A Voice Apart

Vocal Strain means that the voice was misused or abused in more ways then one. Sometimes, just regular people end up abusing their voices without being aware of doing so. Some of them are speaking a lot and speaking very forcefully; almost screaming instead of speaking. They do get tired by the end of the day, but in the morning, they start all over again. Also, if their work requires them to speak on the phone all day, or to teach classes/courses, that’s where voice/vocal strain may occur; (and sometimes, to the point when they may lose their voice completely). Sometimes, the vocal strain could produce growths (like nodules or polyps) on the vocal cords. That’s where the “alarm should go off”, so to speak. Now we are talking about the growth on the vocal cords which, by itself, is a very serious matter. Either surgically, or preferably non-surgically, any growth has to be eliminated. We know of cases where such growth(s) had been left untreated for some...

Recently, we had an inquiry from a singer situated in Europe who had been diagnosed with Spasmodic Dysphonia. …………………………………………………………………………… “I was diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, and the doctor wanted to give me Botox injections, but I refused because the risk of not being able to sing well afterwards (I am a singer) was too great! So my question is, Can you help me get my voice or a better voice back? Is it possible to get instructions via Skype. I live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands!” …………………………………………………………………………… Below is my answer. Hi There, I have to note that it is a little unusual to be diagnosed with spasmodic dysphonia, when you are a singer. Usually, it happens to people who are not singers, but just regular (or professional) speaking voice users. But, nevertheless, it is a very serious problem and in conventional sense, cannot be treated, let alone cured. And yes, the only treatment they could offer is the Botox, which in majority of cases, will not work or ...

Any Non-Surgical Voice Repair starts with voice/vocal, physical, mental and definitely emotional assessment. Being a voice repair specialist for much over 3 and half decades, I could, with absolute certainty say, that all the above-indicated aspects of the human being behavior, are definitely have to be addressed. There is no voice repair process I could start without assessing not only just the voice/vocal problem, but the shape and form of the physical body which defines, so to speak, an “instrument” and the rest of the components, such as mental and emotional, would define a “player” in this instance. The voice usually is never the cause. The cause of the vocal disorder lies far beneath. There are a lot of factors (many of them from the deep past) that could lead to the voice issues. Let’s take, for example, the physical aspect of it – If the person’s diet, for the longest time, had consisted of a lot of dairy, fatty, creamy and mucous-f...

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...

Do not ever give up hope! Do not ever listen to the, so-called medical professionals prompting you to accept your voice condition and learn how to live with it! How pathetic is that?   Those medical professionals do not offer any solutions and could not care less that you had spent most of your life on stage singing and do not know, or want, any other lifestyle, but the one you like and love. One of our former clients (throat cancer survivor) was told exactly that and was encouraged to be thankful to be alive. Meanwhile, that very client had spent over 45 years on stage playing guitar and singing in a rock band. After C hemo and R adiation, his fingertips lost the sensation of touch and his voice was forever raspy and hoarse, (both speaking and singing). How frustrating could that be? My answer would be : A bove and B eyond !   Even though my client was suggested to accept it and “ be happy to be alive !"   H e certainly did not want to follow that guidance. To his...

This Holiday season, we wish you the best of voice and the best of health and prosperity for this upcoming New Year, and always! For the last 42 years, I have worked on a lot of voices; fixing them, restoring them, or just turning amateur speakers and singers into professionals . I have noticed that, o ver the last decade, the attitude of all of those people who were seeking my services ha s vastly changed. Before 2005, people in general were happy-go-lucky, so to speak. They were gladly making commitments to work on their voices (to whichever degree it was needed), gladly kept their appointments and happily paid for our professional services . Needless to say that, in the past, the music scene in Toronto was pretty much thriving and was attracting a lot of wannabe singers. There were a lot of bands formed at H igh Sch ools and even M iddle S chools, let alone Universities. Those guys and girls had a goal in mind; they wanted to become well-known singers/perform...

The voice disorder such as a paralyzed vocal cord is definitely “not a picnic” to put it mildly. Usually, this condition occurs due to a related or non-related surgery. It occurs very often during the thyroid extraction or spine fusion, where the neck is involved. It actually could occur in any surgery where intubation takes place. The fact is that majority of the hospitals here in Canada and in the United States are the teaching hospitals. What that means is that these kind of procedures are not necessarily conducted by the appointed specialist(s), but are being performed by medical interns or even by medical faculty University students. Those young doctors to be are obviously still learning and do not have experience how to insert those tubes correctly. Thus, the occurred mistakes, which could cause the patient a severe damage of their vocal box, could be crucial to one’s life.   So the patient who went in to the operating room with a perfectly good voice, woke up...