A Voice Apart

What a beautiful article written about the legendary Joan Rivers! When I came to Canada almost 35 years ago I was trying to watch as much TV as I could to learn the language. Although I didn’t fully understand her humour at the time, I was impressed by comedian Joan Rivers. Joan had beautiful energy and a very animated personality, and she spoke very loudly with huge command and conviction in her voice. However, being a voice specialist, I immediately noted that she was using her voice incorrectly, as her voice was obviously coming out from the back of her neck and the very bottom of her throat.  In all honesty, I am amazed that her voice lasted as long as it did!  That said, it is evident that, genetically, she was a very strong woman with a very strong personality. In a general sense, no human voice could withstand such pressure applied onto the vocal box for a prolonged period of time. However, you could clearly hear in her performances in recent years that her voice

In this blog, I would like to speak about the human voice in general and the speaking and singing voice in particular. Many people, especially those who are not singers, have no Idea that something may happen to their voice. They get the odd cold or virus, lose their voice momentarily and for a short term, but then regain it fairly quickly and go back about their lives, as per normal. Unfortunately, they do not even have a clue that, at the time of the cold or when the virus occurs, they have to be extra careful and extra gentle to their, somewhat bruised, voice. Being quite unaware of what the consequences might be, they continue as before; speak a lot, speak loud, scream and sing. Then, finally, they get rid of the cold but, to their surprise, find out that their voice never got back to normal!   It still sounds raspy, low and actually, altogether hoarse, as it does not have its usual tone or resonation for that matter. That’s when, unfortunately, the ordeal

When the person with a voice disorder is trying to live a (so to speak) normal life, he/she is definitely experiencing some difficulties in communication with others; nevertheless, at their work place and even in their family lives. They are usually very frustrated with their voice which is not, by far, sounding the same as before. They are also not very well understood and are, quite often, being asked several times to repeat or to reiterate what they were trying to say. That makes those people with voice disorders understandably very irritable and overall, very emotional. They feel like they are handicapped (in a manner of speaking), and understandably so. Some of them are so disillusioned that they carry with them a sign, advising the strangers that they have difficulty to speak. Others who have lost the hope to regain a normal voice are even starting to learn sign language.  How sad is that?  A lot of those people have lost hope with respect of living their norma