Something I encounter a lot is the phenomenon of the vocal professional who ‘all of a sudden’ finds themselves having voice problems.
Here’s what normally happens…
At first, the issues are usually shrugged off. Errors are discounted as “just one of those gigs” to others, but inwardly they are a little apprehensive as to why their voice was misbehaving or feeling so off.
Then the issue worsens
Usually in both in severity and frequency. The odd gig starts to get cancelled, and it takes the singer longer and longer to “recover” from one gig for the next one.
Shortly afterwards, the inexorable public announcement follows – typically on their Facebook page – along the following lines…
“You may have noticed it’s been very quiet on this page the last few months. I’ve had some unfortunate vocal issues that have affected my ability to gig over the last few months. But I’ve taken some time out to recover, then I’ll be back on it!”
Sadly I’ve seen more of these announcements than I can count.
In fact, at the time of writing this article I’d seen two near-identical posts within the same week. Both announcements were from relatively young, well-thought of performers with decent followings. These performers ended up in a tight spot, with their voices misbehaving to such a degree that it was preventing continuity of work.
Whenever the issues started, they reached a point where they couldn’t sweep it under the rug any longer. So to recover, they take a few months off…
Reality check: a month or two off isn’t the solution
Almost all vocal issues that singers encounter are due to misuse, overuse and/or abuse of their instrument. The vocal problems are therefore merely a symptom of an underlying cause. If the underlying cause is not addressed, they’ll end right back where they left off.
Granted, in some select cases there may outside factors, but by and large most issues typically arise from continued improper use of the vocal instrument. When such vocal issues arise, they are actually the symptom of an underlying functional problem in how the singer is using their instrument.
Therefore, to not only fix the voice but to prevent such issues happening repeatedly, the singer must re-train.
Time off won’t fix it
Now, you may see why “a month or two off to recover” is practically useless for any singer that falls into this category. The reality is, unless the singer re-trains to use their instrument properly, such vocal issues will only continue to present themselves. And – much like anything else in life – the consequences of incorrect behaviour on your body only worsen as you age.
Why careers get derailed, often permanently
For singers at the early stages of their career, they’ve got time to get things set up right before committing more fully to a hectic schedule. But for singers even a fraction of the way into their career, with gigs on the line and maybe even real sales/gig income at stake, it’s a very bitter pill to swallow that the way they sing is what is derailing their voice.
To go back multiple steps and re-tool and re-train is hard, and remarkably few find the discipline to do so. This is one of the many reasons that vocal problems so regularly derail careers, and why a misunderstanding of the root cause makes it a permanent derailment.
Going a bit further
What if we expand the situation to include problems that require surgery to fix, e.g. nodules, granuloma, etc? The dilemma is magnified not just because of poor vocal function (which still hasn’t been addressed), but now the singer is also trying to recover from surgery. The instrument will be far more fragile, atrophied, typically have scar tissue… and the singer still won’t have retrained their instrument away from whatever pathological behaviour led to the problem in the first place.
I can tell you, it’s an absolute nightmare.
Correction and recovery with re-training is still very possible, but it’s like any athlete trying to recover from a bad injury; it would be far easier to train from a fully healthy uninjured body, than one which has already suffered trauma or had corrective surgery.
Take-home message: If you are encountering issues, get help
Perhaps you’re trying to make your voice a key component of your income and your life – in this instance also, get help to make sure you’re doing it right. The vocal cost of these issues is astronomically higher than investing in training to build your voice properly in the first place.
So if you’re a professional singer encountering these issues, or even just a passionate hobbyist who wants to keep singing for the rest of your life, get help and get on the right path.
Learn More: Related Articles
If you want to learn more about vocal health and voice issues, you may enjoy the following articles:
Famous Singers with Voice Problems
Vocal Health Issues
My Singing Voice Hurts: 5 Habits for Vocal Health
Vocal Longevity: The Icarus Effect
Why do I keep losing my voice: Overuse, Misuse and Abuse
The Seriousness of Vocal Fold Nodules