A Voice Apart

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

*Mind, body and soul... and your voice*  In 1984, we have opened the school, which was originally named: The Royans School for the Musical Performing Arts . Almost right from the start, we have enrolled over 100 students, consisting of children, teenagers and adults. After my partner (the second Royan) had passed away in 1986, a year after, (in 1987), I changed the name of the school and it became well known as The Royans Professional Vocal School . And at that time, the school became primarily an adult vocal school and children became a minority. However, we always have been working with teenagers and young adults, developing their talents for the music industry at large.   Nevertheless though, working primarily with adults, provided me with a lot of experience and education concerning North American mentality. Being an educator by trade and a very inquisitive person by nature, I have been tuning in to those adults who allowed me to get themselves under my care; and not

What do we mean by that statement?   Given the political situation nowadays, we have decided to increase our travel regime to our clients.  Of course, we have done it before when clients were requesting us to do so. Now we are coming to you, (our potential clients), and are offering it to you outright to save you the hassle of traveling to a foreign country and, concurrently, to give you an opportunity to pursue your everyday routines with your children/parents, spouses and, if needed, work. We also understand that with the advisory being issued for international air travel, it became a little scary for some of our potential clients. We, (operating under the “Royans Universe”), feel quite safe to travel to you to fix your voice . So if the fear of terrorism is preventing you from traveling to us, (nevertheless, for a very good deed – to conquer your voice problems ), we are more than willing to come to you to solve all of your voice issues . We are rea

Lately, more and more people have been inquiring about their voice/vocal problems. It could be connected with enormous stress imposed on them due to the recession times, fear of losing their jobs, lack of financial stability and/or simply not taking care of their voices and themselves in general, or not knowing a simple voice/vocal technique which would empower their voice to the max, but would not promote the damage. Be it people who have speech difficulties or singers with vocal problems, they all have something in common. Both categories of people are looking for some “magic pill” which upon consumption will supposedly solve all of their voice problems.  We all wish it would be so. However, it is not as easy as it sounds. To repair the voice , be it speaking or singing, will take a lot more than just a “magic pill”, so to speak. However, some of the herbal remedies are so good and work so well on strengthening the vocal box and the vocal cords themselves

Apparently there is! And yes, it is possible and it is fixable… however, with great difficulty. For comparison, let’s look at classical ballet dancers: Everybody knows that ballerinas have to have a certain arch in their feet, especially females. It is detrimental to their careers if their feet are flat and not properly arched, because it would be difficult to do pirouettes; circling up to 32 revolutions ( fouettés)  with one leg while keeping the whole weight of the body on the other leg while the flat foot is virtually unable to hold the body weight. Similarly for singers, the upper palette (located in the vocal box) also has an arch and curve. The deeper that arch is, the more the "body of the voice" will be projected. The palette arch, however, is not everything, as the sound also needs to be supported simultaneously by the lower abdomen and upper diaphragm, or else the whole lift of the voice becomes obsolete. Singers can avoid cracks in their vo