A Voice Apart

Getting all these inquiries, it never ceases to amaze me that (especially) singers rely on ENT specialists to treat and cure their singing voices...! The majority of the ENT’s (or speech therapists for that matter) never sung a note in their lives. And if so, how in the world are they going to restore your singing voice and teach you a proper vocal technique - so that you would comply with the standards of singing (let alone, professional singing) and never would ruin your voice ever again? The majority of people are thinking, when something happens to their voice and they cannot speak or sing the way they used to, that the answer to that will lie at the ENT doctor’s office. Granted they could get some diagnosis (unfortunately, not always accurate) and the ENT specialists may give a suggestion for the invasive surgical intervention. There will be no other treatment, let along cure, provided. And that I can tell you, with absolute certainty. If it was otherwise, I, most likely, w

When the person ends up with some voice/vocal disorder , his/her life is definitely altered in one way or the other. Just like a person who, after the tragic accident, became disabled, his/her life would definitely take a drastic turn. Now those people had to learn how to live their life in a wheelchair and adapt the use of even basic life essentials to their limited mobility. Conversely, the person who was using their voice a lot (and perhaps excessively loud), who also was very communicable and social and who is now (after the voice/vocal injury) unable to use their prime tool of communication (their voice) the way they had been accustomed to, will also have to adopt their life to something different other then the life they were used to. Sounds quite tragic, doesn’t it? For some people, it is a tragedy, indeed! The vocally-injured person is not only effected by the constricted/limited use of their voice, but is also effected emotionally, a great deal. For people who

Everybody knows that the private one-on-one singing or speech lessons are very beneficial to ones’ development.  All of the instructors’ attention is drawn to one individual and catered specifically to the person in front of the instructor. If the student is not a novice and has a strong personality, the private approach is the right way to start the voice/vocal development .  If, on the other hand, we are talking about a complete beginner who has never taken any speech or singing lessons, let alone any other instructional sessions in his life, the group approach to start with for somebody like that would be the right answer. Not only the above-described person will greatly benefit out of it, but will learn a lot to become prepared for the private, more intense sessions . I usually do not take more then 6 to (absolute maximum) 7 people in a group, to be able to provide the semi-private instruction within the group setting. Due to that fact, the participa

More and more, my practice seems to consist of non-surgical voice repair cases. The speakers, the singers and the wannabe singers, are pouring into my studio in Toronto as well as in my alternative location in UK. Nevertheless, people always had problems with their voices and perhaps not necessarily less than today. However, no doubt, the food and the air, i.e. environment overall, used to be much cleaner and more pure than today. Outside of the environment, people in the past were more conscious of the education in general and vocal training in particular. In the past, they appreciated the knowledge which was giving them confidence about the safety of the use of their voice. In the past, people had dignity and integrity and a lot of them were coming to me, with or without any indicative vocal problem and were saying, "I want to sing in a better and more respectable venue and not in a toilet bar." Today, they don't care how and where they sing, as long as they