A Voice Apart

 I have more and more inquiries from people who used to sing for some time in the past; and suddenly, (or at least so they thought), lost their singing range and some of them even lost their singing voice altogether . Now they are older and in their 40s (and counting), and they still cannot get a grip on the notion that their love and joy of singing might never be present again...? Quite a few years later after the occurrence, they had been still upset and even depressed about it.   Of course, they had been through numerous visits to doctors, speech therapists, pathologists and nevertheless many vocal coaches. However, in the majority of cases, it did not add up to any tangible, needless to say, expected results. With the above said, since they had lost their love and joy to be able to sing effortlessly and painlessly, their lives were never the same. Their passion and desire for expressing themselves, (telling their stories and expressing their emotions through sin...

Acid Reflux affecting Vocal Cords? Can it also provoke a Muscle Tension Dysphonia Diagnosis? Go Figure!!! Lately, more and more voice issue sufferers are coming to me with the most - seem to be common - diagnosis such as acid reflux affecting the vocal cords, and also  muscle tension dysphonia   pr ovoked by acid reflux. Why those two specific voice disorders described above are very common, you may ask? Are there any other  vocal problems  that people also experience?   Of course, there are! The rest of them are much more obvious growths on the vocal cords or even throat - (For example,  nodes, nodules, polyps , cysts, lesions, etc). But what appears to be interesting is that if the person (let’s say with a hoarse/raspy voice) is not diagnosed with any growth on their vocal cords, he/she is immediately labelled with one or the other diagnosis - i.e, either g...

Yes, you may think that you do have asthma, especially if you are experiencing shortness of breath and difficulty swallowing food. Indeed, it is possible that you do have asthma, but it is also possible that you do have problems with your voice to be positioned in the lower throat, and thus, blocking your airway. So asthma or not, it probably would be a good idea to work on your voice and re-channel it to the upper facial muscles which, in turn, will begin to work in full conjunction and coordination with your abdominal muscles, thus to have your voice lifted off of the vocal box and off of the vocal cords. So, in this instance, your air will have a clear path and your asthma symptoms may disappear in an instant. Also, your voice will sound much clearer and your pronunciation and annunciation will become very distinct.  Needless to say, applying natural herbs and remedies onto your throat will clear out your vocal anatomy from all kinds of impurities, such as m...

Do not ever give up hope! Do not ever listen to the, so-called medical professionals prompting you to accept your voice condition and learn how to live with it! How pathetic is that?   Those medical professionals do not offer any solutions and could not care less that you had spent most of your life on stage singing and do not know, or want, any other lifestyle, but the one you like and love. One of our former clients (throat cancer survivor) was told exactly that and was encouraged to be thankful to be alive. Meanwhile, that very client had spent over 45 years on stage playing guitar and singing in a rock band. After C hemo and R adiation, his fingertips lost the sensation of touch and his voice was forever raspy and hoarse, (both speaking and singing). How frustrating could that be? My answer would be : A bove and B eyond !   Even though my client was suggested to accept it and “ be happy to be alive !"   H e certainly did not want to follow that guidance. To his...

Yes, of course, you can convince yourself to postpone it until next year, as you now will be busy with the holidays, holiday shopping, your children and whatnot. But should you really wait and put it on the back burner? Some things in our lives cannot wait for better days or better weather. For example,  Muscle Tension Dysphonia  (MTD)   could easily turn into Spasmodic Dysphonia , (which is definitely not going to be fun), and any growth on the vocal cords such as polyps , nodules , lesions , cysts (and what have you), could turn into  cancer of the throat , especially if all of it is emotionally induced. Our non-surgical voice repair Vocal Science™Method  - and, nonetheless, consisting of its very unique voice/vocal technique, is truly accelerated and straight to the point whereas the healing of the vocal problems and voice disorders are being solved with the speed of light (hours and days, not months or years).  I would ...

Over the years, I have been attending to many clients with voice problems who had undergone speech therapies of one kind or another. Unfortunately for them, they have not gotten anything out of it and some of them actually got worse. Needless to say that, at best, they left the speech therapy office feeling exactly the same as quite a few speech sessions ago and “quite a few” dollars spent. They were especially doomed if they came to speech therapy to fix their singing voice. The fact is that those speech therapists are not trained in vocals, thus they could not be knowledgeable in the restoration of voice mechanics . Some of the singers who have , so to speak, lost their ability to sing for whatever reason, actually have their speaking voice intact or close to normal. When they come to speech therapy, they are asked to blow into a kazoo or blow a bubble into the water. They are also asked to “moo and hum” some strange sounds, which really have nothing to do...

Attention all Speakers and Singers! If you have noticed that your speaking or singing voice is not performing as per usual and rather sounds lower and somewhat hoarse, PLEASE STOP !!! If you continue speaking in your usual manor and disregard the fact that your voice is feeling scratchy and your throat is feeling itchy, you might lose your voice completely and for some time ahead. Singers: please do not continue singing if you have noticed that it is much harder now to reach your high notes, which normally would not be a problem and if you have to push and pull your voice out of your inflamed, sore throat . At that time, you may also notice that your voice has deepened and has begun to sound scratchy and hoarse. If you don’t stop in time and look into your voice and vocal anatomy problem, that could be very much the end of your singing career. Coaching and repairing voices for over 40 years , I had a lot of cases where the performer did not stop on time...