A Voice Apart

In January 2008, I picked up a phone call from a person who called himself "Orlando". Right away, I was curious to know if that was his real name or, perhaps, a stage name...? Nevertheless, this person assured me that it was his real name and also added that his mother was, in fact, very creative - and thus, gave him such a name. Orlando spoke with me with a quite raspy and hoarse voice and he told me that he just visited an ENT (he called me from Mexico, where he usually spends his winter time) and revealed that, while there, he had been told that he had a one-millimetre nodule  on one of his vocal cords. With that diagnosis, he was suggested immediate vocal surgery. On this note, Orlando placed a call to me - during which he was quite inquisitive (reminded me of a KGB interrogation). Surprisingly enough, with all the desperation, he seemed to be not in a hurry to make a commitment to come to Toronto to attend my course and treatment. He, however, placed another c

Your voice IS a reflection of the state of your being. Case Study: Professional Artist – R.R (The real name of the artist cannot be disclosed due to the confidentiality code)   A few days ago, we got approached by an artist in his mid 20’s, asking us to help him to get rid of his nasal sound in his voice. He was to prepare for his tour in Europe and wanted to sound and to look his best. When we first met him (just a few days ago) for what we call an “Introductory/Exploratory Session”, he was late 45 minutes to start with, walked in looking and acting half asleep, and stood in front of us with a completely out-of-balance posture and body. It took quite a bit of effort, especially from my side, to bring him to the point from where I could actually work with him and make a difference. He, indeed, sounded quite nasal – speaking and singing. We, however, liked his songs, written in the Hip-Hop style. In fact, a very prominent Hip-Hop artist (name cannot be disclosed) actually as

This case is about Michael F from the United Kingdom: He suffered from paralyzed vocal cords due to throat cancer. ____________   Michael was diagnosed with throat cancer and, due to that, he had undergone numerous sessions of chemotherapy and well as radiation treatments. In the end, he ended up with one vocal cord fully paralyzed and the other one completely damaged (fully non-functional). His speaking voice was totally unclear and had a very high soprano tone. Obviously, the condition of his vocal cords was beyond repair; however, by employing the Vocal Science™ technique, his voice got rechannelled to a different set of muscles (facial cavities) which allowed him to speak much louder and much clearer. His voice also acquired some bass on the bottom, which was supporting the actual lift off of his vocal box and off of his vocal cords. Clearly, there was a huge improvement, as Michael was taught to employ his facial muscles (natural amplifier/resonator) in conjunct

Case Study: This story is about Vera D of Barrie Ontario, whose vocal cords got damaged during her open heart surgery… Vera came to us in the year 2015 when she hardly could speak, and mostly was whispering. She told us her story whereas before coming for our non-surgical voice repair services, she had undergone open-heart surgery, after the completion of which, she fell in a life-and-death coma. It took over 45 minutes to revive her. Thank God, luckily for her, she survived the ordeal. But when she woke up, she discovered that she had no voice to speak. It clearly was damaged due to intubation and, perhaps, some other internal surgical procedures related to the main cause. She was told that she would never regain her normal speaking voice ever again. She underwent some very painful and useless tests that revealed that her vocal cord damage was permanent. On this note, she was offered not one, but two vocal operations with absolutely no guarantee that her voice will ever return b

We would like to share with you some excerpts from an email which recently reached our office. However, due to privacy concerns, we omitted some personal details. We regret, however, that this person did not reach out to us first and tried to rectify her vocal problem non-surgically. For those who suffer from the same voice disorder, we would like you to think twice before you choose vocal surgery over a non-surgical approach and treatment. There are a lot of consequences which could be experienced with surgical interference. We had numerous clients with various voice disorders who came to us after the surgery was performed - and some of them hardly could speak, let alone sing… Please see the aforementioned email below: "Hi. In 2013, I had an operation on my vocal cords ( bleeding polyp ) and I feel that it made my voice a lot worse. If I do a performance I am hoarse for two weeks or more. I have lost the melody in my voice and my "throat" hurts con

Attention parents who have children and teenagers ages 16 and under! This letter is a special addition: On this note, we would like to bring a story of our two recent students. One of the boy's name is Timothy Z (12) and the other boy’s name is Nurian B (13). Timothy's mom just sent us a post-course letter. It is, in fact, self-explanatory. _____ Dear Diana and Jamie, Thank you for being so patient and for being great vocal coaches. I have to say that when Timmy arrived for his first singing lesson, he was feeling quite nervous and anxious. But with your help and undivided support, he began to feel a lot more comfortable. I really appreciate how you took the time to make sure Timmy understood what you taught him, even when the lessons were inevitably going over the set hour and a half.   Timmy often came tired, with both school and competitive dance occupying most of his time, but with your kind help and fun attitude he’d re-energize and sing his heart out.  I

The story is about “old” Maggie Y - now the “new” Ariel Y. Maggie Y came to us about a year ago to fix her breaking and crackling voice due to Muscle Tension Dysphonia (MTD) voice disorder. Maggie told us her story and explained the reason why she thinks it happened to her. With her permission, we would share her story with you: Maggie originally came to Canada with her parents from China and, of course, being a young girl, she had experienced all the trials and tribulations of the immigration process. Needless to say, that her parents were also extremely stressed going through the process of relocating to Canada. Nonetheless, with all that, while their marriage was already compromised even before the immigration, during the process, it became much more so on the rocks. When Maggie turned 16 (she is now 24 years old ) the family situation became much worse, especially while she was attending high school. The parents were fighting every day and Maggie, in order to s