A Voice Apart

The Royans Professional Vocal School (a.k.a, The Royans School for the Musical Performing Arts), was founded in 1984 by my partner Ted Kowalczyk & myself. Prior to that, Ted and I performed as a duo around the Toronto area which was called Toronto Mini Caravan. Both of us were involved in multicultural events and had been highly profiled on multicultural radio and TV stations as well as performing at numerous CHIN Picnics. In 1983, a Veteran Toronto Polish musician named Stephan Pavliak, incidentally overheard me playing piano and singing some Russian romances while I was awaiting in the lobby of the Academy of Music (where I worked as a piano and singing instructor) for my student’s arrival. He approached me, commending me on my talent and offered to help me out (along with my partner Ted) to open a music school which he thought I could successfully carry for many years to come. As of today, the school exists for almost 34 consecutive years. Unfortunately, my partner h

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 slowly, the vo

Nevertheless, over many years, we treated and cured a lot of people with all kinds of different speech and singing problems. Some of the voice/vocal disorders were straight forward, but some of them not so much; and I really had to figure out what the exact cause would be in order to correct the actual problem. Sometimes, there are clients who come with definite diagnosis, like, for example, a couple of years ago, we had a voice repair client from Brooklyn, New York who was diagnosed with solcus vocalis (gap between the vocal cords), 10 years prior reaching our Institute for Non-Surgical Voice Repair, here in Toronto, Canada. So at the time of such diagnosis, he was 26 years old; and by the time he reached us, he was 36 years old. By the time he finally came to us, his voice disorder progressed to the point whereas the sound of his voice was very scratchy and very raspy. Luckily, via specially designed by me speech exercises along with the application of the natural herbs and

Vocal Cord Disorders That Cause Voice Problems. Voice or vocal cord problems generally include pain and, overall, discomfort when you speak or have difficulty controlling the pitch, volume and quality of your voice overall, and your singing voice in particular. It may sound a little surprising, but a variety of medical conditions may indeed be very much the cause of most voice/vocal cord problems. The most common causes of hoarseness (generally speaking) are the vocal difficulties outlined below. Some of the more common vocal cord problems include vocal nodules, vocal polyps, vocal cord paralysis, laryngitis and nevertheless, GERD.  Laryngitis  & GERD are often defined by a raspy/hoarse voice because of the significant irritation of the vocal cords. Overuse or misuse of the voice, inhaled irritants, or GERD reflux (the backup of stomach acid into the throat) may be one of the big reasons for it. Vocal Cord Nodules are (most of the time) benign or no

- Yes... She was forced to cancel the rest of her tour! - You may wonder why this had occurred one more time again…? That happened because if nothing gets changed with respect of how the artist is using his/her voice, it will inevitably reoccur again and again… unfortunately. The very first time it happened to Adele was in the year 2012 . At that time, losing her voice, she had to cancel her concerts and tour dates due to a bleeding polyp on her vocal cord.  She was transported to Boston, US, to undergo a vocal surgery which was successfully completed by one of the renowned ENT specialists. Adele was not allowed to speak for 5 months after the procedure. After that, her voice healed and returned “back to normal”, and thus she was scheduled to perform at the upcoming Grammy awards.  Right before that, she was interviewed by Anderson Cooper and during that interview, she was asked if she thought whether or not that could happen to her ever again? Without any he

The Right and Healthy Modality of the Vocal Behaviour for Non-Singers. Being in the music and voice business for over four decades, I've met a lot of people with good voices, bad voices and also, so to speak, broken voices.  Some of them were singers, some of them had nothing to do with singing. Those who had nothing to do with singing, however, had a lot to do with a lot of speaking; and thus sometimes, they had been forcing their voices out and screaming from the top of their lungs and from the bottom of their throats...(basically, purely screaming)! Outside of the regular people, we are also talking about some professionals like: fitness instructors, martial arts instructors, teachers, lawyers, crown attorneys, public and motivational speakers to name a few. Due to their occupational (in a manner of speaking) hazard, they have been forcing their voices to serve others and one day, someday, their once precious voice seized on them "unexpectedly and out of the blue&q

Nevertheless, I have been getting a lot of calls regarding the non-surgical voice repair program. The people who are inquiring are usually very desperate and very emotional, which is quite understandable. They're pleading for help and, at the glance, appear that they would do anything that would be required from them; would drop everything and anything (including their vocal and voice performances) and would rush to Toronto to fix their voices in order to continue their performances, recordings and whichever other careers which are directly connected to their voices' health and their overall well being. Some of them are diagnosed, some of them not yet, and some of them are hiding their diagnosis (to my dismay...) But what is more surprising is that a lot of them are till singing (more like faking) and thus being in denial, while at the same time, their singing (and voices in general) and quite compromised! Go figure! They are actually singing on their nodules and p