I just stumbled onto this fascinating article prompted by Adele's recent cancellation of concerts following her voice breakdown relapse.
This subject piqued my curiosity because I had a few informal lessons with a first-class voice teacher about 10 years ago.
His approach was leading to a natural and effortless technique and while not being a singer I felt a dramatic positive impact in a very short time.
Here are the main points of the article
- Adele had a vocal cord micro surgery in 2011
- All credit was given to the surgeon and the procedure.
- Hundreds and hundreds of famous and non-famous singers have broken their voices and turned to such vocal cord surgery.
- While this affliction used to be common to older singers with decades-old careers, it now occurs frequently with singers in their teens or twenties.
- The whole artistic world is embracing the path of surgery.
- Brilla & Paglin, two voice teachers who dedicated their life to safe and enduring singing technique stated in 2011 that the surgery was a fix and unless the technical approach be changed, trouble would most likely come again.
- They have studied for decades, taking as starting point opera singers and other strong voices who still had outstanding voices in their seventies and eighties.
- They believe they hold the key to proper teaching of young singers and helping more experienced singers who have damaged their vocal cords.
- Their approach goes against modern conventional wisdom and is not embraced by the singing teaching community at large.
It's a long read but it's worth it.