In this fast-paced, I-need-it-yesterday world, we have all come to depend on certain people and things to always be there for us, to always work. Our family, friends, our computers and smart phones, the car, a good credit rating, our jobs… they’d better not vanish!
Yet there is one thing we take pretty much for granted, that we depend on for nearly all of our business and personal relationships…our voice. We expect it to be there, on the job, performing flawlessly every waking minute. Whether we are teaching, reading to our children, calling the doctor, making a sales pitch, or auditioning for a Broadway show, we count on our voice to come out just right. But what if it doesn’t???
It’s all too common that the voice can indeed let us down. From misuse or abuse of the voice, inadequate hydration, exposure to environmental irritants, working in a noisy environment, shouting endlessly into our Bluetooth devices, and factors such as reflux, allergies, and even stress, our vocal ability can diminish very rapidly….or disappear altogether! It’s no surprise that this can happen; after all, how many of us consciously work on taking care of our voices every day, while preventing vocal injury?
It’s interesting that most of us practice excellent oral hygiene: we brush and floss daily, we visit our dentist regularly, and we avoid sweets that can ruin our teeth. Yet we fail to practice good vocal hygiene. It’s particularly interesting when you think about it this way: you could get false teeth if you had to, but you only get one set of vocal cords! So maybe we all should think about taking care of our voices, before it’s too late.
In our latest video, created by our media whiz (and also a very talented singing student) Taylor Sokol, you can learn about some of the services that we offer to help people achieve excellent voices. As a licensed and certified voice therapist and singing instructor, Karen Sussman, M.A., CCC is uniquely qualified to treat the voice problems of professional voice users, both singers and speakers. These include anyone who uses the voice to make a living and is experiencing vocal problems. Examples include teachers, executive assistants, attorneys, sales reps, and of course, singers and actors. But you don’t have to be a professional voice user to benefit from voice therapy. Even stay-at-home parents experience almost constant vocal stress during the act of taking care of their families.
Of course, you don’t have to have a voice problem to seek the services of a qualified voice trainer. Maybe you’ve always wanted to sing, but never tried to develop your hidden talent. Or, your child wants to try out for the school musical, and needs skills and confidence-building. Perhaps you want your speaking voice to sound more dynamic and exciting, either for professional purposes, or in your personal relationships. Like some of our clients, spending time at our studio belting out pop or Broadway tunes (even recording your song to CD with professional accompaniment), or trying out your classical chops, is “therapy” of a different sort….an exciting escape from the everyday routine.
Enjoy our new video, and learn about what we can offer you, to help you achieve the “Choice Voice” you’ve always wanted!