A Voice Apart

Muscle tension dysphonia is a term used to define significant change in the sound of one’s voice - usually due to the muscle strain in the neck. Hoarseness or discomfort via excessive muscle tension in and around the voice box, can be indicating signs of the beginning stages of this nasty voice disorder - MTD. Needless to say, muscle tension dysphonia disorder inhibits the sufferer from using their natural voice. MTD can easily develop, for example; due to some infectious diseases like laryngitis and can also remain to be even after the swelling of the vocal cords subsided. It can also be caused by stress, therefore potentially causing co-occurring voice problems. However, this kind of dysphonia may occur on its own, identified as primary MTD - or it may occur as a result of other underlying disorders, known as secondary MTD. What are the symptoms of this kind of dysphonia? Muscle tension dysphonia generally causes the voice to sound rough, hoarse, raspy, weak, breathy...

In the recent past, we had finished three non-surgical voice repair courses with people from out-of-town and out-of-country. The first international client, named Alberto ‘Maui’ Mauiztic (a singer/songwriter from Cozumel, Mexico) , came to us for just 20 hours of non-surgical voice repair coupled with the natural herbal treatment. He had severe pain in the throat while speaking and singing due to laryngitis and, nonetheless, vocal cord nodules. Due to the above, needless to say, his vocal cords were inflamed and strained.  - I would like to remind you, my reader, that the protocol for non-surgical voice repair, is a minimum of 30 hours (preferably 40 hours) of our very unique instruction and, of course, precise treatment with the applicable natural herbs and some homeopathic remedies, selected personally for each individual. _____ For greater clarity and in a manner of speaking, these types of courses are equivalent to a rehab (in this case - vocal rehab)...

At The Royans Professional Vocal School /The Royans Institute for Non-Surgical Voice Repair , we naturally get a large number of inquiries related to voice/vocal problems, issues and disorders. The majority of people who actually inquire about our services truly believe that the problem with the voice is physical as, in their opinion, something must have gone wrong with their voice and the sound; and now, via speech therapy or a vocal operation, they believe that they will solve all of their voice problems and thus will sound the same as before…or even better. Unfortunately, only the minority of voice disorder sufferers do realize that conventional speech therapy, or even a vocal operation for that matter, would actually change anything… Due to the level of their intelligence, they do have the understanding that something went wrong with their vocal mechanics; which, nevertheless, have to be fixed and put back intact and, needless to say, back in balance. Easier said then do...

We treat you and your voice above others! Your voice is sounding hoarse and raspy and your voice is almost lost …?  What should you do? Naturally, you would call your physician and ask for a referral to an ENT specialist. After waiting for a few months, you actually may get an appointment.  By that time, though, in the best scenario, your voice may get back to normal; but most likely, it will stay the same or it will get worse. It is much easier to treat any voice disorder at the beginning stages, so it is quite possible that the valuable time had been lost, and thus the non-surgical treatment may not be as successful as otherwise could be. On a personal note, I used to hire a private ENT just to clean my ears when needed. My ears are very important to me, as my super-sonic hearing (by the common opinion) allows me to hear the minutest details and changes in the human voice.  On this premise, I cannot allow just a regular nurse to attend to my ea...

Attending to clients who were in desperate need of voice repair for so many years, I have never seen so many people who not only had their voices compromised, but also their whole lives (their mental and emotional state), had appeared quite challenged. Some of them, of course, were more stable and more present then others. Those whose mental and emotional state was, to say the least, quite shaky, had a much harder time achieving the holistic transformation of their emotions; and, nonetheless, also achieving their altered way of thinking.  Nevertheless, they even had a hard time accepting their newly sounding v oice, as some of them had completely forgotten how their real voice actually sounded before they discovered that they had acquired a voice/ Vocal Disorder .  So...  somebody just lost their voice…?  So what, you may ask? “Let’s find a way to bring it back and make everybody happy”, you would think!   Unfortunately, it’s not that easy at al...

Last night, we happened to catch a concert which originated in Paris and the venue held, no doubts, over 60,000 people! It was truly packed. To the credit of all those people and the two well-known bands, in spite of the unstable political situation, the concert went on and actually, to my surprise, was very well received.  While watching the concert, I became more and more scared that singing (off key, off tone and off tune) is becoming our standard.  I originally came from Leningrad, (St. Petersburg, Russia), and was deeply enrolled from the age of 6 in all sorts of music. Education in Russia is taken very seriously; so I spent 12 consecutive years, 7 days a week doing music and, specifically, singing.  I, apparently, possessed ‘perfect pitch’ which, I am not sure right now that I still have.  I have been teaching singing since I was 17. That makes it close to 42 years now and 32 years in my own school here in Toronto.  ...