A Voice Apart

Teaching here in Toronto for almost 3 and half decades, I cannot believe how the people changed with respect of their attitude, mentality, physicality and yes, dreams, which they used to have galore. Since 1980, we’ve been through quite a few recessions, but it never affected people in the way which I am witnessing right now. They used to possess a lot of passion and love for music. The majority of even just ordinary people, (not necessarily musicians), had dreams to become professional artists, experience the professional recording and then experience the huge urge and excitement to be able to cut a record deal. Almost on a weekly basis, the new groups, (bands) were formed. The school kids were positively occupied with the rehearsals with their group; and then, to perfect their craft, with private vocal and instrument lessons on the side. Yesterday, I spoke with one of my young adult students and asked him what his friends of the same age, (18 to 20 years old), had been doing wit

I believe, due to the recession, I get more and more phone calls and e-mails with the request to tell them all about the “magic pill” or send them the “magic pill” to fix their very serious voice disorder!  Such nonsense started several years back when the recession really hit North America. Before that people were much more sensible and had an understanding that if they had any kind of voice/vocal problem , they would have to come in person, wherever they resided, and fix to the best of their and my ability their voice.  Then came the next phase – Skype! They figured that now it’s all good; they don’t have to go anywhere, they don’t have to pay as much, let alone their travel, and they can fix their voice right from their couch and in front of their little screen with a questionable sound quality.  Go figure!  And lastly, let’s examine what’s going on now and in the present: They don’t want to come in person, they don’t even want to do Skyp

If you are suffering from a complete voice loss , then, unfortunately, we will not be able to help. In order to recover the voice, we need some kind of a sound production. I was amazed when one person, after quite intensive correspondence with me via e-mails, finally called me and could not produce anything but a whisper. When I asked him what he was diagnosed with, he, to my surprise, responded with whispers that the Doctors could not find anything wrong with him. I was literally shocked with that reply. But, unfortunately, could not offer him any viable help, as no sound was present at all. Then, in my office, another man unexpectedly walked in, who actually had the sound, but there was nothing but “mooing”, so to speak. Apparently, he recently undergone a cancer of thyroid operation and he ended up with both vocal cords paralysed . Naturally, I told him the truth that vocal paralysis on both vocal cords is non treatable.  Believe it or not, he looked at me with absolute surprise, di

Sometime ago, I received an e-mail from a, seem to be, very frustrated, aggressive and, probably, very loud in the past, woman. She was, sort of, inquiring about her damaged voice, but in the tone of her e-mail, there was a lot of anger and blame. As usual, I asked her if she wanted to speak on the phone, so I could hear her voice, first hand and then make my assumptions and outline the best course of action for her particular case to be. She agreed and I dialed the number. The minute she picked up the phone, she tried to “scream”, with her broken voice at me, blaming everybody and anybody and saying, with anger, that she could not scream anymore at her two teenage sons while they were on the field, playing soccer. Go figure! To me, even with her voice issue, she sounded very loud, rude and obnoxious, and also, interestingly enough, she, instead of wanting (for real) to fix her voice , wanted to learn a sign language…? Usually, people with a hearing impediment are using s