RE: [Harp-L] Voice problem



Get your lungs checked. Seriously. My dad had this problem and it
persisted for a long time. The doc kept telling him it was bronchitis or
something and would go away after "this medicine", "no, this medicine",
"no, wait, try this one"... We all noticed it and urged him to get a
second opinion. He did, too late. The cancer had spread from his
respiratory system to other organs. I don't want to scare you, but
better safe than sorry. They wasted all this time looking at his throat.

At 50 you should have that checked anyway and um, well, you know, the
"other" thing they recommend at 50. My dad was a former smoker who had
quit 14 years ago, and it still got him, delayed reaction. The
oncologists said that any former smoker should get their lungs checked
at least once a year. My dad's doc, being a quack who was later charged
with providing scripts to young women for 'favors' among other things,
never bothered to suggest this, despite my dad having been his patient
for many many years. 

I sure miss dad.

Bill

-----Original Message-----
From: harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx [mailto:harp-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Steve Shriver
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2008 2:17 PM
To: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx"
Subject: [Harp-L] Voice problem


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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