Not sure what's going on...

[jlewmdob]

I'll describe what's going on the best I can. I've been experiencing some discomfort on both sides of my larynx at the top??? It kind of feels like a muscle strain if that makes any sense. Feels like it is near the root of my tongue. Occasionally I'll feel a slight pull. It freaked me out for sure. I'm not sure how to really describe any better as I'm not a doctor or voice expert. I've been to my ent a few times about this and he made mention of salivary glands. He has checked out my vocal folds on a few occasions and everything checked out fine. With that being said, I still want to get to the bottom of this. I'm going this week to a Singing Voice Specialist here in town to see if I can get some answers. I had a few hours of lessons with Jaime Vendera a little over a year ago, and think that I have the basics down. I've always just sang by feeling more than technique and have not lost any range or power with this, it's just uncomfortable. I do warm up my voice and drink plenty of water. I don't smoke and rarely have more than a few beers when we play out. The band I'm in covers a little bit of everything from Zep, Journey, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi, so it's quite a work out. My range is G2-A5 and like I mentioned before, I haven't lost any range, I'd just like to know what's going on. I plan on finding a teacher here in Cincinnati and working with them on a regular basis, so if it is something to do with technique, hopefully I can get it fixed pretty quick. If anyone here has any thoughts, I'd sure appreciate it. Thanks for your time, Josh.

One more thing, I do the tongue stretching and other stretching excerises to try to release tension before starting my warm up and continue to do them during practice and performance (though I turn away from crowd cause it can look really silly :)

[Robert Lunte]

Humm....? Does sound strange. You really need to post a sample/link for us to listen to... in the meantime, Im not sure Im totally sold on the "tongue stretching excercises"... what is that?! sounds like it could be some goofy stuff... maybe contributing to your issue.

[jlewmdob]

Hello Robert, thanks for your reply. The tongue stretches are part of the Vocal Stress Release program in "Raise Your Voice" volume 2 by Jaime Vendera. I don't think I'm overdoing it, I just try to release as much tension from my head/neck/shoulder areas before I begin. Like I said, I haven't noticed any decrease in my range or ongoing hoarseness, I would just like to get to the bottom of this. You can find a couple of samples of my vocals on youtube by doing a search for "jlewmdob", my screen name here. There's a few covers on there. Also my original project's myspace page has a recording on it as well. www.myspace.com/1350rocks

I would post the links here but I'm at work and cannot access those sites at this time. Thanks again for your time and feedback, Josh.

One more thing, I think what you guys are doing for vocalists is great. There are alot of forums out there but rarely do you see the founder giving so much input. I put one of your bumper stickers on my Xterra a few months back and have had several people ask me about the site.