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Liner Notes
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Body
& Soul
Voice Care with David M. Alessi, M.D
Dr. Alessi is Chief of Ear Nose and Throat at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Beverly
Hills, CA. He specializes in performers with voice disorders and has treated many top
professional singers. His voice examination of Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst was featured on
MTV News.
COMMON VOICE PROBLEMS AND CAUSES, AND MANAGEMENT’S ROLE
MBADC: What are some common problems singers come to you with?
DA: Vocal strain is a very common one…If they do too much singing or
they do too many shows in a row, the voice tends to give out. Another common thing that we
see is acute laryngitis, where they’ll have an
infection and their voice will go out fairly quickly. Another common thing that we see is
just plain old poor vocal technique. You see it in a lot of the younger rock and rollers
who have a lot of natural talent and they’re afraid to take lessons and training
because they think it’s going to change the good quality of their voices. But
it’s very, very clear--especially when you see some of the older rock and rollers
that have been around for a while--that with some vocal training to learn how to support
your voice better, without changing any of the natural characteristics of it, you can
actually have much more power in your voice, it can last a lot longer, you don’t have
to push quite as hard to get the same kind of energy out of it.
Other maladies that you see too, are cocaine laryngitis in some of our rock and rollers,
you also see a lot of smoke-related injuries—cigarettes are of course injurious to
the vocal cords. You also still see people who will smoke pot through a pipe, and you can
actually have some burning of the [vocal] cords from that.
MBADC: You said one of the problems is when they have too many shows in a
row. What would be the ideal number of shows in a row, and what is the absolute maximum
that an artist should have?
DA: There’s no one answer to that. It depends entirely on what kind
of singing they’re doing.
MBADC: OK, let’s say for example, rock.
DA: There’s a lot of individual characteristics to it. For example,
there are some people who can basically almost scream night after night, and still have a
good quality to their voice. But that tends not to be the usual case. The usual case is
somebody who has a lot of power to their usual voice, and if they do it seven to eight
shows a week for more than an hour or so, they’re going to start to have some periods
of vocal strain. A lot of it depends on what they’re doing between their sessions,
too. There’s an old saying, "if you’re a performer, only use your voice
when you’re getting paid for it." So for example, a lot of my
performers--especially the high-end ones--when they’re on tour, we’ll coach them
on how to keep their voices ready for the show and how they'll have to cancel some of
their TV and radio appearances when they’re going to different towns, just so
they’ll have enough voice left for the show itself…I was on MTV with Fred Durst,
who is the singer for a band called Limp Bizkit. And he came to the office, and they
videotaped the entire session with him in my office--that’s why I can talk about
it--and he was having some problems on the road…We coached him on how to cut back on
some of the non-essential voice use periods that he had.
So, that’s a long answer to your short question. In terms of how much is too much, it
basically it depends on the individual. Certainly if they’re singing for a couple
hours every night, that’s way too much. It [also] depends on how much energy
they’re putting into their rehearsal sessions and things like that…But certainly
if they’re two hours, five times a week, with full power, that would be about the max
that anyone should really be able to do.
One of the biggest things you can really encourage [singers] to do is basically if
they’re having problems, don’t try to sing over it. Number two, never ever be
afraid of going to see a vocal coach if their doctor says everything’s fine that
it’s just a technique problem. Even some of the world’s most famous rock and
roll singers tend to have coaches, and they are helped tremendously…If that coach
tries to change their style of singing, they will run, because they’ve made platinum
records and made millions of dollars with their voice, so you would never want to change
it. But you can keep that exact same quality, so going to a vocal coach will keep you out
of trouble in the long run.
And the other thing they should do too, is if they have a manager who is pushing them so
they don’t ever rest and cancel a show, or they make them perform when they’re
sick and things like that, they should probably run from them, too, because most good
managers right now are in it for the long [run]. They’re not like in the old days,
where they’d just grind someone for six months or a year, give them a vocal cord rip
or tear or some other very serious problem that could end a career, and then just go onto
the next new talent. I know one of the owners of The Firm pretty well, and they have a lot
of high-end artists. And he is so cautious about his performers--of how he handles them
and treats them--and he gets them medical care at the slightest little bit of a problem.
Most managers should basically model after that.
MBADC: Is it true that continual vocal abuse can lead to cancer of the
vocal cords or other areas of the throat? We read this on a singer’s website.
DA: No. You cannot get cancer from vocal over-use.
Symptoms & Treatments for Common Voice Problems, &
Vocal Rest
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