A Voice Apart

The answer is… if (God forbid) you were involved in a car accident and the body of your car got damaged, you would probably need to go to a body shop…. wouldn’t you? However, on the other hand, if your engine or transmission were acting up, then you definitely would want to check with a qualified mechanic who, nevertheless, specializes in “car mechanics arts” in a manner of speaking. One of my prospective clients had been diagnosed with two (nevertheless) voice disorders, which are clearly of a mechanical nature, as one of them is Muscle Tension Dysphonia and the other is named Sulcus Vocalis (unhealthy gap between the vocal cords). Both of those voice issues are caused by a misuse of the voice i.e., by straining the vocal cords and pushing/pulling the voice out onto the surface; and instead, by default, placing it right into the neck muscles. Needless to say, during those actions, Muscle Tension Dysphonia had been initiated. Meanwhile, the strained vocal co

What do we mean by that? Firstly, any person should possess a healthy voice which is also consistent with the persons' height, weight and the their inner ‘make-up’ in general. Sometimes, and luckily not too often, you can see a quite petite woman, but yet hear her heavy and 'bassy' voice. A good example would be two well-known actresses (one of whom is also a singer). The singer/actress is Miley Cyrus and the other actress is Julia Stiles - pretty girls that are speaking with much heavier voices then their physiques would ever suggest.  We, in fact, at The Royans Professional Vocal School , would be able to get rid of the heaviness and thickness of their quite-low voices. If they (or them alike) embraced the Vocal Science technique, their voices would be lifted off of their (somewhat) heavy and thick vocal cords, which were given to them at birth. The thicker the vocal cords are, the lower voice will prevail. And, on the contrary, if the person poss

“What do you mean by that”, you, my reader, may ask?’ To explain better, I first will give you an example concerning figure skating, which will be very-much-so related to our topic on voice mechanics down the road. I think, by now, a lot of you know that I am a big fan of figure skating (and ballet for that matter); and in my childhood and adolescence, I was taking skating for many years and taking it very seriously. Given that, I know a lot about it, even though that I did not become a professional figure skater myself (to my dismay and biggest disappointment). I just recently (watching live and on TV, Skate Canada) witnessed some skaters literally stepping out of the “circle”. Our Canadian pair (Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford) skated fabulously; but then Meagan fell on a free skate, indeed, stepping out of the circle.  The commentator, Tracy Wilson, said (with these the exact same words) “She gets out of the circle and really came down hard”.

Let’s find out what you’ve got! And also, let’s find out what I mean by definition of the “instrument” and the “player”. What I mean by the “instrument” is the height and weight of the person, his/her outer and inner “opening” of the vocal anatomy as well as the pitch and tonality of their voice; not to mention many other components, which will also come into play (in a manner of speaking). Quite often, I have been asked if it is possible to increase the capacity of one’s “instrument”. I can compare it with extending an average sized keyboard to a much bigger upright piano, so that it would be possible to recite on it, let’s say, a Concerto by Tchaikovsky (or something like this of that caliber). My answer is that it is possible to a degree. Over the years, I had singing students coming to me, possessing a very small mouth, short height and small body frame overall. Due to my  very specially designed speech and singing exercises , I was definitely able to stret