Vocal Box Repair: Is There
Such a Thing? And is it even possible?
Written by Diana Yampolsky
Apparently there
is! And yes, it is possible... however,
difficult.
For comparison, let's
look at classical ballet dancers:
Everybody knows that ballerinas have to
have a certain arch in their feet,
especially females. It is detrimental to
their careers if their feet are flat and
not properly arched, because it would be
difficult to do pirouettes; circling 32
revolutions with one leg while keeping
the whole weight of the body on the
other leg when the flat foot cannot hold
the weight.
Similarly for
singers, the upper palette (located in
the vocal box) also has an arch and
curve. The deeper that arch is, the more
the body of the voice will be projected.
The palette arch isn't enough on its own
though, as the sound also needs to be
supported simultaneously by the lower
abdomen and upper diaphragm, or else the
whole lift of the voice becomes
obsolete. Singers can avoid cracks in
their voice and letting their sound
"fall down" by lifting their voice into
the facial cavities, where the facial
muscles will also have to be supported
by the arch of the upper palette. There
is a lot of coordination involved, like
ballet, but it is not impossible.
Can a damaged vocal
box be fixed? Yes, to varying degrees,
based on the individual case. At the
very least, it can be improved so that
the sound will be much more steady,
secure and at much less risk of falling
and producing a crack. It is, however,
very tedious and intense work.
Your pathway to
recovery begins by retreating to the
basics of speech. It requires attentive
repetition of syllables and phrases,
then vocalizing different combinations
of sounds to train your control of
duration and pitch. The purpose and use
of different combinations of sound in
musical performance and public speaking
can be very different and can require
more or less rigorous ways of applying
the same technique. In the end, all of
the work will lend itself to a better
quality, frame, and body of sound, and
will be instrumental in achieving
greater voice projection, tone,
inflection, diction and overall clarity.
All of this, of
course, requires a trained specialist
who understands the mechanics of voice
repair, is able to hear where the
problems lie, and knows how to help you
engineer the solution for your sound.
If you are in need of
voice repair, but do not want to resort
to surgery, or are interested in
preventing vocal box damage, you can
learn more about our programs at
www.repairyourvoice.com and
www.vocalscience.com
There is also an
online community for people who are
dealing with, fixing, or have overcome
vocal problems. That community is called
VoiceMatters.Net
