangible results which they (or me), for that matter, could account for.   After their quite negative experience, my doomed potential clients decided to look for something else - like an alternative form of speaking and/or singing voice therapy. However, while trying to embark on the above-mentioned matter (alternative voice therapy), they still desperately were trying to acquire conventional benefits…?  Go figure!  I usually tell them: “When something does not work...

With the Vocal Science™ method and its own very unique vocal technique, we have proven quite a few medical professionals wrong! - Case Study #1: Tim Bristol of Niagara Falls, New York - The above-named non-surgical voice repair client of ours was given a “sentence” of “the point of no return”. The ENT professionals were stating that many of our clients (formally theirs) would never recover their speaking and/or singing voices ever again… With the above in mind… let’s profile a throat cancer survivor named Tim Bristol. Some time ago, he came to us seeking a viable solution for his very serious voice problem, after surviving throat cancer. Tim has been a musician, singer/songwriter (at the time) for over 45 years of his life. From his words, his whole life had mainly revolved around music. Also, from his words, while performing on many stages, which he was playing from, he saw nothing but “blue light”. So, needless to say, the constant second-hand smoke was inhaled by Tim, night ...

What do we mean by that? We mean… NO singing and NO skating… per say. “It’s quality of skating, not quantity of jumps” - states Canadian figure skating champion, Patric Chan. “Skating can be rewarded” -   said the figure skating commentator, Rod Black, after the U.S. well-known skater, James Brown’s ice performance. James Brown himself said: “ Of course, I can land ripples and quads, but not in the expense of the artistry!” Given all that, in this case, the skaters themselves are revolting against “ice acrobatics” and overall “ice circus”, so to speak.  They actually have been missing the artistry of their craft, as well as poise and grace, which had always made figure skating field a very special place where they had an opportunity to show off their very special skills (and not just very dangerous and vigorous jumps which, in turn, could, at any time, become very detrimental to their body’s anatomy and physiology). I just watched a pre-holiday movie w...

- Revised and modernized version from July 23rd, 2011 I've been teaching, consulting and recording vocalists for close to four decades. I've also been conducting group vocal interactive workshops and seminars for the longest time. It is extremely interesting to watch and experience the changes with each generation. What was happening before is history. What is happening today is reality. And today's reality is very confusing, and at times, disheartening. On one hand, people are much more advanced now than they've ever been. In what sense you may ask? Definitely technologically. Also quite definitely, intellectually, as the technology gives them access to much wider venues than they could have ever dreamt of.  Yet, physically speaking, it's another story. The Vocal Science ™  method, which I have been advocating for quite a few years, requires an integration and synergy between mental, physical, emotional and vocal components. Unless all of those compon...

What we mean by this is that the human voice possesses a ‘rainbow of colours’, so to speak. It also possesses different varieties of voice performance .  Singers always say that sometimes they really have ‘good days’ with their voice, i.e., their voice obeying their commands and give them the right tonality, bright tone and perfect pitch; whereas some other times, they refer to the ‘bad days’, i.e., when the voice sounds dark in tone and the pitch and projection also suffer. Objectively, the latter, in this case, depends on the mood of a singer, the weather and, perhaps, the personal circumstances prevailing the performance.  All of the above is somewhat good, but wouldn’t it be even better if the singer did not depend on the outer factors; but would mostly depend on the professional training and proper vocal technique, pertaining to the vocal performances and studio recordings.  After all, we are talking about the human being and the human voice h...

To find out what they are, Please Read On... Due to this digital and very chemically polluted world, we are receiving more and more inquiries about various vocal disorders which people experience on a day by day basis.  Our fruits and vegetables are chemically altered and our chickens (for example) are double-sized, due to be fed and raised with hormones and antibiotics.  All of the above weakens our immune systems and makes us susceptible to all kinds of diseases; and unfortunately, cancer is one of them. Almost on an everyday basis, we are hearing about peoples’ thyroids being removed (usually due to cancer); and then, as a result of that, one (or even both) vocal cords  become paralyzed ! Also, people who have their regular diets consisting of a lot of fat, mucus and acids, could get a problem with the excess of gastric acid in their bodies, which could produce what’s called acid reflux; and which, in turn, may burn ones’ vocal cords and (on top of it) res...