I damaged my voice so badly that I went to talk and a weak crackly sound came out that disappeared. I could taste blood (this was before I was a vocal coach), and for the next three months I didn’t dare speak because of the pain I felt when I tried. When I finally did start talking, I could only manage a sentence or two and my voice would crack and disappear. Every swallow felt like a needle jabbing my throat, causing severe anxiety. My shoulders became bunched up like some sort of protection mechanism trying to stop the pain when I swallowed. 

I had to wait for 6 months to see a throat specialist (ENT in the UK). The weekly sessions (6 or 9 weeks of sessions, I can't remember which it was now! Lol) were not really helping and the exercise she gave me I was doing exactly what she asked me to do, and my voice was not really getting much better. So I changed it relying on my natural intuition that I had ignored when I damaged my voice. Before I damaged it, I was a natural singer. I had just got into bad habits of drinking and smoking too much and singing too loudly at clubs and ignoring my voice signals until it was too late. Never again.

Anyway, my voice started to get much better from this one small tweak I made. She was now happy with my vocal progress, which was still very challenging, as between the sessions my voice would be so weak that I spent the first couple of days just resting my voice. Then I could start to do the exercises before the next session. I always remember what she said in the last session… I asked her, so do you think I can start to work on singing again soon? And she said just focus on your talking and be happy with that. This felt more painful than the pain in the throat I felt from swallowing…

I had been a natural singer before who could sing anything I wanted without warm-ups (there's a mistake in itself!). All I had to remember was how I used to sing before I damaged my voice  and rely on that to get my speaking and singing voice back. Well, I got it all back and some! So when I say I know how to build a voice from scratch, I really mean it. I did it on my voice and I can do it on yours too. And I have done it on my students' voices for the last 24 years as well. 

What I discovered is it's not the mechanical techniques of voice building or understanding how your voice works that makes the difference. As I knew none of this when I was already a natural singer. It's thinking like a singer and relying on emotion to do all the heavy lifting for you. This frees up your mind and body to sing in harmony and that is where the true power in singing lies.

Get in touch and I will teach you how you can connect with your voice too.

Oh, and the small tweak was I am a tenor and when I did the exercise I started very high, and she nearly jumped out of her seat, warning me not to do that but stay low in my voice. Which I did for the first 2 weeks and every time I finished I felt like my voice was in the wrong place. And I only know I am a tenor after the training I did after this period, so me adjusting my voice and doing it higher was just intuitive, not learnt from a book. The second I went higher, my voice responded instantly after and I talked for longer than I had done since before I had damaged my voice! Oh, and I had also developed a small stutter that was getting worse, so I had to work through that too… and here I am today in all my singing wonder!

A product of hard work, yes, but focusing on the things that really make the big changes, and doing scales or singing songs before you have this foundation in place is not going to work. At some point you will hit a ceiling and feel like there is something missing in your singing and that thing is what I teach.

So if you want to sing like I do with a voice that responds to my every emotion and feel totally free to sing then please get in touch I would love to help free your voice too.