Booking Casinos & Fairs: Vinny Ribas talk at Indie Connect THIS MONDAY

Attention Indie Music Artists who live in or around Nashville: Next week is busy "turkey week",  but if you're interested in learning more about booking fairs and casinos, here's an event coming up TOMORROW (Monday) that you might want to consider attending.

Booking and Performing at Fairs and Casinos" with Vinny Ribas Note: This will be 2 separate talks at one meeting.

Casinos: A casino can be a very different animal than any other kind of venue you've ever played. Did you know that you can be too good to play a casino? Did you know that your job is not always just to entertain the gamblers or the people in the bar? If you understand the nuances of these venues you have a much better chance of getting the gig, and definitely a greater chance of being asked back. Former casino entertainer and casino booking agent, Vinny Ribas, will walk you through how to get and keep these often- lucrative gigs.

Fairs: Playing fairs can be very lucrative, and you'll never play in a happier atmosphere! However, fairs have their own ins and outs just like any other kind of gig. And if you know what the fair really wants and you are successful at delivering it, it can quite easy to get booked by multiple other fairs. Former fair entertainer and NV State Fair Entertainment Director, Vinny Ribas, will walk you through the ins and outs of booking and playing the fair circuit.

When and where:

Monday Nov 23rd, 11:30am
Corky's Ribs & BBQ 100 Franklin Road, Brentwood Tn
Cost = $5.00 + the cost of your meal
If you go... tell em I sent ya!

Spasmodic Dysphonia: What Is This Mysterious Voice Disorder

I had the pleasure of attending a conference on Spasmodic Dysphonia (known as SD) sponsored by the Vanderbilt Voice Center this week. Instead of being a dry, boring medical recitation of things I already knew, it was fun, full of kindness and caring... and truly illuminating. I'm so glad I went.

This will be the first post in a series on this disorder with information gleaned from the doctors, speech pathologists and speakers with SD at this event. These experts included Charlie Womble, NSDA Board Director, Jennifer Muckala, M.A. CCC-SLP, C. Gailyn Garrett, M.D. (Medical director at Vanderbilt Voice Center), Fenna Phibbs, M.D., Amy Zeller, Ms. CCC-SLP, Brienne Ruel, Gwen Sims-Davis, Jill Van Vliet and several NSDA support group members who have SD.

First, before you self-diagnosis and scare yourself, let me state this firmly:
In all probability- YOU DON'T HAVE THIS! But if you did... or knew someone who did... you'd want it to be properly diagnosed and be pointed towards something that could actually help instead of frustrate. So here goes my first post...

WHAT IS IT?

Spasmodic Dysphonia (SD) is a voice disorder which is part of a family of neurological disorders called dystonias. Dystonias cause muscles to contract and spasm involuntarily.

Here are five forms of SD:

• Adductor spasmodic dysphonia (AdSD), which is by far the most common, is where the adductor vocal muscles (thyroarytenoid or TA muscles) are too active and spasm frequently on voiced speech sounds like vowels in the words "eat, back, in, I, olives, nest". The voice has a strained, strangled sound.

• Abductor spasmodic dysphonia (AbSD) occurs where the adductor vocal muscles (crycothyoid or CT muscles) are too active and spasm on voiceless speech sounds like "f, K, c, t, h, th." The voice is very breathy and the person feels short of breath when they talk. It is also often accompanied by chronic constriction... grabbing and holding of the vocal folds.
  

• Mixed... where symptoms of both AdSD and AbSD are present.

• SD with tremor... where there is also a tremor in the voice. In this case, the SD problem is compounded and accompanied by a separate disorder... tremor. The voice will have a rhythmic fluctuation when sounding vowels if a tremor is present.

• And lastly... SD may be mixed with... or misdiagnosed as... muscle tension dysphonia (MTD). This sometimes happens when a person with AdSD tries to control their vocal folds, holding them too tight and causing a chronic tension to occur. MTD, unlike SD, is functionally based and can be cured by modifying behavior (vocal re-training).
  

SD is maddenly consistently inconsistent... that is, it doen't necessarily happen all the time, or happen in the same way. Sometimes you can fake it out for a while by speaking in a pitch or accent you don't normally use. One of the panel members with SD demonstrated in a hilarious Swiss accent that she could speak without spasm when she did this. A speech therapist expert in this field said that this would only be a temporary fix; if the person began speaking the new way all the time, the spasm would return.

The speakers at this conference were unanimous in saying that SD is NOT a psychological disorder, it is a neurological one. What's the difference? A psychological disorder can be treated by learning different thought patterns. A neurological one is physiological... re-training treatment is limited in effectiveness. There is something wrong in the wiring of the brain itself... which manifests in the end-organ, in this case, the larynx.

Posts to come: What Causes SD? How is SD Diagnosed? What are the treatments for SD? What can a vocal coach do to help?