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I have rhinitis & a deviated septum please review my singing

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I suck at titles so forgive the above. 

 

But in essences yes I have rhinitis & a deviated septum. But I'm not sure if those are the sole reason for my problems singing wise. 

 

My main issue is a sore throat when singing in chest voice. I think it's because I do not know how to activate the diaphragm beyond belting. I have many other problems (1. consistency (sometimes I sound good others bad & I'm singing the same song), 2. diaphragm breathing, 3. I hate my tone, 4. nasal drip creates cracked voice, 5. nasally blocked nose sound when singing, 6. squeaky voicing when transitioning to higher notes, 7. weak voice with no resonance) but let's keep it minimal for my first post & stick to getting rid of the sore throat that I get when singing in chest voice.  I would like it to no longer be painful & as painless as when I sing in head voice if possible. 

 

I don't have soundcloud etc so I hope it's cool that my link is to my tumblr page with the same name (though I change my name a lot) you are free to listen to my other vocal posts & comment on that too. https://singing-with-a-deviated-septum.tumblr.com/post/165584890474

 

Have a lovely day.

 

PS: And please be as honest as can be, because the sooner I clear my head of delusions the better it is overall. 

 

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Welcome " Singing with rhinitis",

 

The opportunity to request a review of your singing is FREE. 

A guaranteed review requires a reasonable fee of $20.

OR, choose one of our Membership Plans at the following link :

http://www.themodernvocalistworld.com/store/category/2-membership-plans/

 

Respectfully,

Adolph

 

 

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Are you training with anyone or any particular system? I too have  rhinitis and a deviated septum, but have been singing professionally for 27 years. The problems you describe sound more like lack of proper placement and support. The videos linked below can help, but won't be nearly as effective as having a good coach, solid course of study, or both, like in The Four Pillars of Singing.

Check these out, and let me know if you have questions: http://rocksinginglessons.com/videos/

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Thanks David I will check them out. 

And then I'll return with questions. :)

In terms of the coach, would I need a specific type of singing coach? & what would be the best questions to ask to see if they would be the best fit to help someone with rhinitis & a deviated septum?

I ask because I was attending lessons for two months last year but was unable to complete the course (because of work obligations). 

But when I was there it seemed difficult to move past the basics of breathing. They taught me the pin drop breathing exercise with the aim of lasting 30 seconds. But I could only last max 10 seconds. This frustrated my coach because she said her 5 year old students could last longer. But honestly I don't know what I was doing wrong. I was releasing as slowly as I could without getting light headed. 

I will say that it might be my rhinitis because I have a blocked nose year round. I was only recently diagnosed with this so I'm still getting used to it's affects. And unfortunately it came the year I decided to be serious about singing. 

We also did the hot potato exercise for placement. 

But to be quite honest, I never knew how these exercises translated to actual singing. 

It felt like a YouTube tutorial, where they ask you to do all these weird sounds but don't show you how to use it in a song. 

I kind of figured how to place the breathing into belting. But not anything else. 

My mind for some reason can't grasp the abstract I need a step by step how to dummies guide. My main issue is the pain. The sore throat & the big semi painful lump that forms in my throat sometimes when I'm singing in chest voice. 

I frustrated my coach a lot. She seemed to think that I have a wider range than I'm currently utilising & was often upset with me not reaching it. She accused me of not practising when I did.  & my voice grew hoarse many times during that time & I lost it at one time. My aim is to return to a coach by New year 2018 the latest. But I would prefer going in with someone whose expectations were realistic considering the rhinitis etc.

Because my main issue is I can't breathe, even now I'm finding it hard to breathe through my nose & I'm not singing. I'm trying to go to sleep (it's night time over here).  But my rhinitis is bothering me to the extent it's messing up my sleeping patterns. 

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With proper placement, you should be able to hold your nose and get the same sound as without holding it. Rhinitis and a deviated septum really doesn't change much besides having to manage allergy symptoms a bit more closely. You're not lifting the voice properly, likely singing a lot from the throat with more speech-like vowels. The harder you push, the more you're shouting more than singing. I address that in my first Singing Basics video.

If you want to build lung capacity get a cocktail straw. Breath in a low as possible (lower back, not shoulders), expanding your lower ribcage. Then, blow the entire breath out through the straw as hard as you can do without any pain. After a week, you'll start to notice you can do it a lot longer than when you started. As with the straw exercise, you can do this multiple times a day.

You'll also notice some big differences in general after using the straw exercise for a while, which I describe in my warmups video. That one is all about learning to relax, get good glottal closure, balance air-pressure, and hold proper resonant placement for the pitch.

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