Re: [Harp-L] Voice problem

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

Steve - 

I'm not a doctor (nor do I play one on TV) but I might suggest that you carefully observe your throat area when you play. Do you strain it or create tension when you play? If so, try to find ways to do everything in as relaxed a manner as possible.

Mike Stevens is a guy who's managed to strain himself into injury in athletic activities, and claims he's given himself hernias from breathing strain when playing harmonica. His descriptions of nearly every physical act in playing the harmonica involve stress and tension of some sort. He's a great player, but it seems like he needlessly beats up on himself and could get the same results without the strain.

Is your inflammation due to strain while playing the harmonica? Can't say, but try observing your playing and then find a way to get the musical results without minimal effort. It may or may not help with the inflammation, but it'll definitely help your playing.

After all, we're Canucks. We're supposed to laid back and easygoing there, eh?

Winjhslow

--- On Thu, 7/24/08, Steve Shriver <steveshriver@xxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Steve Shriver <steveshriver@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [Harp-L] Voice problem
To: ""harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx"" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thursday, July 24, 2008, 11:16 AM

Has anyone ever experienced (or heard of) vocal problems due to harp
playing? I have been playing harp for a long time (I¹m 50), but over the
last couple years I stepped it up considerably, singing and playing with a
band on a regular basis, and taking lessons from Carlos del Junco. Since
about last December, I have had increasing difficulty with my speaking
voice, which feels not so much hoarse as strained, like I need to use a lot
of muscle power to get the sound out. My (so called) friends tell me I sound
kind of like a Muppet, though to me I sound more like Patrick the Starfish
from Sponge Bob Squarepants. I make light of it, but it¹s actually pretty
uncomfortable. 
I spoke to a vocal coach, who said I should see an ear, nose, throat doctor
to rule out nodes, etc. which I did. He stuck the tube down my throat and
looked at my cords, said they looked inflamed but otherwise healthy, and
prescribed an anti-acid reflux med, which I took for a month. Didn¹t seem to
have any effect other than setting me back a few hundred dollars. I haven¹t
totally ruled out the acid reflux thing, but I¹m not sure what else to do
about it at this point.
I try to practice good vocal technique- breathing, singing from the
diaphragm, etc, though I do sing loud and our material includes a lot of
pretty raspy blues rock stuff.  I had a period of about two months where the
band wasn¹t playing, and I wasn¹t singing much then, and that didn¹t seem to
improve the condition.
So I¹m wondering if there¹s a possibility that my harp playing, specifically
choking and throat vibrato, might be affecting my vocal cords in a negative
way. Has anyone ever heard of this??

-- Steve


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