It’s no secret that the music industry is currently struggling to find out how to generate revenue in the Internet age. Many have suggested focusing on providing music for video games, films, commercials, etc. Artists such as U2 and Britney Spears have made their concerts into event spectacles that cost a lot of money to produce, which actually end up being must see happenings – and not so much for the musical performance as for the lights, stage setup and the overall concert experience. But these types of “theatre” and “circus” are not options for the new and emerging artists, who cannot afford to invest millions in a stage setup. And even if they could they would never be able to recover the investment as they do not have a big, well established international name yet. Besides which, those big name “Circus” artists are getting older and eventually the industry will need a new generation of real artists. Therefore, the question is: would it not be cheaper to coach them to sing properly and perform authentically without any circus props?

In many ways the music industry is currently in a type of suspended animation, due to the sheer fact that they keep producing and reproducing the same so to speak “templates”, ie. Britney Spears like artists and in the recent past “popping out” boy bands and girl groups that were completely alike and indistinguishable. People, meanwhile, quite evidently are getting fed up with listening and watching the same thing over and over. For some reason the music professionals are acting like telephone solicitors who are on a consistent basis are trying to pull out another donation from the people that have donated already several times.  And these people are beginning to hang up the phone with obvious anger and are feeling harassed and, thus, are naturally resistant to give anything else. You would wonder why they would not call somebody else who has not donated yet? This is still a riddle.

In terms of music production, a type of suspended animation is also present. Recordings are so overproduced that there is very little room left for the voice. And the vocals are often so processed that they sound very cold and flat and devoid of any warmth or humanity, kind of like the heartbeat has been slowed down and the entire body has been frozen. Is there a hope that the music industry and the artists will come out of their living comas and regain their vital signs and their new fresh disposition would infuse music with something resembling life?   

As you read the above title you probably asked yourself, “Why would anybody work on the stove when the fridge is broken?” Most would answer that it is absurd and that nobody does it. Well, I have news for you. Music Industry professionals are doing it every day on an every artist basis. Why is that you may ask? Because the truth comes out in the wash. The fact is that the majority of artists cannot sing without syllable by syllable comping, auto tuning and melodyning. After the so-called “authentic” performance has been fertilized in the studio it is time for the artist to go on stage and perform live. And then that performance flops. The audience begins to talk and walk away, while in some cases booing the artist off the stage. Then the so-called professionals from the Record Label often make the “wise” decision to implement a change in strategy. For example, the beautiful artist with long brown hair portraying the image of a pop diva is obviously not working, so let’s get her hair cut real short and make her blond. This way she will look like a standard jazz singer and they can hire jazz musicians and a jazz producer to organize her next musical project. They are hoping that nobody will be able to recognize her as they will have given her a new image and sound. They will even use the same comp, melodyne and auto tune. And the result would be that nothing has actually changed. The artist still cannot sing live and is even doing it worse than before, as they are not even themselves anymore with the music industry professionals having changed them to a completely different genre. Now they don’t know how to power their voice and are extremely confused. Some even turn to drugs as their dreams are now shattered once and for all. This sad result is as obvious as the reality that you shouldn’t work on the stove when the fridge is broken. The stove may or may not actually work better, but the fridge will definitely still be broken.

Please, my dear reader, try to imagine a beautiful, sexy woman with long blond hair. Wow! You would say! And then imagine your disappointment when you find out that underneath of a beautiful blond wig is a partially or completely bald head. And that would have actually been fine if you had known about it in the first place rather than being shocked by the sudden discovery. Similarly, the concert ticket buyer is very often shocked when hearing that their favourite lead singer or solo artist does not even remotely resemble what they have heard on the record. The entourage, the show, the lighting and the musicians are exciting and glamourous - but the voice of the artist often sounds like they were run down by a truck and they have been using their “wigged” head as a brake. Then all of a sudden the “wig” falls off and the naked truth is revealed. The singer is “bald” and has been “heavily camouflaged” and apparently at best “toupeed”. Now almost everybody has lost when the truth has been revealed. The artist, the management, the audience and …who else you might ask? Let’s see. It is a documented fact that there are only a handful of major record companies and apparently their record labels are a very small part of a multinational corporation that also sells films, video games, publishing, clothing, detergent, light bulbs, etc. To those gigantic companies, as it appears to be, a loss on a music project can sometimes even be advantageous. How so? Apparently through creative accounting a loss of investment can actually result in tax advantages for another blockbuster CD release or even – go figure - a non-related division within the larger corporation that has been far more financially successful! With that in mind, needless to say, the manager, producer and the artist have to ensure that their production (in the studio and live on stage) has to be super successful in order to reach the TOP and not lose the deal. Therefore, the parties at the bottom of this structure must be especially vigilant that they are offering and promoting the real deal rather than the fake act.

For the last several years there has been a big concern among music industry professionals that the music industry is broken. Bigwigs and music industry gurus are exclaiming, “How can we fix it?” Last year I attended Music Expo Europe in London, England. The very first thing that was shown to delegates was a documentary film about the problems which the music industry at large is experiencing today. After the film the delegates were asked for their input for a future documentary film on how to fix the music industry. And the delegates, most of whom were also music industry professionals, were suggesting taking the music elsewhere – to the movies, videogames, Internet and what have you. Not one delegate, until I stood up and spoke on camera, speculated as to why it got broken in the first place. I said, “Please pay attention to the artists. Teach them how to sing properly - and in tune preferably, thus, complying with the standards of professional singing – and teach them how to express themselves authentically on stage and, thus, enable them to give a sincere performance on stage.” And maybe then, I suggested, the records will not be dropped or put on “hiatus” before they see the Record Store shelves. And maybe then people would not ask for their money back after attending a concert in which they were completely disappointed that they had heard an entirely different thing on stage than what they had heard on the record, obviously cleverly fabricated (auto tuned and melodyned) in a high tech recording studio. Milli Vanilli or Ashley Simpson, you ask? Them and quite a few others along with them... The truth of the matter is that, yes, the artists are being picked from the cream of the crop of good looking people and, yes, also from the cream of the crop of somewhat talented people. And then they have been surrounded by the best musicians and producers who have presumed that the singing voice is a minor detail. The songs are good they exclaim! And, oh yeah, “she looks so beautiful and sexy!” Not even once did it occur in anybody’s mind that the artist does not know how to use his or her God given voice and, thus, is in jeopardy to wear it out to the “bone” and even lose it completely. And when that happens – God forbid – everybody is in awe and exclaims, “What should we do now?” There is a lot of money that has been invested into the whole production and entourage and the question becomes, “How can we save the project?” That is the question indeed. The answer is that they would not even have had to raise this question if they had treated the artist’s voice as an instrument that needs care, attention and nurturing in order to always be ready to reciprocate the high standards of today’s audiences and not to die in the process. You can read more in my next blog, “Vocally Speaking – Passing Off the Beautiful Hair Wig as the Real Deal”.

In the realm of holistic teaching, the thyroid is the organ which represents suppressed emotions and hurts. I believe this, as I experienced it first hand. Many years ago I was working a lot of hours (teaching/consulting/producing) and also was involved in an emotionally abusive relationship. One day I woke up and I had no voice to speak with let alone sing with. I did not know what happened to me and I presumed that I had caught some virus or bug and that was the only reason why my voice disappeared inside of my body. I tried anything and everything to get rid of what I thought was a minor viral infection and absolutely nothing helped. Then finally I found a natural practitioner and iridologist, who by examining my iris inside of my eye, made a determination and said, “Diana, your voice loss has nothing to do with your throat.” I was quite puzzled, as I still could not produce a simple sound. Moreover, one of the ENT’s was suggesting an operation on my absolutely healthy vocal chords. As I found out later, he would operate on anybody with any problem, no questions asked. He also was trying to persuade me that I might not have been singing or speaking correctly. (Go figure!) Luckily, I knew better and would never agree with such nonsense as this. I was for years advocating a safe voice practice and developed my own method – Vocal Science^TM,  which is designed to save and protect the voice for life while applying the voice in a certain way and employing the certain set of muscles. My natural practitioner after hearing my story in a whisper, said, “What happened to you? Are you in a healthy, loving relationship?” With these words I started crying and in a summarized way, recited her my “love” story. After listening to me with great attention, she explained, “I know exactly why you lost your voice.” I questioned, “Why?” She said, “Your thyroid has locked – it is overstressed and your voice has no way out and it is kind of stuck inside you.” Moreover, she said, “Your immune system is exhausted and that is why you are experiencing strong allergy and almost asthmatic symptoms. And because of that, your body tissue is full of mucous and, thus, your voice feels raspy and slippery.” On top of everything else, I started to react on my cat and my dog as well and, thus, I was forced to give them up for adoption, which traumatized my daughter and I a great deal. To make a long story shorter, I was advised to a set of natural herbs and remedies to clean out my tissues, boost my immune system and unlock my thyroid. Combining the courses that I took in holistic medicine with my revolutionary Vocal Science technique, saved not only my voice and my career in the music industry, it also appointed me to use my knowledge in the voice arena, as well as employing a holistic approach to the person as a whole. The Vocal Science Non-Surgical Voice Repair method was born.  

Hardly finish your tour? Does your throat hurt after performances? Voice sounding hoarse? Those are the symptoms of an overused and abused vocal anatomy. The worst part is if you continue doing it without changing your manner of speaking and singing, it will lead to the need for a serious voice repair and not necessarily a non-surgical one. By that time, if you attempt to attain the non-surgical voice repair, it might be too late. Then you are facing a laser or a scalpel operation, which could result in scar tissue, which by itself could be more detrimental than the original damage. This could be your worst nightmare. The reason I am writing this blog is to prevent you from that possibility. The prevention is definitely far better than dealing with serious vocal damage. What does prevention entail, you may ask? Learning the proper skills for speaking and singing before you embark on any performance or that nasty tour which might leave you voiceless. I often get the phone calls and emails from the people who seem to have gotten it all - the songs, the band, the management and even the record deal and, by now, they have no voice to sing with. They are crying and pleading for help and flying to me from all over the world, thus, by that time paying double the money for the trip, hotel and, yes, of course, for the non-surgical voice repair course - provided, of course, that their voice is still saveable and curable without surgery. That I determine by speaking to them over the phone before their arrival. "It is not as easy as it sounds," said the Toronto Star in their article about the Vocal Science^TM method and it is true, but it is quite achievable and obviously doable. Through speech development and then special vocal exercises, the singer learns how to lift the pressure off of his or her voice and off of the vocal box. At the same time, the voice gets restructured into the set of one’s facial muscles, which will play the role of a natural amplifier/resonator. But that’s not all – those facial muscles must begin to work in full conjunction and coordination with the abdominal muscles, thus, minimizing and practically eliminating the use of the throat, larynx and vocal chords. Meanwhile, simultaneously, the vocal box has to be nurtured in order to be able to heal. Over the years I have been using very powerful natural herbs, as well as naturopathic remedies. Once the mission is accomplished, the difficulties with the voice will never occur again and that is guaranteed, provided that the singer will retain the intellectual understanding and kinesthetic feeling of what was instilled during the smart, not hard vocal sessions.  

Everybody knows that acupuncture is a asian medical practice that originated in China and is now very popular and practiced all around the world. This art falls into the holistic philosophy of overall health and well being. In acupuncture, fine needles are inserted at specific points to stimulate, disperse, and regulate the flow of chi, or vital energy, and restore a healthy energy balance. Similarly, the Vocal Science^TM method finds the certain spots and channels in one’s body to activate the human voice and make it work at the fullest capacity possible. For singers this method knocks down the years of practice of increasing the volume and projection on their voices and mainly corrects the pitch and vastly increases the range. By pointing out to the singer exactly how to attack and place the sound, his whole performance becomes predominantly designed and, thus, aimed to its final destination upon design. For speakers, this method assures a proper volume, enunciation, inflection, emphasis and definite projection without any pain or strain on their vocal anatomy. In both instances, the physical body is also very involved in the equation. The certain points in the lower abdominal and upper diaphragm muscles, as well as the upper back muscles, are playing a significant role in the support of the sound and make sure that it has been delivered to those designated facial cavities and then, naturally over all, projected. In other words, the whole philosophy boils down to so to speak “re-channelling” the sound upon the use of the precise points of the human body and voice as an outcome away from the so called “natural” use, ie. screaming from the bottom of the throat and the top of the lungs, which in turn leads to an overall need for voice repair.

Every second person that comes to me for a Voice Repair course is stating that he or she was diagnosed with Acid Reflux. And about 99% of the time the diagnosis is incorrect. It seems that it is now a general catch all label used by doctors for patients they cannot help or don’t know how to help. They are usually prescribing a drug (Nexium, Zantac, etc.) which almost never produces any results and the person still complains even more about a dry and itchy throat, hoarseness and an inability to sing or speak clearly. In reality the problem is still the same – all of these people are using their voices incorrectly (speaking and/or singing) and all of their symptoms are caused specifically by this premise. However, once their voice has been lifted off their vocal boxes and separated from the anatomies and made freely flown above and on top of their physical bodies, their voice is no longer affected by anything that is going on with their physical body, even if they actually have a real ailment.