Message from a student (Singing Teachers)

[Guest Teacher]

I’d start by encouraging them that if they haven’t had laryngitis for a year, then they must be doing something right. If not, it would be happening all the time. For the moment, rest up and soothe the throat as much as possible. It’s inflamed so it needs time to get back to normal. Keep developing a good full vocal fold closure during lessons. That’s ultimately the thing that will stop this from becoming a persistent problem. I try to encourage any of my students that work with a breathy/raspy/distorted sound to listen to other performers who use that sound live. Live performers really have to understand how manage that kind of pressure on the voice. It might be as simple as having a bit of a cough and talk to the audience between songs to calm down a bit, or some songs may require a 5 minute break to recover from. It comes down to understanding what the body is trying to tell you. One of my favourites for this is James Hatfield from Metallica. He really understands that although he can scream his head off in the studio, he won’t be able to regularly performing with that sound so he changes the sound to something more sustainable. Finally, this is something that happens to the best of us. I had a problem just the other week. I was acting in a venue where the sound just went up, not out to the audience. Rather than trusting myself to project the sound out, I was basically yelling my lines and went hoarse the next morning. It happens, we recover, and if we don’t act stupid and try and keep demanding more from a damaged voice then we won’t get the horrible nodules, etc. Hope this long ramble helps!

[Eliza Fyfe]

Thanks Chris, I’ll pass that on! Unfortunately she’s not actually having lessons with me at the moment

[Guest Teacher]

eek! hopefully that changes soon for her sake

[Matt Pocock]

Chris nailed it:)