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Voice issues - Speech and Singing Lessons for Seniors.

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Lately, I have a lot of inquiries from seniors asking about singing lessons and how to improve their speech . Some of them were motivated because they have been experiencing some voice problems speaking.   The others, by trying to learn how to sing properly, have been trying to realize their younger years' dream.  A couple of years ago, I had a 72 years old student – a very successful business man, who’s dream has always been to become a singer and actor. However, living in poverty and watching his parents suffer with low paid jobs, he gave himself a promise that he will become very well off in the business world. And so he did. But the desire of his heart and soul did not get realised until he met me in his early 70s, and after participating in several of my Vocal Interactive Workshops, following by the private singing lessons with me, he landed a role of Santa Clause in one of the community theatres. Way to go Man, I exclaimed!     Now, at present, I am working w

“Voice is a muscle and it has to be trained”, Said one of the judges of the television show, ‘The Voice’.

It is, indeed! However, like any of the human body muscles , the voice muscle has to be approached with a ‘working smart and not necessarily hard’, attitude and knowledge. If some body builder is trying to lift the weight which is above his capacity and way beyond his capability, or expertise on how to do it in such a way, so he would not end up hurt, he actually might get injured in no time and his body building career may end in a split second. Likewise, if a singer (or wannabe singer), will start working really hard on his vocal pieces and not realizing that he is excessively using , (and abusing for that matter), his vocal anatomy, he may end up with a vocal injury which pretty much could jeopardize his singing career. The majority of vocal damage could be approached and treated non-surgically ; some may require a vocal surgery.  The latter is definitely not desirable, as any surgery of any kind may do more harm than good. In my previous blogs, I described

Singing tips for Beginners and Professionals. (PART 1)

To my knowledge, the majority of people love to sing. Even those who cannot sing and others who can and have a perfectly good full-time job and respected profession, would drop all of it without any hesitation in the nick of time to make their living doing what they love the most – Singing .  So let’s say, out of 90% of people who would do the above, only 1% or 2% realize their dream. We all know that it is extremely difficult to succeed in the music business and make a living out of it; however, it is not impossible.  If the person has the true music talent, good voice, positive attitude and the vision of their future success, they could do it. However, they have to understand that with all of the prerequisites described above, if they don’t possess the right vocal technique, they may ruin their precious voice right before succeeding in their vocal performance career.  A lot of Ballet Dancers and Figure Skaters also initially possess their talent for their fields. However

What does it take to learn how to sing well?

In the conventional sense, it seems not so difficult to learn how to sing. People do some scales, some lip-trills, as well as: -      Goo-goo gaga, ney-ney-ney, meow-meow-meow (to make the cats jealous lol), miam-miam, ziam-ziam and niam-niam-niam, vocal exercises . After doing the above for years, the potential singers are assured that sometime, (perhaps, in the year 2050. lol), or soon thereafter, they will suddenly wake up with a “big voice” and that will assure their singing career for more years ahead, (if, by that time, they will have any years of their actual lives left).  Perhaps due to their age then, they could be good for a senior citizens choir or, for that matter; they can even become the worst Opera Singer, ( as seen in this video ). Who knows? Meanwhile, jokes aside, the time is passing by; the person gets older and still cannot apply any of the above aforementioned exercises to the real singing. So what’s wrong with that picture? On this note