A Voice Apart

Just several days ago, I have celebrated the 40 th  Anniversary of what was once called, The Royans  School for the Musical Performing Arts. In 1987, the school changed its name and profile and became the world-renowned, The Royans Professional Vocal School , specializing in singing, speech and non-surgical  voice repair . So generally speaking, the school henceforth specialized primarily in voice, and in whichever shape or form it does reflect the identity of a specific human being and defines the state of one's being. To date, the estimated amount of students and clients who went through our doors is over 30,000 people. I could sense their personalities. Therefore, I could simply guess the state of their relationships with their parents, boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses and even just friends. Also, I could see how all of the above affects a person's state of (vocal) being.  In fact, the voice is the hardest "instrument" to power... Even on an everyday basis

Over the years, I have attended to quite a few people with various voice disorders, speaking and singing. Interestingly enough, in the case of stuttering, in particular, singing could actually help to cure, or significantly minimize, this very annoying and unpleasant for the person and for the listener, disorder. In fact, watching the recent American Idol episodes, you could see a young, quite good-looking, contestant singing perfectly, but stumbling upon (stuttering), each and every word. It is quite a phenomenon, people might think. In reality, it is not. The Vocal Science ™ method, which I discovered, suggests that the speaking and singing sound should be placed and should come out off of the upper vocal chambers, (facial cavities) and not the vocal cords, at least, after the initial first syllable of the word is initiated. The contestant in American Idol does it intuitively and experientially, but not knowing the science behind it. Therefore, it works for him when he is singing, bu

The social skills psychology. In part 1 of the same titled blog, we were talking more about the voice as a tool for a successful communication and its application for a successful interview for the future desirable employment. Outside of the voice, the potential employee needs to know exactly how to answer, which could be very intricate questions, thrown at him by a potential employer. I was amazed how self absorbed and self centered my client appeared    when he introduced me to the potential questions and gave me an example of his answers back to the interviewer. It was all about him and what he wanted, instead of trying to convince a future employer that he would be an invaluable performer for the aforementioned company and his future position in it, and that’s the objective why he would want to work for this new company would be his potential professional growth, and thus, professional satisfaction, pride and joy. Instead, he was answering the questi

With respect of the voice disorders and voice problems, the symptoms are pretty much similar - the hoarseness, the difficulty to speak and/or to sing, raspy-ness, cracking and spasming voice, mucous-y and crackling voice and thus, unclear enunciation and pronunciation and sometimes a very muddy, deeply drowned, voice. The causes of the above, however, are all different. As I mentioned in my previous blog, that for example, the cause of spasmodic dysphonia is an emotional and neurological disorder. But with respect of the growth on the vocal cords like nodes, nodules, polyps, is just simply an unawareness of the proper application of the voice, speaking or singing. Peculiarly enough, after a singer, for example, acquires some growth on their vocal anatomy, he/she becomes emotionally disturbed and troubled. Now he/she too needs life coaching, to restore the emotional balance besides the physical one. So, as you see, the symptoms could be quite similar, but the causes definite

Sexually speaking, there is a myth suggesting that the size doesn't matter, it's what you do with it...? I highly disagree with such notion.  Size matters always and in all instances.  Let's say your shoe size is 8, but you are offered a shoe of size 10 or size 5. Would you be able to wear it with comfort?  I personally don't think so.  We are all different sizes, weights and heights and respectively, our internal and external organs are different in sizes and appearances as well.  The sound produced by the singer very much so depends on his height, weight, and the actual circumference of his/her body. For example, if the person is tall and slender, usually that person would have longer and thinner vocal cords.  Therefore, there is a myth that the opera singers with big and rich voices, are naturally big and fat.  Big in sizes, maybe, but being fat, not necessarily, and actually can be counter productive.  In any case, the human b

One of my former students, who, for some time, has been in the development of becoming a well-known artist, reconnected with me recently. This time, she ended up being signed with a major label and also having her personal/artistic manager whereas unlike before, when she was only a young girl who was just starting out when she first came to me. Introducing me to her team, the manager and songwriter, she kept repeating over and over, "Diana had unlocked my voice. I want her to do it again." Out of curiosity, both of her crew members had asked her what she meant by that. She said, "My voice felt before like it was locked in my throat and in my neck muscles and once I took a course with Diana, it started to soar..." Of course, now eight years have passed and the voice evidently needed some tune-up, so to speak. Lots of shows were performed, and lots of different producers were giving their comments on my student's vocals. However, the majority of times, t

Several months ago, I received an e-mail from a middle-aged woman residing near Ottawa, who was inquiring about non-surgical voice repair , caused by an unhealthy environmental condition, which occurred in her own, newly bought house, quite a few years back.   Due to the above, she acquired quite a few health problems and her severe (seem to be untreatable) voice disorder was one of them. She said that she was able to con qu e r the rest of her health challenges, but nobody could help her with her voice. I was her last hope. She got diagnosed with Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD).  Spasmodic Dysphonia , per se, is not really treatable, at least, not by conventional methods. In my opinion, this disease is considered to be  a neurological disorder voice disorder, however, it is not necessarily always the case.  Colloquially, I define Spasmodic Dysphonia as equivalent to, so to speak,  “vocal epilepsy”. The voice is spasming uncontrollably and produces a certain, and quite