A Voice Apart

If You Suffer From These Symptoms Listed Below...  You May Have MTD or SD Voice Disorder! Have you, perhaps, THREW YOUR VOICE OFF OF A VOCAL BALANCE…? -Drowned your voice Deeply in your Lower Throat Position…? - Experience Hoarseness and Raspiness…? - Have Difficulty to Swallow…? - Have Difficulty Breathing…? - Feel Pain in the Throat and/or Neck…? - Does your throat feel Dry at All Times…? - Acid Reflux perhaps…? - No doubt, excessive Mucus…? ….Find out how we can help you - Naturally / Holistically / Alternatively… For many years we have been receiving people with the above-listed symptoms. Practically all of them came to us with a diagnosis of either Muscle Tension Dysphonia (MTD) or Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD). The majority of those people have been mainly concerned with their speaking voice, however, there were also singers who were not necessarily diagnosed with MTD or SD, but who had a dry throat, excess of mucus, and/or gastric acid and thus they also possessed a raspy and ho...

Vocally speaking… Who do you think your worst enemy is... The answer is… Your Subconscious Mind!! You must know that the signal from the brain first comes out of the subconscious mind, and only then will it trigger the desired action... Evidently, the action always comes first before the conscious mind realizes it. That is why it is so difficult to get rid of old bad habits - like bad posture, which interferes with the proper projection of the sound, wrong speech patterns, wrong formation of the syllables, vowels, and words in general. Especially concerning MTD (MuscleTension Dysphonia) or SD (Spasmodic Dysphonia) sufferers, I found that they experience complete misalignment between their subconscious and conscious minds, as well as their physical bodies - and that’s where, as a result, their voice becomes completely out of balance… Needless to say that their coordination and synchronicity between their mind commands to the physical body and to the voice are totally not intact. Obvio...

Vocal Science™ Method. “Save Myself From Myself.” This story is partially (as an example) about my former student Serge, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter born in Russia.   Serge initially came to me at 24 years of age. He seemed to be really interested in becoming a professional singer… But he was very inconsistent. He would come to my private lessons, stay for no more than a 10-hour course and then he would leave. In short, often he would come back just only for a vocal workshop, while there, he would get very excited actively participating in it and then he would leave again. This cycle repeated over and over again for 7 years… The last time we saw Serge was around the year 2017.   Prier coming back for his last round of lessons, Serge called me and said;” Diana, I need your help…”   I asked,” have you finally made a decision to become a professional singer?”   He replied, “not yet”.   I got a little puzzled and asked “ what is your purpose than…...

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 ...

Are you, by any chance, suffering from abnormal changes in your voice like for example; Hoarseness, raspiness or even a total voice loss? At first, you may think that you're fighting with a cold or flu, or perhaps you may think that it’s due to the fact that you sang your heart out at a concert or cheered too loudly for your favourite player at a football game. And, if so, then, (hypothetically speaking), due to those actions, you are now paying the price with a sore throat or even, parhaps, laryngitis  - a type of inflammation in your voice box that makes your voice scratchy or hoarse, which can also be a cause of a lost voice, God forbid! Laryngitis can be short-term endeavour or become chronic. Most often (if it's not chronic), it does not last for longer than a couple of weeks.  Laryngitis (occurance of which is quite common during cold and flu season) is caused when the voice box becomes inflamed. In fact, if the inflammation gets into the vocal box lini...

Will you be in  need of anything else for that matter?  For over many years of my Non-Surgical Voice Repair practice, I have been personally answering numerous emails and phone calls with all sorts of inquiries with regards to people possessing various voice/vocal problems.   Some of them had been already diagnosed with a voice/vocal disorder; others knew that they had speech or singing problems but still were not certain how they acquired them and what exactly they were. And the other category of people had already undergone a vocal surgery. The latter category of people, at first, were very happy, as they thought that all of their voice/vocal problems had been solved once and for all. And yes, they felt better (some of them, but not all of them) and thought that, after surgical intervention, they could speak or sing better then ever. However, in a shorter (or even longer) while, they began to notice that their voice started to gradually deteriorate again and ...

Would you consider yourself someone who uses their voice a great deal? Are you a professional singer, a professional voice artist or someone that uses their voice at work more than usual? If yes, then you know that your voice is a very important tool/resource that needs to be protected; and if used incorrectly or abused, your voice can be susceptible to all kinds of traumas. Some symptoms of certain vocal problems, disorders or traumas can include a hoarse voice , excessive throat clearing, thick buildup of mucus in the throat, coughing, trouble in swallowing, trouble breathing, etc. All these symptoms will definitely affect your voice. It may very well even effect the quality of your life!  Some other voice/vocal abnormalities may include changes in pitch and also the volume of your voice. It may also cause vocal fatigue, breaks (or cracks) in your voice while speaking or singing… And nevertheless, you also may experience difficulty being heard in noisy environments when you...

Lately, I guess due to the recession, and the market of the employers (and certainly not employees), I often attend to people who are very unhappy professionally and otherwise; and desperately looking for desirable employment, but failing (over and over) numerous of interviews. There are several reasons why that president takes place. For example, my very recent client was a man in his early 60’s who, about a couple of months ago, lost a very good engineering position.  When I spoke to that person over the phone, being a voice specialist, I right a way, made a mental note that his voice sounds very low positioned, quite raspy with quite heavy European accent and with a very faint pronunciation. I did invite him for a consultation and we have begun (firstly) talking about the application of his voice, which, in my opinion, could be very distractive during his future interview with a future employer.  His voice was very dry and needed moisture and lub...

Lately, more and more, we are getting phone calls and e-mails from people who have been suffering from various voice disorders, and moreover, suffering for many years! Needless to say, that with time, (10, 20 or even 30 years later) for some reason, their voices did not get cured or even properly treated for that matter; and nevertheless, their voices did not sound any better then at the beginning of their voice/vocal ordeal; rather, in majority of cases, much worse . In fact, many of them claimed that the quality of their voices became more compromised from the time when their voice issues had originally began. So the question then is… Why these people, suffering for numerous years, never put a handle on their voice disorder? I think the answer is that there is not much help available with respect to nonsurgical voice repair , which actually (in most cases) will produce tangible results. The other reason is that people are absolutely unaware of what’s happ...