donnalee
07-08-2014, 05:48 AM
First off, a little preface. I've had a rather gravelly voice for quite a few years. About 8 years ago my situation at work became pretty impossible (it was always a hostile work environment); the whole management seemed turned against me, (had been involved in sabotaging me in the first place as I later found out) and I was literally forced to sit on display 8 hours a day staring at a wall. However, it was a union job and I was able to avail myself of a certain amount of protection from them. Since I started there in my 50s, my goal was to retire with as many benefits as I could manage, so all I needed was to stick around and not get run out by anyone. I had an SO at home with Alzheimers who sank a little bit and needed more care each day as my prime concern. My on-call and resulting overtime pay had been taken away, at a cost of $70,000 or more. What I could do was rope-a-dope them (for those too young to know, see Muhammed Ali). It was extremely stressful.
As I had worked as a musician, I spent a lot of time sounding out tunes, fingerings, chord voicings and arrangements in my head to pass the time. After I left work in the evening, I started working on vocals (not my strongest suite); it was kind of amazing how many lyrics I remembered (always believed that knowing the lyrics [and the verse] helped with phrasing even an instrumental version of a tune. I have a repetoire in the thousands, primarily from developing a method for analyzing and learning music, partly from listening intensely to it since I was very young.
I was able to woodshed my voice up to around 2 octaves, keep it in tune and mostly get my breathing right, although I had to concentrate to do it; I even took a solo gig 1 night a week when I was about to retire to try it out in public; frankly it was a struggle as I got short money and no help from the club-owner (things like a bandstand, lighting and a little respect). The performance space was horrible and the lack of respect worse; when I felt I had achieved what I set out to (get my chops back in shape and perfect my vocals to at least a professional minimum); I left at the next evidence of disrespect.
I worked with a lot of big names before I decided that I was not going to get a decent steady income from performing music, plus I always had at least 2 backup plans to what I was doing at any time (it works geometrically) and I had reached the age I had promised myself I would make a decision, and did.
Getting back to the subject, I recently had occasion to change my cell phone voicemail message and was amazed to find my normal voice had risen better than half an octave from when I had recorded it nearly 10 years ago. I don't know if it was due to age, woodshedding or crossdressing and it's effects or just what.
Anyone else know of or experience something similar?
As I had worked as a musician, I spent a lot of time sounding out tunes, fingerings, chord voicings and arrangements in my head to pass the time. After I left work in the evening, I started working on vocals (not my strongest suite); it was kind of amazing how many lyrics I remembered (always believed that knowing the lyrics [and the verse] helped with phrasing even an instrumental version of a tune. I have a repetoire in the thousands, primarily from developing a method for analyzing and learning music, partly from listening intensely to it since I was very young.
I was able to woodshed my voice up to around 2 octaves, keep it in tune and mostly get my breathing right, although I had to concentrate to do it; I even took a solo gig 1 night a week when I was about to retire to try it out in public; frankly it was a struggle as I got short money and no help from the club-owner (things like a bandstand, lighting and a little respect). The performance space was horrible and the lack of respect worse; when I felt I had achieved what I set out to (get my chops back in shape and perfect my vocals to at least a professional minimum); I left at the next evidence of disrespect.
I worked with a lot of big names before I decided that I was not going to get a decent steady income from performing music, plus I always had at least 2 backup plans to what I was doing at any time (it works geometrically) and I had reached the age I had promised myself I would make a decision, and did.
Getting back to the subject, I recently had occasion to change my cell phone voicemail message and was amazed to find my normal voice had risen better than half an octave from when I had recorded it nearly 10 years ago. I don't know if it was due to age, woodshedding or crossdressing and it's effects or just what.
Anyone else know of or experience something similar?