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Had Wonderful, HIGH Range Two Days Ago. No WEAK head voice!

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themixtape

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I'm glad it's getting better for you.

My ENT seemed to know exactly when I would heal - he told me to take the Nexium and had me make an appointment in like 8 weeks I believe. So I went back and he scoped me and the redness was gone. And I was back to singing.

As i remember I took it at night right before bed - so that nothing was in my stomach. It was a 24 hour dosage. I like to eat right away in the morning too.

The ENT didn't really push me to continue to take Prilosec. I just mistakenly thought I had this condition and needed to take it for the long term. I wanted the Nexium because its slightly better but I don't think he wanted to be responsible for me anymore. he kind of refused to write out any more scripts and told me to take the Prilosec if I wanted to. Because to him I was cured - he did his job.

I took the Prilosec for a good 6 months afterwards but probably didn't need to. I finally came to my senses and stopped taking it. I never take it anymore. I never have LPR anymore. I try to eat better but I still eat spicy stuff. I just try to avoid eating a big meal before bed. I do eat a Zone snack before bed and it is never a problem.

geno: This is an important insight for all singers. What we do late in the day (or evening) with what we eat affects what happens overnight... and how things are in the morning. It is not 'one size fits all', but there are general principles....

If you retire with a full stomach... there will be effects, especially if what you have eaten is still in your stomach. Reflux is one of those effects, for some persons.

Sooo.....if you have that... eat earlier. Learn the timing of what works for you... and manage to your own internal reality.

THis falls under the category of 'learning your instrument'. For a singer 'know your horn' means 'know your body', and what works (or does not) for it.

You have given good advice. A rep point to you!

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Mix, I think you are on the right track by finding the right doctor. Everything else is secondary to having your health in order.

It would be interesting to hear the difference once you have metabolism stabilized.

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I Also think it's a matter of technique

my thoughts

hope it helps cheers bro

Also stop doing vocalfry exercises, it makes this worse. vocal fry exercises is a double edged sword, yes it brings some closure but it can also activate alot of things we dont want in the middle part of the range.

Ive seen that happen to some ss guys some years back if i do remember correcctly

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Sorry for the incoming long post. Bit of a rant. Just expressing my thoughts on the matter. Your issues could be a complex mix of reflux, mentality, the way you practice, etc...

Watching your video now mix, I agree with Jens. You're going really light and you're really scared of pushing, when in fact what you perceive as pushing is still pretty light and seems to be working?

I'd say half of what you are experiencing is due to your mentality. Take a listen to your video and count how many times you say something negative like "I can't do that today" or "that's definitely weak" "my voice hasn't been the same since that day in april" "this is insanely frustrating" "that song's too high for me"...how are you supposed to improve if you keep that negative attitude around your practicing?

Sure, shit happens, but at least you could be saying, "okay let's see if I can do it today" "let me try again" "oh well I'll try it later" or any of these kinds of thought processes that suggest hope, and you wouldn't be stuck in a rut as you practice. Another part of it is removing preconceptions that are hurting you.

Okay I saw toward the end you were getting more optimistic, saying this day is better than usual. Good.

Since you are on SSTV already, have you seen Jessie's video on the difference between tension vs. strain? I think you may be confusing the two. Strain does not mean you feel NOTHING. You will always feel something, there will always be tensions involved in singing. Strain is just pain. When it really hurts. When you're saying "that was a bit of push"...well was it just effort, or did it really hurt? If it didn't hurt, keep doing it and you will probably build more strength than trying to get anything usable out of going super super light in a way that isn't even producing sound.

Now I do understand you may be putting more effort into it than you sound because your cords are swollen. So there's that side of the equation. But without the background info it just sounds like your technique is too light and you are hooked onto the mindset of keeping everything super light.

What else...yes on great vocal days the sound just flows right out, but for one thing...those really great days are the exception. Just because your voice felt effortless and worked beautifully one day, doesn't mean it should never take any more effort than that. You see, on a normal vocal day, you need to put in a little more effort than a great day just to get the ball rolling. And on a bad day, loads more. How do you think the pros do it? On bad days they aren't trying to relax more. They're trying like hell to push it out, cause otherwise, the day just stays bad.

The other thing is, on great vocal days, you are probably putting in more effort than you realize. It just feels effortless because your energy is high. And you know what you can practice that helps increase vocal energy and make all the high notes feel easier?

drum roll please...

The curse world of SLS singing...yet, let's be honest you've heard many SS students do it:

BELTING.

A powerful "mix" is often essentially a healthier variant of that.

Look, if you never pull up your chest musculature once in a while, if you never work your voice hard, you just will never access the full strength of your voice. And that could be part of the reason your voice has been so weak. Since you're just not working it to the fullest. You're just trying to coordinate it with so little energy, pressure, momentum behind it.

You see, when you practice pulling up that chest musculature, with good coordination, in moderation, responsible training of the upper chest register, your voice will be lifted up higher. It will get more dramatic tenor-y. The blood will flow better. Your voice will be naturally be placed higher, naturally operate more powerfully and you will no longer have to reach for the high notes.

The solution to strain is often not avoiding it, but tolerating it as part of the natural warm up...before the full blood is going, some things are going to be hard. If you just push through them a bit and make little tweaks to figure out how to get more success with it, you will get past it and they will be easy and bam, good vocal day. Whatever you sing after that, light or heavy, will be easy, cause you've already practiced singing the most powerful you'll have to sing, the most effortful part of singing. Now you've got headroom. You can go there if you have to, sing full and high, without feeling like you have to push into uncharted territory.

This is not to say you want to just pull chest all the time, no. But understand the benefits of pulling chest as a warm up for your chest voice that will indirectly beef up your head voice as well. Don't do it if you're still have the reflux issues, but I'm telling you, once your voice is in okay condition, do a good lighter warm up, then maybe 10 minutes of shouty, pushy vocalizing, at the height of your effort level. As long as you don't do it for hours on end, it's perfectly healthy. So yeah, 10 minutes of that, rest, and then come back and sing. And watch how easy it becomes to sing high with power. And then because the high powerful stuff becomes easier, the lighter stuff will also become easier because it's easier by nature.

Okay I am just aimlessly ranting without purpose. I'm done. Hope this helped a bit.

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Well the evidence that his first ENT saw, redness on the tissues surrounding vocal folds, and the folds themselves being fine, is consistent with what I had - LPR. This is a medical condition. I'm not saying there isn't room for technical improvement. But LPR is a real thing. If you have inflammation around the folds it will affect your voice.

Not many on the forum have had this. Me, Daniel and Chris are the only singers that have mentioned it so far. It may be hard to relate to if you haven't had it.

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Well it can be, however if i didnt read wrong none of the ENT's spotted LPR Isnt it just what you guys on the forum are reading in by his info? If the ENT's would have stated LPR this discussion would not be :P

Anyhow the way he uses his voice in those clips is like begging for trouble, and the result of using soft falsetto to quiet way down in the voice would be just like his problems.

1. Cracky voice

2. Split in the voice

3. Unbalanced

4. Top high falsetto going into whistle in weird ways

Ofc you can sing soft and easy in the middle but doing that superquiet falsettotype in the middlevoice is NOT i repeat NOT good for your voice.

Bad technique is also a real thing, and what i hear in those clips are choices you should not make in the middle of the passagio.

However well just see how if the medecation is working, if it's not it's an issue of technique wich can be easily corrected with alittle work

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I had a smart-aleck idea of maybe someone putting up a cover of "When September Ends" and show us how it's done.

Nah, ya'll are right .... bad idea.

It's either that or let the new doctor take a swing at it and see what happens after that.

Geno described himself going through exactly the same thing and that seems to be ignored in these latest posts.

I guess that means that what Geno had to say didn't mean as much to as many people as I thought it would.

I learn something new, everyday.

Blessings to Mix, blessings to Geno.

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It's not ignored ronws, im here to help as is geno. Neither of us are scientists or ents we can only go by experience, even if he has LPR there is still a technique issue thats making this worse...

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So, no cover of a Green Day song?

I say that because Mix has mentioned the band and that on "good days," he could sing their songs, which seemed important to him.

Talking technique is fine, showing it can sometimes be better.

Just saying ....

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I appreciate the video, Jens... and everyone else's feedback. Yes, I agree my technique probably needs work. But the thing is, I can't belt... I CAN'T. That's part of the problem of my condition. There's NO STRENGTH in my voice... I wouldn't mind belting (I like to sing along with rock musicals, when my voice is good).... but you guys don't seem to understand that I'm not TRYING to sing quietly.... I'm trying to sing CLEARLY.... with no breath/noise/crap. And that is not possible right now.

I've been on the medicine for a week, and some days my voice is improved, others aren't. Geno said that his voice took 10 weeks to get rid of the redness around the vocal cords. So I hope to improve within 10 weeks.

Jens, in your video, you're belting. Which sounds great. But again, I CANNOT DO THIS. I cannot physically reach those high notes, quietly OR loudly at this point...

So.... ya know? It's like.... I am stuck, as I have been for two years.

Before 2011, I was able to belt and sing basically ANY song from RENT, including the female's lines. The whole damn musical, in one sitting, with no hoarseness at all.

And now.... I can't even sing one song from it without my voice cracking/breaking... can't reach G above middle C with a belt, and ESPECIALLY not quietly.

I was always taught that you don't want to strain your voice (in a bad way) because you can make it much worse than its current state. So, until I know my voice is "smooth", and clear, and whatever else... I need to be careful, and NOT belt... if the high notes aren't there period, then they won't be there when I belt.

That said... what are all your thoughts, with this new info?

Thanks!

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I disagree, your speakingvoice sounds good and no sings of weakness build from that. Try what i did just sing from A2-A3 post it so we can hear. I want it proud strong and supported!

No mental weak posture stand up give the voice energy, i wanna hear what happens.

If you dont want to do it here hit me up on skype: Jensviktorjohansson

Perhaps this works perhaps it dont, but from what i hear in your clips this is worth the shot...

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Mix tape the problem with what your doing is not range it's connection with your body. Any where between c3 and middle c is where you should be doing 85 percent of your vocalizing. If this part of your range is not in order even on the good weeks and months you will always have problems. Everyone tends to overlook how important this part of the range is. Then they run into trouble in the higher range and think its because they can't sing that high. The reason is because you can't build a solid voice without a solid foundation. It's eventually gonna fall it always does.

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Ah.. I never thought about that. So basically, my talking range (C3 to middle C-- C4), is the most important thing to build, when getting back D4-E5?

How come I've always read (and heard, personally) conflicting opinions about this.... "if you build chest voice, you won't have any falsetto or head voice..."

Also, from my personal experience, if I do say, an hour-long jam (with vocal rests throughout), in chest voice... how come my falsetto is non-existent (even worse).... for example, if I warm up singing Green Day's "Dookie" - which is a nice C3-C4 vocal warmup as he is a lower tenor..... afterward, I can't access head or falsetto even worse than before... like it feels like there's a "hole" in my vocal cords... just air. This happens whenever I vocalize or sing lower-range songs.... especially when my voice is not in good shape...

It's totally puzzling....

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If that happens your doing something wrong in general. I did say 85 percent which means you should still work in finding a nice bell like falsetto and a nice witches cackle. But when it comes down to singing and using your voice you don't sing falsettoie when you sing rock full voice songs so why would you practice like that unless that's really what you need to work on. I don't know you or your voice but based on your clip it showed to me you are babying the shit out of it which is almost like whispering( in a way) and that's no way to build a good solid voice. Name one opera singer or real singing rock singer( not Brian johnson ) that sings that lightly. You need to have a good solid connection.

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Valid points, Daniel. Now let me ask you this--

Death Cab For Cutie, Iron and Wine, Sigur Ros/Jonsi, Jimmy Eat World, Coldplay (let's use "Fix You" as an example).... and the singer from Family of the Year (especially the current hit "Hero")... what are THEY doing to get their voices to sound like that? They're "babied" if you want to get really specific about it, but hot damn, do I love the sound, as most people do, too. They're not pushing/belting. That's not their sound or voice type. Maybe with the exception of Jonsi, who is INCREDIBLY gifted, falsetto-wise.... but, the other guys, I can at least get 98% of their sound, especially when my voice is in good shape.

Further, I have no interest in trying to sing Boston or Journey songs. As much as I LOVE those bands, I know what my voice CAN do and what it can NEVER do... I prefer to sing like the bands above, because I write very similar to all of them, musically, and from singing in bands since I was 18 (almost two decades), I know the sound I'm going for, and what my voice works best at, and it's the style of the bands/artists above.

So yeah... again, thank you... and I am open to any and all advice.

For the record, my voice hasn't been great the past few days... but it's only been a week since being on the reflux meds.

Btw, can I share a Green Day cover video that I did at my work... we had a "Staff Show" fundraiser, and I sang and played Green Day's "She" with a few of the other teachers. I had a NASTY cold all week/allergies, so this is kind of at the height of me feeling like crap (April 26th)

Here it is:

fAeBh0U9EpY

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Ok... but it seems like a lot of the advice I've been given in recent posts just say BELT! SING FROM YOUR CHEST! It will help build a strong falsetto!!!"

But again, how is this done, other than what you've suggested (vocalize/warmup from C3 to C4)... lip trills? Humming? Etc? 5-note scales are preferable, because if I do triad/octave runs, my voice will die as soon as I hit E4... basically 5 exercises into it.

Thank you again..........

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Don't go to e4 yet.. That is a clear sign the voice is not ready. For example I'm warming up right I haven't taken my full voice above an e4 yet because it sluggish. It's not ready. I'm going above it with a nice bell like falsetto then coming back and sing 5 tones on ee eh ah oh and oo. When I feel a little tension coming in I stop and turn around . In about 45 minutes I will be ready to sing whatever pretty much. This is not a race to get to range it's a very precise sound and feel I'm going for. And if it is not ready ill stop for a whole and when I go to sing to tonite I will do a long perfect warmup that will be easier because my cords are not as stiff later because I'm through my day and I warmed up a couple times. Don't be in such a rush and realize your registration is mixed right now that doesn't unwind in a week

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