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...

Dear Reader, We would like to share some excerpts from the email that sometime (in the recent past) reached our office. However, due to privacy considerations, we would have to omit some personal details. This person (whose pictures you see above) was suggested and thus, underwent the vocal operation, as her vocal polyp was actually a serious bleeding one...  For those who suffer from a similar, or even the same voice disorder, we would like these sufferers to think twice before they choose invasive vocal surgery, which in the final analysis, could leave some scar tissue(s), whereas, at that point, it may not appear to be possible to be fixed non-surgically.  In fact, there are a lot of consequences that could be experienced during or after surgical interventions.  We had numerous clients with various voice disorders who came to us after the surgery was performed - and some of them hardly could speak, let alone sing… Please see the aforementioned email belo...

Vernon (left) - Brenda (Middle) Diana (Right) Completeion of 30 hours of non-surgical voice repair. - Case Study #2: Brenda Mooers of Calgary, Alberta Canada - Brenda arrived to our establishment on November 1st 2018. She is a 51 year old woman who has been going through hormonal changes. Sometime prior to inquiring about our services, Brenda went to a medical doctor and presented her problem to him. Her doctor prescribed testosterone needles, which had to be administered to Brenda by her husband on an everyday basis. But… incidentally, the doctor prescribed a triple dose of the latter (3 milligrams instead of 0.3 milligrams). Moreover, this very doctor never ordered a blood test to detect the exact amount of testosterone she would actually need (if any…?). So our doomed client diligently followed her doctor’s wrong instructions and suddenly discovered that her voice tone dropped 3 levels below her normal voice; and at that lower level position, her voice started to crack an...

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 ...

Case Study #2 - Todd, ORLANDO, Perusini Todd ORLANDO Perusini came through our doors on February the 4th of 2008. At the time, he was residing in Mexico (he was originally from Okanagan Valley, B.C.). He had a one-millimetre nodule on his right vocal cord. He was very disturbed by it, as his speaking voice (raspy and hoarse at the time) was affecting his very prominent real-estate career. But also, Todd’s biggest pleasure in life was to compose songs (primarily in Jazz style) and record his voice singing. Nonetheless, that too was greatly compromised. Todd was suggested to undergo an immediate vocal operation. He, though, was super cautious and thus decided to try a non-surgical approach. Todd contacted us and, nevertheless, had given us quite a hard time with regards to convincing him that we could help him to get rid of his nodule non-surgically. Still being very cautious, he booked a non-surgical voice repair course and treatment for the minimum duration of only 10 hours....

Let's look at your vocal cords from a professional point of view:  Your vocal cords (within your voice box) are not just strings… They are a delicate form of fold tissues (muscles) with a very thin lining on the outside. And just like any other tissues within the body, if not taken care of properly, they evidently can get damaged. Normally, when people start to exhibit vocal cord problems, they may not even notice them and thus, do not find the need to address them until the problems (like strained vocal cords, bleeding vocal cords or other forms of vocal cord damage) become severe enough to warrant a visit to the doctor or a qualified voice specialist. Vocal cord dysfunction (VCD) happens when the vocal cords are unable to open properly. This is also referred to as paradoxical vocal fold movement. VCD is sometimes confused with asthma as some of the symptoms are very similar. With VCD, the vocal cords close instead of opening up, when you breathe in and out. This closure ...

Has Your Voice Been Compromised Due To The Above? You had a stroke… and luckily, you survived! In a lot of cases, after the stroke occurs, either the right side or the left side of the body ends up to be paralyzed.  Also, in a lot of cases, the speech centre is also greatly effected, and thus the survived-patient’s speech is very much so compromised. In some cases, it is still recoverable, but in others, unfortunately, the speech remains to be permanently impaired.  For those cases where I could use an alternative approach to voice mechanics , the recovery is still going to be a slow and tedious process, which will require a lot of patience from the person in question and myself.  Usually, a stroke survivor has a very slow and quite slurred speech, not to mention usually pretty faint. Obviously, there is not much enunciation, pronunciation or articulation is precent in those cases. So in order to enhance the above, a lot of special speech exercises hav...

Had Your Voice Been Compromised Due To The Above? Unfortunately, after being diagnosed with such a nasty disease like throat cancer and then, as a consequence, having to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments, the voice could be very easily compromised and the vocal anatomy could also end up damaged.  The medical doctors, in this case, are usually trying to convince their patients to be grateful that they survived (never mind their damaged voice or anything else which ended up being damaged for that matter).   They usually say: “ Be grateful that you are alive and don’t worry about your voice ”. It’s easy for them to say, but the person who use to speak (or even sing) with a normal voice, feels quite inadequate, as he/she has a communication breakdown via a raspy/hoarse voice , or sometimes, even no voice at all. Nevertheless, that person is affected with everyday life challenges, not to mention work challenges and… even the loss of the la...

Hardly finish your tour? Does your throat hurt after performances? Voice sounding hoarse? If your answer is yes, the above are the symptoms of an overused and abused vocal anatomy. The worst part is if you continue doing it without changing your manner of speaking and singing, it will lead to the need for a serious voice repair and not necessarily a non-surgical one. By that time, if you attempt to attain the non-surgical voice repair, it might be too late. Then you are facing a laser or a scalpel operation, which could result in scar tissue, which by itself could be more detrimental than the original damage... This could be your worst nightmare. The reason I am writing this blog is to prevent you from that possibility. The prevention is definitely far better than dealing with serious vocal damage . What does prevention entail, you may ask? Learning the proper skills for speaking and singing before you embark on any performance or that nasty tour which m...

More and more, my practice seems to consist of non-surgical voice repair cases. The speakers, the singers and the wannabe singers, are pouring into my studio in Toronto as well as in my alternative location in UK. Nevertheless, people always had problems with their voices and perhaps not necessarily less than today. However, no doubt, the food and the air, i.e. environment overall, used to be much cleaner and more pure than today. Outside of the environment, people in the past were more conscious of the education in general and vocal training in particular. In the past, they appreciated the knowledge which was giving them confidence about the safety of the use of their voice. In the past, people had dignity and integrity and a lot of them were coming to me, with or without any indicative vocal problem and were saying, "I want to sing in a better and more respectable venue and not in a toilet bar." Today, they don't care how and where they sing, as long as they...

Not only a great amount of people are losing voices these days, but also a lot of them are experiencing severe pain in their throats. Before, we had complaints, primarily from singers; but more and more, just regular people (speakers) are complaining on extreme discomfort in their vocal box in general.  The singers are usually ruining their vocal anatomy simply for the lack of education and simple knowledge; and thus, lack of the proper vocal technique. They very often end up with laryngitis , i.e., with the hoarse and raspy voice ; not to mention an extreme pain in their throats. The singers (also very often) end up with the growth on their vocal cord(s); such as polyps, nodules, cysts and etc.   The regular people who do not take proper care of their voice and (in majority of times) their health in general, usually end up with muscle tension dysphonia or spasmodic dysphonia .  Nevertheless, they (of course) are also susceptible to the growth on thei...