So glad to know that your students are being helped to sing well and enjoy the experience. Thanks, Craig, for helping to give them the tools they need.
The person who diagnosed you with MTD should have recommended that you work with a voice specialist Speech Language Pathologist. You need to do that as soon as you can. If you lost your voice after a bad cold, you may have something wrong with the vocal fold movement caused by a virus. For that you will need to have someone look at your vocal folds (an MD) with a high speed camera. Regular scoping with just a video strobe might miss any paralysis that could be causing your to tighten your muscles (unconsciously). Pain is not normal and should not be there. Something is causing you problems and you need to get another diagnosis. If you are near a major city, please find a laryngologist and have your vocal folds examined again and then go to a SLP who can start helping you learn to speak differently. You can try contacting ASHA, The Voice Foundation and the National Center for Voice and Speech for suggestions about names of experts. When your speaking voice is OK, find a singing teacher who knows how to work with MTD.
Good luck with this. Don’t give up until you get answers.
I’m glad you found this helpful, Elizabeth. Tell your son that he has a right to find his most beautiful voice and he should seek it with courage. I have encountered so many adults who were told as a kid to be quiet because they “couldn’t sing” or “sounded awful” who have carried that around for decades. So very sad! Please share this with him — you have a beautiful voice because everyone on earth has a beautiful voice, it’s just that some people find it with little effort and some people have to look at little harder. My husband started to sing at age 54, hardly being able to match pitch. Now, at 78, he is in a choir and is learning to sing with confidence along with others. If he can, so can you!
Heavens, how strange, Kate. You never know. I once did a performance with bad laryngitis caused by bronchitis. The music was written for me and was quite high (lyric soprano stuff). I could talk but not clearly. I went to a performance because I did not know another vocalist who could this music out of a hat. I apologized to the audience. Then I opened my mouth and sang. Out came my voice, for the whole 6 songs. The last one sat from B5 to B6. Easy. When I was done, my speaking voice was still hoarse and I didn’t get better for days. I still don’t know what happened. At least the bus finally showed up!
Gee, I pushed your buttons!! If you can’t sign your name, you are hiding and that means you are afraid. Who of? Me? Hardly.
Where in this article do I name anyone specific? How do you know whom I was referring to? Are you psychic? For all you know I was talking about any number of people who fit into the category I described. You jumped to conclusions. Hmmm.
Be careful “Someone Somewhere” — your own ignorance and anger will make you a patsy for any brand of soggy teaching. Read a bit more, ask questions, talk to a lot of high level voice scientists who are NOT creators of a method of singing teaching. You will see that what I say is not only the truth but that it is more true every day. Look at the articles written by The American Academy of Teachers of Singing, in the NATS Journal of Singing, in other peer-reviewed journals. There are many methods that advocate manipulation of the throat. That is always wrong in that it violates the body. Sorry if that makes you angry but you will find, if you read, that the primary drive in the body is to inhale and exhale as freely as possible. Anything that restricts that, in the long run, will harm not only the singing but the singer.
No one has the best way to teach singing. No method is always right. Vocal behaviors that belong to the world at large cannot and do not belong to one individual’s method or approach.
How much reading have you done about vocal production in a broad sense going back to Garcia?? Read Garcia, read Lamperti, Vennard, Reid, Miller, Bunch Dayme. Read D. R. Boone, read Behrman and Haskell, read McCloskey and O. Brown. Read research by Sundberg, Titze, Svec, D. Miller. Read Dr. Sataloff’s many articles. READ.
Be careful, SS. Take a breath and be careful when you write nasty stuff like that last sentence. It makes you look bad, particularly since you don’t sign a real name. You are ripe to be taken advantage of and discovering that will absolutely make you very angry. You can call me names and try to denigrate what I write here but what you have submitted says more about you than me.
Maybe he thinks this is a way to release the muscles, I don’t know. Personally, I don’t want to think of vomiting before I sing anything. It isn’t necessary. I remember a time when he didn’t think about constriction. He had not heard of it. That was a very long time ago. Perhaps now this is his way to let it go but I would never ask for that as I find the image unpleasant.
Go to:
and look for Dr. Milstein’s course
I’m sorry. I missed that your name was Bella, not Barbara.
So glad to know that your students are being helped to sing well and enjoy the experience. Thanks, Craig, for helping to give them the tools they need.
Dear Barbara:
The person who diagnosed you with MTD should have recommended that you work with a voice specialist Speech Language Pathologist. You need to do that as soon as you can. If you lost your voice after a bad cold, you may have something wrong with the vocal fold movement caused by a virus. For that you will need to have someone look at your vocal folds (an MD) with a high speed camera. Regular scoping with just a video strobe might miss any paralysis that could be causing your to tighten your muscles (unconsciously). Pain is not normal and should not be there. Something is causing you problems and you need to get another diagnosis. If you are near a major city, please find a laryngologist and have your vocal folds examined again and then go to a SLP who can start helping you learn to speak differently. You can try contacting ASHA, The Voice Foundation and the National Center for Voice and Speech for suggestions about names of experts. When your speaking voice is OK, find a singing teacher who knows how to work with MTD.
Good luck with this. Don’t give up until you get answers.
I’m glad you found this helpful, Elizabeth. Tell your son that he has a right to find his most beautiful voice and he should seek it with courage. I have encountered so many adults who were told as a kid to be quiet because they “couldn’t sing” or “sounded awful” who have carried that around for decades. So very sad! Please share this with him — you have a beautiful voice because everyone on earth has a beautiful voice, it’s just that some people find it with little effort and some people have to look at little harder. My husband started to sing at age 54, hardly being able to match pitch. Now, at 78, he is in a choir and is learning to sing with confidence along with others. If he can, so can you!
Heavens, how strange, Kate. You never know. I once did a performance with bad laryngitis caused by bronchitis. The music was written for me and was quite high (lyric soprano stuff). I could talk but not clearly. I went to a performance because I did not know another vocalist who could this music out of a hat. I apologized to the audience. Then I opened my mouth and sang. Out came my voice, for the whole 6 songs. The last one sat from B5 to B6. Easy. When I was done, my speaking voice was still hoarse and I didn’t get better for days. I still don’t know what happened. At least the bus finally showed up!
Thanks, Jennifer. It makes my heart so happy to know that I have been helpful.
Gee, I pushed your buttons!! If you can’t sign your name, you are hiding and that means you are afraid. Who of? Me? Hardly.
Where in this article do I name anyone specific? How do you know whom I was referring to? Are you psychic? For all you know I was talking about any number of people who fit into the category I described. You jumped to conclusions. Hmmm.
Be careful “Someone Somewhere” — your own ignorance and anger will make you a patsy for any brand of soggy teaching. Read a bit more, ask questions, talk to a lot of high level voice scientists who are NOT creators of a method of singing teaching. You will see that what I say is not only the truth but that it is more true every day. Look at the articles written by The American Academy of Teachers of Singing, in the NATS Journal of Singing, in other peer-reviewed journals. There are many methods that advocate manipulation of the throat. That is always wrong in that it violates the body. Sorry if that makes you angry but you will find, if you read, that the primary drive in the body is to inhale and exhale as freely as possible. Anything that restricts that, in the long run, will harm not only the singing but the singer.
No one has the best way to teach singing. No method is always right. Vocal behaviors that belong to the world at large cannot and do not belong to one individual’s method or approach.
How much reading have you done about vocal production in a broad sense going back to Garcia?? Read Garcia, read Lamperti, Vennard, Reid, Miller, Bunch Dayme. Read D. R. Boone, read Behrman and Haskell, read McCloskey and O. Brown. Read research by Sundberg, Titze, Svec, D. Miller. Read Dr. Sataloff’s many articles. READ.
Be careful, SS. Take a breath and be careful when you write nasty stuff like that last sentence. It makes you look bad, particularly since you don’t sign a real name. You are ripe to be taken advantage of and discovering that will absolutely make you very angry. You can call me names and try to denigrate what I write here but what you have submitted says more about you than me.
Maybe he thinks this is a way to release the muscles, I don’t know. Personally, I don’t want to think of vomiting before I sing anything. It isn’t necessary. I remember a time when he didn’t think about constriction. He had not heard of it. That was a very long time ago. Perhaps now this is his way to let it go but I would never ask for that as I find the image unpleasant.
Glad you find them useful, Kath. Thanks.