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Vocal Health
Vocal Health: The Most Important Nutrient For Your Voice
As singers, we can buy throat sprays, suck on lozenges, drink special teas that are supposed to coat the throat. We can drink peppermint to calm jittery stomachs, or have a beer because we think it will relax our throats. We take vitamin and mineral suppliments and avoid dairy to keep from coating our throats…. Read More » about Vocal Health: The Most Important Nutrient For Your Voice
Singers: What To Do When The Flu Is After You
OK, admit it (check title)… I’m a poet! H1N1, H3H4H5abcdefxy, whatever the name of the dang flu bug trying to jump on you, if you need to use your voice, your fear and justified paranoia is the same. I have it this week; you don’t want it. (Don’t worry, you can’t catch it from a… Read More » about Singers: What To Do When The Flu Is After You
Spasmodic Dysphonia: What Treatment Options Are Working?
For my last post in this series on Spasmodic Dysphonia, I will report on treatment options and currently available, controversial alternative viewpoints and will offer my further thoughts as a vocal coach: WHAT ARE THE TREATMENTS FOR SPASMODIC DYSPHONIA? The first thing we need to know is that medical treatments now available will only manage… Read More » about Spasmodic Dysphonia: What Treatment Options Are Working?
Spasmotic Dysphonia: Causes and Diagnosis
So how do you get spasmodic dysphonia? How is it even diagnosed? There are currently unsolved mysteries in the answers to both these questions. WHAT CAUSES SPASMODIC DYSPHONIA? Here’s the current state of research… no one really knows for sure. Somehow improper and inappropriate signals are sent from the brain to the vocal cords that… Read More » about Spasmotic Dysphonia: Causes and Diagnosis
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… Read More » about Spasmodic Dysphonia: What Is This Mysterious Voice Disorder
The Alexander Technique and Singing: by AT Practitioner Ethan Kind
Today I would like to introduce you to Ethan Kind. Ethan is an Alexander Technique practitioner who I met at an Indie Connect meeting here in Nashville. He wrote an article on singing and the Alexander Technique that blew me away, so I asked him if he would write a guest post about what he… Read More » about The Alexander Technique and Singing: by AT Practitioner Ethan Kind
Why a singer needs a better speaking voice
This one’s easy: Because every time you speak, you use your voice! When I was on the road as an artist, I used to try to get interviews scheduled for AFTER my performance instead of before, because I noticed that using my speaking voice negatively affected my singing voice. Now I talk all day and… Read More » about Why a singer needs a better speaking voice
Singing causes tissue adaptation!
When we sing, our tissues and muscles change. This is all the more reason to practice with as much perfection of form as possible on your vocal exercises. There is a classical vocal coach named HIH Darrison Noto Bentheim Murat who commented on a forum I was following that veteran opera singers have what is known as “frontal… Read More » about Singing causes tissue adaptation!
TMJ issues affecting the voice
I got a great question emailed to me recently concerning TMJ issues and the voice. Here is the email: Thank you for writing this blog and all the great information you provide. I have a vocal problem, and I can’t seem to find an answer. Hope you can help. I have been singing all my… Read More » about TMJ issues affecting the voice