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For a musician, the body itself is an instrument. It is the foundation on which all musical abilities are built, but it is equally as fragile as it is fundamental to the craft. Issues like hearing loss and vocal strain are often overlooked until they become career-threatening. Experts in both vocal health and audiology continuously emphasize the importance of preventive practices in prioritizing long-term health and well-being.
According to Dr. Andrée-Anne Leclerc, an ENT (ear, nose and throat) surgeon who did a two-year specialization focusing on voice professionals, noise-induced hearing loss is a major concern for all musicians. “I think it’s better now,” says Leclerc, “but obviously you can have some hearing issues just because of the sound around you.” The culprit is the repeated exposure to loud noises, such as musical instruments. This is a major issue across all genres, affecting everyone from the first violinist of an orchestra to the lead singer of a rock band. “It’s getting better for sure,” she adds. “I think people are more aware of it and more careful with that.” The advancement of in-ear technology means the risk of hearing loss among musicians has decreased.
Preventive measures are key for a musician’s longevity. Leclerc advocates for the importance of hearing tests “just to know what your baseline is, so you know where you start from.” This makes it much easier to understand where the issues lie after a followup test when something does need treatment. Similarly, speech-language pathologist Sherri Zelazny advocates for the importance of conducting a video stroboscopy of the larynx before an issue arises. “With a strobe light we can see slow-motion video of how the vocal folds move,” she explains. “We see many more features of the instrument to be able to see if anything structurally shifts, causing functional issues.”
Zelazny has been working with vocal professionals since 2002, and is currently operating out of her clinic in Surrey, B.C. She believes the most important preventive measure is education. “For singers, of course, the whole body is the instrument,” she says. “If you play a different instrument—guitar or flute or whatever—the first thing you learn about is how to take it apart, put it together, keep it clean. But singers don’t ever learn that until potentially there’s an issue, which is kind of a backwards way of doing things when you’re using an instrument. …So for singers, the knowledge of what the instrument looks like, what its parts are, how to keep it healthy, how to keep it well hydrated, how to hold it without tension, is super important.”
Singers’ voices are their single greatest asset, with the capacity to evoke intense emotions and connect with listeners on the basis of the raw human experience. Both Leclerc and Zelazny assert that it should be treated as such. “I think sometimes people forget that the voice they use for singing or performing is the same voice they use on a daily basis,” says Leclerc. It is essential for singers to practise healthy habits across all arenas of day-to-day life because often the injuries happen offstage. “You can’’t drag your instrument through the mud and then expect it to make perfect sound for you,” Zelazny points out.
For Leclerc, the approach to treatment is different for each singer from the moment the patient walks in the door. Their reasons for consultation vary and the answer lies in the quality of their voice. There is a lower threshold for strain because the stakes are far higher for those who rely on their voice as a source of income. “Their complaint is more like, ‘Oh, this note is different.’ Or ‘My passaggio is different.’ Or like ‘The voice is fine, but I don’t feel fine when I’m using it.’ So it’s really subtle differences in their voice,” explains Leclerc.
A wide array of things can interfere with a vocalist’s performance. It goes without saying that respiratory issues can have a serious effect on a singer’s voice. However, all types of injuries have the potential to throw off the larynx just as easily. Even an injury to the hip or leg can throw off the balance of the body’s tension. “Sometimes those things can affect how we guard and protect, and we do a lot of that here in the larynx,” Zelazny says. Beyond that, stress, tension, and trauma directly affect the performance of the larynx. “The same cranial nerve that puts us into fight or flight—the vagus nerve—has branches to the larynx,” explains Zelazny. “So there’s all kinds of aspects of our being that affect the vocal instrument; you can’t just put it on the shelf when you’re done with it.”
The well-being of a musician’s body, whether it’s oral or auditory, should never be overlooked. As both Leclerc and Zelazny emphasize, preventive care is essential for longevity in a profession that relies so heavily on physical health. “It’s the whole body, it’s the whole instrument—it’s speaking, singing, emotion, physical health,” says Zelazny. “It’s an amazing instrument really.”
This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en:
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