A Vocal Athlete Needs a Vocal Health Team Series

Finale

This week we wrap up our "A Vocal Athlete Needs a Vocal Health Team" series with an exploration of what happens after you’ve had your evaluation. 

Ideally, when you see a specialized voice care team, you will get a clear diagnosis and plan for what comes next before you leave the appointment. That’s one of the advantages of seeing both the laryngologist and voice specialized speech pathologist at the same time. If you are diagnosed with a voice problem, there are several possible paths to getting your voice back on track. 

The first (and most common) is voice therapy with a voice-specialized speech-language pathologist. This is kind of like physical therapy for your voice. It’s critical that you see a speech pathologist who has a high level of expertise in voice, and ideally, a clinical singing voice specialist (speech pathologist with a background in singing and teaching singing). It’s ok to ask the speech pathologist how much experience they have working with your diagnosis–that’s just being a good advocate for your vocal health. The speech pathologist will design a treatment plan for you that may include exercises to improve the strength, flexibility, and coordination of your voice for speaking and singing. You may also need to work on optimizing your vocal pacing (see previous series on vocal pacing) and vocal hygiene (making sure you’re drinking enough water, avoiding clearing your throat, etc.). The duration of the voice therapy varies depending on the diagnosis and other factors, but is usually in the range of 4-12 sessions. 

You may have medical conditions that may be contributing to your voice problem. This might include allergies, sinus problems, reflux, sleep apnea, asthma, thyroid problems or a number of other conditions. The laryngologist will prescribe medications as needed and can also refer you to other types of specialists. 

In some cases, you might have a voice injury that requires surgery. It’s extremely important that any surgery on your vocal folds is done by a fellowship trained laryngologist (ENT doctor with additional specialty training in voice). In the hands of a trained specialist, the chances for recovering from surgery and resuming singing are very good. You may have a short period of time after the surgery when you need to rest your voice. In most cases, once this period is over, you will need to start voice therapy with an appropriate specialist as described above. This is the same principle as someone having physical therapy after knee, shoulder or hip surgery. The voice therapy ensures that you get the best recovery outcome possible. 

The most important takeaway from this series on what to do if you have a voice problem is to seek care from an expert voice team. If someone breaks their guitar, they don’t keep playing on it–they get it fixed. If you’re having problems with your voice, don’t wait–get help! Remember that as a vocal athlete, you are your instrument and you owe it to your voice to get the expert care you deserve!

Next week, we start a new series of tips about practicing.

Happy weekend,
Your SonoVoice Team

Resources:

Scearce, L. (In Press). Multidisciplinary Care of the Vocal Athlete. In W. LeBorgne &  M. Rosenberg (Eds.), The Vocal Athlete (3rd Ed.). Plural Publishing.

Next Week: Practicing Tips: A Series

You are a vocal athlete!

Athletes put superhuman demands on the human body. They practice to stay in shape, get better and prepare for the event. No athlete expects to perform at their best without working on their technique, practicing skills, and preparing for the game. 

The same goes for you as a vocal athlete. Practice will help you be prepared for your event: performance. Unfortunately, there’s no shortcut! If you want to be at your best as a singer, you’ll need to establish a regular vocal exercise and practice regimen.

In our weekly Vocal Fitness Friday email, SonoVoice's team of experts in science-based voice training  will be sharing information about how the voice works, tips on keeping your voice healthy, and ideas for vocal exercises for peak vocal fitness.