Various Posts

What, in a voice, is manipulation?

It’s moving things around in your throat deliberately. It’s doing things with your throat on purpose that don’t normally occur.

Why would that be bad? Isn’t that, in fact, what most voice teachers are seeking? After all, how can you create a different kind of sound if you don’t move your throat muscles in some kind of straight-forward manner?

And what about the people who used to say “don’t ever think about your throat”, “never do anything in your throat that you can feel” or “forget you have a throat and just make the bones in your head vibrate”, were they all wrong or crazy?

How can you “leave your throat alone” and get any kind of long lasting difference in the sound? Aren’t these two things the opposite of each other? If so, which one is correct, which one is wrong?

The only way to get things in the throat (vocal production) to change is to change them indirectly and gently over a long period of time, with the idea that all movements done in a deliberate fashion are temporary tools that will be discarded as soon as the effects they are designed to promote take hold and become habitual. The throat should, in essence, take care of itself. The singer should be able to “just sing” leaving the throat alone enough to not think much about it while in a song. If the exercises done by the vocalist during a lesson or practice session are doing their job, the muscles will respond in a new and better way and that response will become the replacement for previous vocal behavior.

That this be understood is crucial because not understanding it makes it easy to encourage manipulation as an end product and to tie a throat and a vocalist in knots that are difficult to eliminate, especially after a long period of time. A student can push on something to make it “go further” in terms of range or volume, but that doesn’t make the result better. Sometimes it is considerably worse, in terms of response.

A free throat is responsive. It allows for movement, change, adjustment, and flexibility. It is also consistent, dependable, steady and easy to control. There is never any need to “do anything” in the throat but the vocalist can be very aware of what’s going on inside as it takes care of itself.

Holding the larynx down or in a “low position” is a manipulation, usually of the back of the tongue, pressing it down. It is a bad idea and will cause a vocalist to loose the ability to sing high notes easily or to sing softly easily. Pulling the larynx up deliberately is a bad idea, too, as it will make the sound tight and shallow and make movement difficult as well. Either response (different laryngeal height positions) is fine as long as it is indirect and takes place as a natural response to changes in pitch, vowel quality and volume, and not ends in themselves. The people who teach “retract the false folds”, “constrict the ari-epiglottic sphincter”, or “Larynx Position 1, 2, 3, and 4” are not helping anyone. These kinds of ideas cause as many problems as do phrases like “lift your soft palate”, “open your throat” and “release the sound into your masque”. They have nothing to do with the way the vocal apparatus is wired into the brain. Maybe the ideas or experiences were meaningful to the people who found them, but that does not mean that they are valid approaches to teach other human beings as if they were “real”, directly doable vocal behaviors.

Language is very important here. It is the primary reason why in Somatic Voicework™ we are very careful in how we speak about vocal technique. We always use the third person(“The voice is heavy today”, not “You are pushing your tongue down in the back”), and we ask the student to do something to see what it does. We do not tell the student to make something happen. No.

It is the teacher’s job to get the desired sound, not the student’s. It is the teacher who must uncover new vocal behaviors through exercises and then, when they arise, point them out and label them so the student can track the experience. I often hear, “My student can’t find mix,” or “doesn’t know how to use mix”. No, again. You, the teacher, have not taught the student to discover mix, therefore, the student correctly has no clue how to use what he or she doesn’t yet experience.

If you feel “stuck” when you sing, or you feel like your sound isn’t easy and you just put up with it, you need to know that this isn’t good. You can learn to sing freely but you have to know how. Just generally, if anyone asks you to do something with your tongue, face, mouth, jaw or head, and it’s not explained as being functionally necessary, be suspicious. Anything done deliberately, as an exercise, can be very helpful, but when it becomes an end in itself, and therefore a way to sing, it has become a trap. The idea of “changing the default” (meaning changing the place that one sings from with no conscious thought or effort) comes only after a good deal of time and practice.

If you are a student, and you struggle to make sense of what is being asked of you in a lesson, either you don’t understand what it is or you are being asked to do something that you should not do. You do not have to be confused just because you cannot yet accomplish the task you seek to master. Don’t be afraid to ask about it.

“Relaxation” is a big word in training singers. This is so because it is typically too much muscle activity that causes vocal problems. Squeezing, tightening, pressing, holding, swallowing, choking, and generally constricting the sound is problematic because the vocal folds don’t do well this way. It also restricts airflow making it harder to breathe fully and connect to the body in a useful and direct way. Frequently the singing itself causes the problems but it can also be caused by using the speaking voice poorly or a combination of both things. This is called “hyper-function” meaning too much is going on.

There is, however, “hypo-function” which means that too little is happening. If all the muscles involved in producing voiced sound are barely responding — if they are atrophied, or underdeveloped — you can have just as much trouble, maybe even more. Who ever talks about “too little” happening? Instead, what gets attention is the counter tension that is caused by the lack of “tonicity” in the appropriate vocal and breathing muscles. If one group of muscles that should be working does not work the counter muscle groups will be tighter than they should be as a compensation. Asking for “relaxation”, however, in the case of someone who is hypo-functional is usually a waste of time.

A normal, viable voice is capable of getting a little louder and a little softer, going a little higher and lower and making a few different kinds of sounds without much fuss. This has nothing to do with musical function. It may be that the individual can’t stay on a specific pitch or make a nice resonant vowel sound consistently, but beyond that, the voice is neither particularly wonderful nor particularly bad. A hypo-functional voice, however, will have trouble being loud, being heard in a noisy environment. It will not be able to go up very high or down very low in pitch nor will it be able to sustain if used for a long period of time. Generally, it will be under-energized, dull, fuzzy and “flat-sounding” (not in pitch but in quality). This kind of voice needs to be encouraged to MOVE, not to relax.

It is, in many ways, much easier to help a hyper-functional voice because relaxation for this kind of speaker or singer is the best prescription. Any kind of “yawn-sigh”, “cooing”, soft easy sound making will help as long as it isn’t too high or too loud. Massage of external muscles, balance of posture and released easy breathing will be productive, as will small movements of the jaw, tongue and face. Of course, register balance is always in order, as it will help release deep laryngeal tensions, but working from the outside in is an easy way to begin and, in due time, this can assist finding a better balance of chest and head.

Hypo-function is much less direct. Movements have to be stimulated but not too quickly or too severely because doing so will cause vocal and physical fatigue. Further, those who are not used to making a normal amount of volume or doing extended movements of the muscles that are involved in voiced sound, don’t usually feel comfortable with either, which is likely part of what may have lead to the problem in the first place. I have also found in years of personal experience that such individuals may be shy or may just have grown up in an environment where “being loud” was considered rude and unacceptable. Sometimes hypo-function is caused indirectly because the person may have been ill while younger or perhaps was in a home where someone else was not well and had to be quiet for their sake. Finally, as various exercises begin to generate enough response in the muscles so as to create genuine movement and change in the system, the vocalist and the teacher will also encounter the tight muscles that have not been able to do their job because they were restricted by the muscles nearby being immobilized or collapsed.

Good vigorous vocal use is athletic. What does that mean, really? How can a voice be athletic? It can be athletic if it is making a high level of volume over a wide range of pitches with sustained duration because this will require vigorous breathing (use of the ribs and abdominal muscles) as well as muscle tone in the vocal folds, the pharyngeal space, the jaw, the lips, the tip of the tongue, the face, and muscles inside the back of the mouth. Relaxation in such a state is really “dynamic poise” meaning that everything is capable of moving freely without loss of stability and power but can function well in a simple and small way as well. Since most of the inner muscles are not directly controllable, getting to this kind of vocal equilibrium takes a while to accomplish.

Relaxation is a good thing but having a vital, energized voice is not just about being vocally “relaxed”. When the voice is balanced and comfortable, relaxation becomes responsiveness and expressiveness, and these behaviors help foster vocal health and stamina.

This isn’t a topic that most people address, let alone understand how to approach. If you need assistance, come to one of the Level I Somatic Voicework™ trainings. You can find the info on my website: www.thevoiceworkshop.com

There is much confusion over the word “mix”. This makes sense, since most people do not know the difference between chest register and head register except in terms of range. Chest is low and head is high.

This is the most simplistic way to view registration and, in a skilled singer, it is no longer true that registration is dependent upon pitch range. In fact, head register as a quality, can be taken low in pitch, chest register can be taken up in pitch, and both registers should respond to volume change. Louder sounds will be chestier and softer ones headier, if all other factors are equal. If, however, you have been taught to focus only on “resonance” or “placement” and “breath support” you will not understand register independence, because your sound could be an amalgamation of whatever was there, maneuvered into whatever resonance you could find or manage. This is not necessarily a recipe for bad vocal function but it is likely not a way to sing in a variety of styles, colors or qualities for expressive or musical purposes.

If you can find a strong, chesty belt that is easy to produce and costs you nothing in terms of vocal effort, and you can also sing a light, easy free head register sound that is sweet and clear, you will have no trouble determining what mix is. You will find mix when the middle pitches, on their own, without extra help of any kind, combine into a nice round solid sound that you can easily control in terms of volume and quality. Mix, generally, is therefore anything that is not absolutely chesty chest or belt, or heady head (or falsetto in men).

Determining if something is “chest mix” or “head mix” is of no consequence unless the music is such that it requires a particular default to one of these. In most people who have a mix and can use it, it will be chestier on the louder, lower pitches and headier on the higher softer pitches all by itself. The quality is determined by the content of the lyrics and the pitch patterns that are being sung. Worrying about whether something is head/mix or chest/mix is usually a waste of time in terms of performance. It is not, however, a waste of time if you are stuck in one and need the other and can’t tell the difference. Then, you need to know and know well what’s going on. Of course, this is one of the points of training: to develop a balanced vocal mechanism that is not too much anything but rather an combination of many things. Resonance is not the driving factor, registration is.

What is musicality? The dictionary says it means “fond of or skilled in music”. That doesn’t make it, really. Most people who are musical use the word musicality to mean something much more than that. Musicianship is the skill of being a good musician, one who understands how to read and play music. You can be a skilled musician but not be very musical by nature and really not have much musicality at all.

Someone who possesses musicality is one who has a deep, visceral connection to music that has a 3-D effect on her existence. A person who is deeply musical doesn’t need someone to explain or teach what the music is “about”, they just seem to know, feel, understand and freely express what they perceive. This is probably a gift or some kind of special DNA encoding. Maybe there is a “musicality” gene. It certainly would seem that whatever this mysterious “musicality” thing is, it is a vital part of being able to communicate what’s there in the music to others.

Perhaps this goes along with being emotional or very expressive or very sensitive in a specific way. Perhaps it has to do with the ability to be demonstrative, or dramatic, or vivid. Perhaps it has to do with a keen sense of imagination or the ability to visualize music in connection with other senses, like someone with synesthesia.

There is some remarkable film footage of Glenn Gould, working with Leonard Bernstein, both of whom we can readily agree were highly musical musicians. Lenny Bernstein, someone with very definite ideas about music, deferred to Gould on the specific project they did together because Gould’s idea was that the music “didn’t go” the way Bernstein thought. It was a rare surrender on Bernstein’s part. Quite a meeting of minds, I thought. Each was clear that the music had a “way to be expressed” but it wasn’t the same thing for the two masters. This isn’t surprising to others who are themselves innately musical and also good musicians, but it might seem paradoxical to unskilled observers. How could both men be so responsive to the music and not agree on what the music contained?

This brings up the question of how a skilled musician can sometimes miss entirely what’s there in the music. Doesn’t the music itself cause emotions to flow, images to appear in the mind, movements to surge through the body? Doesn’t it seem to have a magic and a power all to itself that weaves a spell over the mind of the vocalist or instrumentalist who is performing the piece? How is it that the obvious shapes and colors inherent in the phrases or the patterns don’t jump out and make themselves dynamically clear to someone who is creating the sounds? Truly, how can you be a good musician and miss being musical? How can you be completely lacking in musicality? Unfortunately, it is all too common an experience to find someone who is a recognized musician (and this includes vocalists who are trained musicians of singing) who doesn’t have a clue as to what any of this is about and, in fact, thinks it is just so much nonsense.

I have no answers but I do know quite a few highly skilled musicians who are not in the least musical in the sense I am discussing here. They have little musicality, and they do not find it easy to swim in the responses of music that are an essential ingredient of expressiveness. They have to wonder what the music is about, and ponder how it can be evocative. They must strive to respond in a deep, authentic or meaningful way to music, so that something beyond mere notes can be communicated in a performance. They can gawk in amazement at their colleagues whose own immediacy of contact with the core of the music’s soul is effortless, true, clear and energized. And, those who are the other side of the fence, in the world of ecstatic musical bliss, can also only stare back at their compatriots wondering how they can miss what seems so obvious, so lovely and so simple. If someone is very musical, it is all so easy. If they are not, it is all so elusive or even unreal.

What inspires you?

What makes you feel better, lifts you up, gets you to expand and think positively about yourself and life? What is it that gives you courage to go forward towards your heart’s desire, your highest dream, your greatest goal?

The word inspire means both to stimulate to activity and to inhale. Why would that be? Because, as I have previously discussed, the ability to breathe is also the ability to be alive. It allows us to fully feel, to be fully present, to know we are in a body that moves all the time and that we are both recipients of life and participants in life. The breath moves in and out on its own but it is possible to learn to bring it under your conscious control (up to a point) if you work at it. It symbolizes the fact that life is given to us (by however you wish to think of “the higher power”) but we are also in charge of what we do with it, which could be anything from nothing to a whole lot.

This is true, of course, of other things one of which is also the voice itself. You can live with the voice you have and leave it alone. As long as nothing goes wrong with you or it, it will serve you well enough for most purposes. If, however, you need to place demand on it, particularly a lot of demand, it is well to develop some deliberate control over it, so that it is not only more responsive but has more stamina under stress. Somehow, working with the voice, which requires working at the same time with the breath, puts it all together. If we are to be vocally expressive, we must also breathe deeply and fully and learn to ride on the exhale while making sound with just the right balance of the two.

This activity, taken seriously and worked on diligently is, in itself, inspirational. Learning to inspire on purpose, for a purpose (vocal communication) is inspiring. I like that idea. It can give you fuel for other things, both creative and necessary. It can teach you about your body and your mind. It can challenge you deeply, as all physical activities do if we push our own limits. It can fill you up with satisfaction and peace, and with contentment just being involved in the activity of breathing and sounding for its own sake. One of the nicest things about this is that it’s free and you can do it whenever you chose. It’s completely portable and will always be yours. Barring something unusual, it will last as long as you do.

Inspire yourself. Be inspirational. Be fully of breath, life and sound. It’s a joyful way to spend your time.

Each week millions of people watch American Idol, The Voice, Glee, The X Factor and MTV. That means that millions of people watch others sing. In fact, there is a lot of singing on TV right now, but it doesn’t cover very much ground. You don’t hear Broadway songs, you don’t hear much folk music, you don’t hear a lot of country music, you don’t hear too much jazz. You do hear lots of pop/rock, R&B, and maybe some rap music (now and then), but you never ever hear classical singing (at least not in the USA), unless you watch a PBS station. The narrowness of the styles chosen by the people who run these shows is based on what sells the most –what brings in the most money from the marketplace. That’s how they sell the advertising time to sponsors. It’s a double bind, of course, in that the audience might start buying the other styles of music if they had a chance to hear them, but we’ll never know because no one wants to take a chance.

The problem with a lot of pop songs is that they are relatively simple, musically speaking. They rely on few chord changes or simple melodies with lots of repetitions. They have a “hook” that usually is considered “catchy” so you remember it, and sometimes there are key changes for the sake of “excitement”. Because the music listening public is so completely uneducated musically speaking, their tastes seem to reside in music that does not take a lot of “figuring out”. What happens is that a lot of pop songs end up sounding like a lot of other pop songs and pop singers end up sounding a lot like other pop singers. It is really unusual when someone who is truly different comes along and changes things. It happens once in a while, but less frequently than it did decades ago.

The way pop music works is that the song usually has a “high part” which is usually sung very loudly in a belt sound. This is supposed to convey emotion, but often it isn’t clear what emotion. The vocalist is supposed to sound good, but this can now be done through electronic/acoustic enhancement. Most people who listen don’t know who has been enhanced and who has not but they probably wouldn’t care even if they did know.

In this atmosphere, someone with a truly great voice (a unique distinctive instrument) who is emotionally open and musical, hasn’t got much chance unless he or she learns to do a good job in R&B or pop/rock music. If that’s not what the person wants to sing, they might (like Susan Boyle) break through with Broadway songs, but that would be the one in a million person (as she was) and not the norm. Mostly, the good singers are invisible, and are placed alongside the not so good singers as equals and hardly anyone knows the difference. They’re in plain sight but no one sees them for what they really are.

Since we have no easy way to educate the general public about what good singing is or isn’t, from the standpoint of a general or overall understanding of what makes a great voice great, of what’s makes a great voice in a great song great, this situation isn’t likely to change any time soon. Nevertheless, it is a worthy goal for those of us who teach singing to do our best to educate anyone whom we may encounter because having the information out there is better than not. Yes, things change, and yes, everyone has their own take on what they like, but some of the things that have allowed singers to be recognized for at least 100 years are the same as they ever were and those things should not be ignored. Those of us in singing have to keep trying to pass on what we know to those who don’t know so that we can keep the art of singing, in all its styles, going in the best possible way.

These days there is increased awareness about how the body functions in both sports and dance. Many approaches to both work with body mechanics in order to increase efficiency and lessen the possibility of injury. There are also sports psychologists who work to make the mental attitude of those who compete at the highest levels ready for the stress of the battle and the aftermath of failure. There are people in dance that help professional dancers ease out of dance and into other careers.

So, do we do this any of these things with singers? As Ralph Cramden used to say, “Hardee har har.”

Singing is mostly still in the 19th century, hardly acknowledging the 21st, mostly stuck in mystery-land where teachers are arguing about belly in or belly out breath support or back muscles or expanded ribs, and lots of various “resonance strategies” be they in the forehead, eyebrows, hard palate, nasal passages, or some other spot in the head (never anywhere else). The idea that the voice (or the muscles involved in making sound) can be trained to do several different kinds of sounds on purpose, or that those tasks involve different responses in the mechanism is still, believe it or not, heresy in some places. This is analogous to the idea that runners should run in patent leather shoes or that swimmers should be competing with bloomers on, meaning it makes no sense but people do think it helps in spite of that.

How would it be if we did high speed photography of world class singers who have had careers for 20, 30, 40 or even 50 years, in any style, just to study the outside of their bodies while they sing? Maybe we would see similarities, in terms of styles, or voice types, or genders? How would it be if we asked a few people to have short video X-rays of their upper torso while singing, to see what is moving inside? How about having professional singers of all ages and backgrounds make recordings of the same two or three short songs, in several specific keys, just to compare whatever could be compared in a computer analysis? Why are we not looking at really efficient vocalists to see what we can learn from them about how they sing?

Because.

Most of the money available for research is aimed at vocal fold health. It goes to the university medical schools where the MDs study unhealthy throats. The money for acoustic research on healthy singers is next to nil, but what little there is also goes to schools that have research labs. In those cases, you get research done on college students or maybe college faculty, not on high level, long-term-career professional singers. There is money for speech pathology research because they do that work on unhealthy speakers, and for research on children with speaking issues. Is there money for research on a large group of professional singers who have been highly successful singing in any style for a long time? You can hear Ralph again with his mocking laugher……”Hardee har har”.

So, is it any wonder that we stay stuck in the 19th century? Is it any wonder that when we talk about singing voice function most singers and teachers of singing are in a kind of “huh” mentality?

Will it change? We can hope so, but I have no great idea of how unless some really wealthy singer decides to create a big lab and give it lots of money for the research I’m talking about. Hardee Har Har.

The primary and most significant instrument is the human voice. It costs nothing. It is always available. It is capable of making a very wide range of pitches, vowels and sound qualities and volumes and carries within it all the emotions that human beings experience.

A person is known by her character. This is the sum of her actions, her words and her expressions and the day to day events of how her life is lived. When we speak of someone with a “strong character” we might mean someone who is influential through their personal integrity or through their example of overcoming adversity. We speak of someone who can be counted on when the going is rough, someone who is responsible even when that responsibility is difficult, someone who is able to think not just of herself but of others, sometimes more of others than of herself.

A person who tells the truth, even when doing so is hard; a person who stands up for what is fair and unbiased; a person who understands what it is to suffer and experience pain, a person who knows great joy just from seeing the sunset or hearing a child laugh; such a person is a treasure to others — a person like this leaves the world a better place just by being alive.

There is much now in the world that is not good. Lying, cheating, stealing, hatred, anger, great amounts of fear, all manner of suffering, illness, pain and struggle. There are those who feed on these dark emotions, making other’s lives more unsteady, all the while claiming to be the people with “the truth”. Arrogance, ignorance, hubris, self-aggrandizement, self-centeredness, greed, betrayal — the list is long. Sometimes people get so confused they can no longer tell true from false. That is a dire situation indeed.

What has this to do with a fully connected voice you may ask? Everything. Someone who has developed the human voice to its fullest, which takes years of diligent work and practice, brings forth in it every aspect of sound. It is then and only then when it can reflect fully the wide scope of human experience. It is then that it is strong, powerful, clear and moving.

When words are spoken by such a person, while that person feels deeply what it being said, the effect is always commanding. The words ring out with a special kind of energy, one that is hard to describe in words. When the sounds are sung, this effect is magnified many times over. The sound of an open, alive, vibrant voice singing words that are connected to deeply felt emotion and communication leave an impression like none other on earth. It is not for nothing that many really famous singers have been able to transcend nations, languages, politics, ages, and styles. When Luciano sang in NYC’s Central Park, half a million people would come, and for Streisand as well. Pavarotti mostly did not sing in English. People didn’t care. He mostly sang opera. Also, people didn’t care. They came for that SOUND and the emotion it always carried in it.

If you work on your voice, you must also always work on your body, and if you work on both, you must also work on who you are. It’s a package. The vocal development becomes a spiritual path. And, eventually, you discover your voice. You discover what it is you want to say, what you HAVE to say, in this life that is your message and yours alone. You uncover the vibration not just of your voice, but of your deepest soul desires.

And if you succeed in this, you find a place that cannot be any of the small, closed things I wrote about above. It becomes nearly impossible to be greedy, mean, narcissistic, arrogant, or anything else dark and horrible. You find that you fall in love with the human race and the planet on which we dwell and that your voice blends with the sound of the wind, the ocean, the birds and the laughter of children just as surely as it sends out messages of music and mind.

The power of a fully connected voice is the same power as that which called life into existence. It is that nameless something that is in everything and of everything which we know as life. It is one of the most powerful forces in the world.

If I had a dollar for all the referrals I’ve made in my life, I could retire. I have sent countless students to other teachers for all kinds of reasons. I don’t get any money or publicity for doing this. I do it because it is the right thing to do. Sometimes the student wants a teacher who is close to home, sometimes they are looking for a teacher with a certain type of expertise, sometimes they are trying to find a teacher who is available on a certain day or at a specific time, sometimes they want a teacher who is male or female. There are all kinds of reasons.

Since I made it my business to meet as many of my colleagues as I could a long time ago, I often have a good selection of teachers to recommend and do not hesitate to give several names. These people are known to me to be long-time teachers with good reputations amongst their peers and with a solid group of students who have gone on to work. Here in New York City where a private practice teacher has to be good in order to survive, you have a lot of competition. Only those who are dedicated and reliable continue for years and years. There are a good number of people and we mostly know each other. Yes, some are “competitors” but there are always more than enough students to go around, so why worry?

Of course, I have had lots of referrals, too, from all kinds of people, not just my students. Word of mouth is strong once you have demonstrated both your expertise and your attitude. Isolated teachers may still have lots of students, but that’s just not the same as being part of a community of experts who all want to do something altruistic. They want to help their students learn to sing well.

I have been around the vocal medical community long enough to know that even the highest level specialists disagree. They have different points of view about what is best for a patient and what is the most effective treatment option. They do seem to be willing, at least from an outsider’s point of view, to discuss these differences in an open forum such as a meeting, conference or panel discussion. I wish the same could be said for singing teachers, but this has not much been my experience, although I do think it is better now than it was 30 or 35 years ago. Because more teaching is based on science and function there is less “personal mystery” involved in teaching and this levels the field. That has to be a good thing. One’s approach to teaching, however, is more than a way of explaining the process of singing, it is also about how the information is presented and how it is taken in by the student. We have all known very bright people who could not communicate or relate socially to others.

If you are teaching, particularly if you are just starting out, make every effort to be a participant in your community of teachers, musicians and performers. Get to know them, appreciate them and let them know you. In time, if you are consistent and patient, many good things can come from these associations. Do not be afraid to give your time to a common cause. In the end, you may get many referrals and one day, like me, you may also be able to refer students to other teachers because it is the right thing to do.

Muscle Tension Dysphonia or MTD is a rather newly labeled diagnosis of vocal function aberrant behavior. It is common in those who are professional level singers, sometimes very high level singers with long successful careers.

The symptoms of MTD are wide ranging. It can be hard to get this diagnosis if you are seeing an ENT who is not familiar with professional voice users or the demands and requirements of professional level singing. A typical issue is the loss of the ability of the voice to match pitch. Sometimes the singer can be a full half step flat. This can be very unsettling, in that the person is clearly hearing the pitch and striving to reproduce it, but it just won’t come out accurately. Further, sometimes the voice just “shuts off” at a specific pitch, meaning that it no longer goes above or below certain notes, no matter how much effort the vocalist exerts. This can cause all kinds of compensatory behavior including pushing, forcing and ensuing vocal fatigue.

If the problem causes other issues like instability of vibrato, inability to sustain pitches, loss of control over volume, or loss of range, it could incorrectly be assumed that the singer is experiencing vocal technique problems. In the case of a very experienced singer, however, with lots of career success and life experience, the likelihood that the person will somehow “forget” how to breathe or “match pitch” or “create resonance” is small.

Because this condition was recognized by the medical profession not that long ago, it can go undiagnosed and that can cause the vocalist to believe that he or she is a hypochondriac or that he has experienced some kind of mental/emotional breakdown. The lack of ability to sing, when one’s identity has been intricately wrapped up in singing, is highly distressing. The complete lack of explanation for this situation having biological or neurological roots is even worse. Further, because the vocal folds generally look normal in MTD, if the ENT does not have the instruments to examine microscopic vocal fold irregularities, which requires expensive equipment and a very skilled eye, just visiting just any ENT may be no help. They must also examine the pharyngeal behavior for squeezing and compensation, and that means they must look not just at the folds but at the entire vocal tract. We have a growing number of throat specialists who understand these vocal function syndromes but they are not necessarily to be found just anywhere. Further, if the vocalist with the problem does not explain it well or understand that MTD could be a possible diagnosis, he or she might not ask useful questions of the MD or provide vital information that could lead to a correct evaluation of the problem. Medical tests pinpointing what’s wrong and where it shows up can be very helpful, but it might take a while to find someone who can provide this kind of diagnosis.

And, if you are given the diagnosis of MTD, you should be sent to a qualified Speech Language Pathologist who has experience dealing with professional singers with this problem. Not all SLPs have that kind of training and experience and without it, things could be very difficult indeed, in that many times singers can speak well enough, but they cannot sing. It’s not really clear why this would be so but my guess is that singing requires a much higher level of function than does conversational speech. In a sense, you can walk, but you can’t run. If you do not have assistance with speaking you really do not know if the way you are using your speaking voice is having a negative impact on how you are attempting to sing. If the SLPs is not familiar with singing, however, the sessions could be limited only to speech and that may not ultimately get the person back to singing again.

Therefore, if you or anyone you know has any kind of similar symptoms and they do not seem to respond to normal vocal technique training, and the person was functioning at a relatively high level for quite some time before the problem existed, you should yourself or they should be diligent in getting the right kind of help. It is very possible to encourage the vocal folds to return to normal function, as long as you know what you are doing, but it takes time, patience and perseverance. Looking for a Singing Voice Specialist who has successful experience helping to resolve MTD is very important.

I have had great success with some very recalcitrant vocal fold issues in singers at a high level who “just lost” their ability to sing and were totally distraught at this development. (Who wouldn’t be?) How I learned to be helpful was through trial and error, observation of SLPs, work with medical doctors and lots of years of life experience singing and teaching. I also have a good deal of “intuition” that helps me and that was cultivated deliberately as well, although I had some strong natural tendencies at the outset. Please help spread the word that MTD is real and that is can be addressed by a team of skilled and experienced voice care professionals.