A Voice Apart

Outside of the training school which I have owned for almost three decades, I also own an indie label, Royans Universe Records, and attached to it a Management Company, 4 a.m. Talent Development and Artist Management Group Inc. More and more I am going into the development and management of various artists and naturally my crew and I are constantly holding auditions in the hopes of discovering someone unique and unprecedented and then graduate him/her to the music industry at large. And, yes, people are very responsive to this endeavour and every one of them, just like on the American Idol show, think that they are the "NEXT BIG THING". Due to popular demand we requested to listen to their music online and naturally to look at some of their pictures. And now we have discovered three categories of people that are approaching us. One category which is actually quite legit are those that look decent and possess some talent and, moreover, are willing thrive upon it and acquire so

In my previous blog entry "Vocal Insurance" - Do You Need An Agent?, I discussed a perplexing issue that I have encountered over the years, namely people that were plagued with vocal problems but who were at the same time hesitant to call me on the phone so that I could hear their voices in order to deduce if I could help them or not. I finally posed a question about this on a discussion board and received an explanation from one person afflicted with a voice problem. He mentioned that he was very uncomfortable dealing with phones because of the current propensity of companies to use voice activated menus or having to deal with receptionists and operators in a manner that is very fatiguing for someone with a weak voice. All of what he was saying is 100% true and understandable. For the people with voice disorders it would be understandably difficult to deal with government agencies, voice activated menus and etc. As far as I'm concerned, not having a voice problem, the la

Recently I wrote an article for Hit Quarters Online Magazine called "Vocal Insurance" - Do You Need An Agent? What I meant by it and what it was all about was how to protect and save your voice and thus "insure" the health and longevity of your vocal career. It was also addressed to music industry professionals by inviting them to take better care of their artists by simply referring them to top vocal specialists and professionals to ensure that they would be complying with the standards of professional singing and thus not jeoprodizing the health and safety of their vocal anatomy and health in general. To my complete surprise I got several calls from people asking if I was an agent who would LITERALLY INSURE their actual voice. On that note, I became speechless and almost lost my own voice. These people were naive enough to take it literally and, moreover, the thought never occurred in their minds that "if there is anything wrong with my voice, I should find h

We get numerous phone calls and emails about people's vocal disorders and vocal problems. They are approaching my institution - which is called the Royans Professional Vocal School Specializing in Voice, Speech and Non-Surgical Voice Repair. When those people called in the past, my first assumption always was that they truly needed help and would do anything to conquer their vocal problems. And, yes, some did. But the majority, interestingly enough, with quite severe vocal disorders, were literally looking for a "magic" pill. They thought that by taking any pills internally they would fix their severely broken vocal boxes, which were in the first place caused by the wrong application of their voice for singing or speaking. Let's imagine for a second that there would be such a pill in existence and it actually would fix that severe disorder, anatomically speaking. The problem is that these people are unable to understand that there is no change without change an

It never ceases to amaze me when a lot of people are inquiring about serious voice problems and then, in the end, end up doing nothing to fix it. They talk a lot about it, they join support groups to share their sufferings, inadequacies, insecurities, practically disabilities which rob them of the enjoyment of the regular human life. The loss of the ability to use their voice in what is considered to be a normal sense often results in the loss of their jobs and the loss of their relationships. They are all complaining about via numerous emails and discussion board postings, yet when I suggest to them to pick up the phone and let me hear their voice so I can pinpoint whether or not I can help them, there are less than 1% of people will do that even though it might lead them towards finding a non-invasive cure. You would think, "What would prevent them from picking up the phone and calling a toll-free number?" I have thought about it long and hard and finally I came to the conc

A certain percentage of people are coming to us for speech development sessions, often followed by the vocal lessons. Usually that category of people is comprised of shy individuals who are very soft spoken without any projection of their voice or the message they are trying to convey. Some of them have damaged voices. Often they mumble and there is no clarity in their pronunciation, kind of like they have marbles in their mouths. Some of them are actually inquiring about singing lessons without having any idea that if they hardly could speak, how in the world would they have their singing voice delivered?! In the first place, the voice is the spirit and, if the voice is shut down, the spirit of that individual is also hidden and not present. The voice is a reflection of the state of one’s being, an identification of who this person is. Quite often the people conducting themselves that way are dying to be more loud, more expressive, more emotional and more passionate, but

I have been teaching vocals and producing vocal tracks and performances in Toronto for close to 30 years. And I have seen a lot of changes over the last three decades with respect to the music industry and people in general. The music industry has changed a lot recently with the advent of the Internet and this has had both positive and negative aspects. Granted, there are fewer record deals being provided by the major labels. On the other hand, artists have the facility to market their music directly via the Internet. However, people are blowing the use of the Internet out of proportion on every level possible. Not only do they market their music and singing on the Internet, but also they think that they could learn how to sing and play via the Internet. They, overall, became lazy and even to learn or achieve something they are not willing to leave their houses. Knowing that, the so called music professionals, and vocal coaches in particular, quickly realized that the market is there a