Oh poor thing at the beginning! I'd cry so much!

I had a complete loss of upper register and I haven't talked for 4 days, now my ceiling is E5. Thank you!

Finally I know what's happening with my voice from this video. I told even professional singers that my voice hurts after singing and I feel as if there is a veil on it. At it's worsts I will try to hit a note and another will "bounce". I am surprised that so many people I asked couldn't tell me what that is. Thank god we have the internet! This video is extremely informative.The bad news is that my vocal cords seem to be damaged. The good news is that now I wont push them thinking "I just need more practice".

this guy is saving my life

this helped my anxiety so much. my voice is fine for now

I traveled from Canada to Chicago, USA to see Dr. Bastien in 2010. In Canada, our waiting lists are so long, often we don't get a chance to see the doctor before it's too late. So, I crossed the border and saw Dr. Bastien to help me with a swallowing disorder I was experiencing. Dr. Bastien was so good. He gave me a full examination, scheduled a swallowing test at the hospital for me the same day and then met with me and reviewed the results, again all within the same day. I couldn't believe how good his care was compared to what I experience in Canaada. I am so thankful that he sees international patients because timely care is everything when someone is sick and needs medical treatment.

That faint voice at the beginning sounds almost exactly like my mom when she tries to sing something. It's like the pain you experience when your dearly loved dog or cat dies. I'm here because I hope I'm not headed there.

Introduction 00:12 The Voice's "Clothing" 00:52 Mucosa 01:35 Preventing Injury 02:30 Designing the Checks 04:39 The Checks 05:38 Long-term Strategy 09:35 Conclusion 14:57

Thanks for your good comment. Swelling checks allow every singer to establish a personal "baseline" when they first become aware of vocal cord swelling checks. This baseline can be determined, no matter what the voice type, singing style, and whether the vocal cords are normal or already damaged. Then, going forward, you can monitor to make sure that baseline is either stable or improving, and not deteriorating. It allows one to know when they have "overdone it" and created even subtle swelling. It would permit one to know that existing mucosal injury is resolving, if the baseline is improving (meaning the "initial mucosal ceiling is rising, semitone by semitone). For persons well-versed in expected range for all of the various voice classifications, it can be used as well to compare with the "group" to which they belong.

Hi Dr. B. Thanks for doing this. It was brilliant of you to do so. Folks, I’m a voice actor by trade. This man actually IS my vocal Dr. in Chicago. He’s brilliant, gentle, and saved my voice.

A week before an entrance exam to music school, this happened to me, unfortunately, due to some misuse of my voice (ironically not singing, but too much talking at a dinner party). I couldn't get an appointment with an ENT, but the next day I had a lesson with my voice teacher. I told her I wasn't feeling well.She thought I was just not breathing correctly, or that I was tense, and she kept urging me to "sing out", until I said enough since I started feeling fatigue shortly into the lesson. She just couldn't take me seriously because I was able to phonate anyway, but it was horrible, just like in this video. I'm going to send her this video just to show her that this is a serious issue and not an issue of technique. Vocal professionals need people like you to educate them like this. Thank you!

This was probably one of the best most detailed and solution-oriented videos I have ever watched! thank you!

Thank you so much for providing me very informative vocal checking! My voice drastically changed early this year after I joined an amateur singing contest. Never did I hit notes no more .

You are helping give my life back! I do not know what I would do without singing. Overuse has me swollen just enough and I could not figure out what was wrong. These checks help me monitor things! This is a great video!

Give this man a raise!

Clear for the moment but I will be implementing these every day twice a day... thank you very much for this FREE and hopefully preventitive remedy,and enhanced mindfullness thank you indeed Dr Bastian

I'm a teacher and a singer. This is so helpful. Thank you!

The most scientific vocal check on KZfaq.

A very big thanks to you sir♥️ at least I'm relieved watching your video.. I've been worrying for about a week because of my voice...😞😔 I can't sing properly...but thank God I found your video ♥️ God bless you..

Thank you for your question. I was perhaps unclear there... This comment about athletic event is in the section about having detected a change for the worse in your swelling tests and reviewing the past 12 hours for an explanation. I was suggesting that a person might say "Oh, I was at the soccer game (and did a lot of cheering for my team). That might then explain why swelling tests had deteriorated as compared to baseline.

Thank you! I had laryngitis 4 months ago and my voice has never fully recovered. This explanation has been great.

Fantastic video help! Doctors and even other professional singers couldn't help me beyond saying "rest the voice" and "take these steroids for a few days." Yes, these were part of what I learned from this video but BEYOND THAT, I got all that I needed to reassure myself (I was freaking out lately) that I could heal, and learned about tools to monitor and care for my voice going forward. I am a trial lawyer and a singer as well, so I am in the 'overdoer' category by trade and choice. THANK YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN, doctor! I'm sharing this video with many others who I am sure will be grateful that someone out there actually cared enough to post online HELP without a doctor's visit.:)

Thank you for this educational video. I better understand how to now check my voice after injury n how to preserve it by checking regularly.

The fundamental approach to diagnosis is History, Vocal Capability Battery, and Motivated Examination. What the patient tells you, what the voice tells you, and what the larynx (vocal cord visualization) tells you. The problem is that each component needs to be fully and skillfully applied. When a diagnosis remains unclear after applying this “Bastian” Integrative Model the fault is not the model; it is instead that it has been incompletely applied. For example, the clinicians do not understand the phenomenology of the voice - its capabilities, limitations, and aberrations. Or, they examine the larynx but the resulting images are what I call “far, fuzzy” rather than “close, clear.” What you need is a precise and complete diagnosis. Only then can you devise a plan for recovery. I’d look for another opinion in a nearby city, but maybe ask in advance if they use the integrative model. If this draws a blank, keep looking....Sorry to hear of your trouble, and all the best!

Thank you sooo much! You are super clear and the information you are sharing here is very precious.

Useful advice, particularly for the panicked singer suffering allergies hoping their voice still loves them. It does.

I really appreciate your time and effort to make this vedio, your way of educating people is wonderful and, I myself learn a lot. Now I can improve my singing.

Thank you so much, and glad to hear about your friend.

the best video I can find on youtube so far, thank you very much

Thank you! I've been worrying about vocal injury for a few days so I'm glad I found this! Fortunately my vocal chords are fine :)

I really like this video because it seems to applicable. I know I can really remember to use these simple exercises on a regular every day basis! Great Job, Sir!:) God bless you!

Very useul for checking n protecting our mucosa n vocal cords.Thank you so much.

I really have seen it depends so much on tension in the throat, tongue, jaw, or poor breathing etc. But for experienced vocalists this is very interesting

Thank you SO much!!!!!! I had a night terror in which I eventually screamed very loudly multiple times. I will follow your instruction to rest my vocal chords and on a side note, my husband will thank you for the days of relaxed silence :-)

I absolutely love the vocal checks - I have 2 singing students with nodules at the moment and will be going through this with them. Thanks so much for such excellent work!

This isn't for training or performance. It is for detection. It works for the injured voice, to monitor progress in healing (or not)...

This is more than extraordinary! I like the addendum at the far right corner! The voice science of this video is incredible. The doctor shown in this video seems highly intelligent

Awesome! Thanks a million! Great video! All the best from Buenos Aires!

The last few minutes of the video review the strategy of what to do if the swelling checks have deteriorated from your baseline. You rest (in a relative, not necessarily absolute sense) until the swelling checks return to your previously-determined baseline.

Thank you SO MUCH. I have been dealing with voice cracks and breaks, had extreme troubles with higher notes, yes, m an aspiring singer but haven't been able to do anything bcz of my voice breaking or cracking. I recently even joined a singing class, my teacher was impressed with everything else but my voice would break above middle C from C# to E above it i gain control again in mixed voice. I thought its just register change break n i need to learn to transition but now i see its not normal. My teacher too said that the cause is NOT lack of practice etc but perhaps my spine issue (i have it..) Later i tried vocal compression exercises and it worked very well for temporary period of time like right after the exercises id see improvement but later it'd fade away. With this test im sure now that i have some sort of issue in my chords. Staccato and the song, in both, in higher notes my voice would break and a note higher than demonstrated in staccato, my voice just wouldnt come out. And throughout the whole check routine, id notice lots of air coming out as i sing it. As if theres a hole passage allowing air to escape from chords in one side while rest of the chords r working n allowing me to make a sound. At least i know the problem now its been years!

Thank you so much for this! I have been searching a long time for this information

Thank you for your question. The answer is "no." To expand: The tasks are not for vocal grooming nor for rehabilitation. Their purpose is solely to detect swelling. Since they are by design produced with a very tiny, quiet voice, and since it takes well under a minute to accomplish them, vocal cord swelling checks have no potential whatsoever to cause injury.

thanks Doc for great video that help me understand and care for my voice.

The question was "What if the person is just singing above their range?" A couple of ways to answer that: 1. Could be if the functional singing range is at least 2 octaves(usually 2 1/2), and the upper notes can be sung extremely softly. 2. If the upper limit doesn't extend upwards several more notes by just singing more loudly. 3. If the "struggle" to produce the upper few notes at pianissimo is due to the muscle being at its limit, and not the mucosa "refusing" to vibrate. (A video on the difference between muscular and mucosal ceiling of the voice, on the way someday.)

Thank God I bumped into this.. 👌 I sing twice a week, sometimes straight 3-4 days.. and the songs I sing are not the easy ones.. It is of high notes.. songs like She's Gone, songs from Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Scorpions, Air Supply and many others.. I cater to my audiences request.

This video is a lifesaver, thank you so much

I shold have found you earlier T T now I stop singing for 5 years. But always want to sing again. What doctor said was very right it’s happen to me every sign. But I don’t have knowledge to know that I should rest.

I happened upon imitating something like a gibbon, a quick pitch slide from low to as high as possible like a sine wave sweep. Very unclothed! & Produced as cleanly as possible. I use it as both a self check and a warmup/loosener. Watching this, its makes sense to check on how the voice is with a consistent action but also help loosen it if the checks reveals bumps. 👍

Damn I just found this channel and it’s great! I love how no-nonsense he is

The shade of this video having an Xtina ad before the actual video.

Excellent presentation. Thank You!

very helpful. in college for vocal performance, my voice teacher recommended I look into this for my regular health

Incredibly valuable info, thanks doc!

Congratulations and thank you for such a clear and usefull presentation. Can I ask the name of the program you used to show your pitch variations? Thank you so much!

Very informative and helpful. Thank you!

Fantastic lesson! Thank you very much. I definitely have Muscle Tension Dysphonia and this is very helpful.

this is amazing! thank you so much for posting this.

Very Very helpful, many thanks Dr, pastian, actually the main complaint of singers is that voice professionals are not aware in their exercises and corals

My voice usually feels swollen for a few months at a time after my allergy bouts during winter. I'm a high school teacher and a coloratura soprano but I have stopped singing for a few years now. You can imagine the stress all this used to put in my voice!

Great video. I really gotta try those vocal checks. I recently started getting very busy signing - 3 hrs a night for over 2 months now and about 2 weeks ago my voice just wouldn’t work. I had to cancel some gigs (first time ever) and took nearly 5 days off - where I barely even talked. I’m singing again now and so much more conscious of it.

thanks a lot sir ive detected all my problems on my voice im a performer i sing a lot of high notes but now i have so many lapses and offsets

He reminds me of Robert California

i never had a vocal injury even though im doing vocal fry sometimes in my gigs. it depends on you if you know your voice well. just have enough rest and always hydrated and never abuse your voice a lot.

Yes. Acute laryngitis, or even thick mucus could interfere, but not on an ongoing, "stable" basis. When the cold is over, swelling tests should return to normal.

I was on a talent show in LA, then made an error to do the usual 3 hour gigs, straight after landing. I was already tired and hoarse. Now a week later, my voice is swollen and when I talk it sounds low and hoarse. I am hoping complete vocal reset will heal me

i thought i couldnt go higher bc i haad swelling but then i went into whistle register im so happy!!

Thank you for information . I am in desperate help with disorder of vice . Lost half of my vice !!!

I always come back, I love this!

High pitch still sounds like Mariah. Just need a little rest and aqua. Much love and music Thank you for sharing 🙏

You should do ASMR. This video itself is relaxing

Thank you for sharing Doctor

Very Helpful, Thank you :)

Thanks for your teachings. I am not a singer, but have had hoarseness problems with my voice for more than a year now. I would like to ask you if it is normal to get some pain and bloating kinda feeling in the abdomen when trying to speak or when Ive been speaking for an hour or so....I even get some tired after a while speaking. thank you for your comment. I appreciate it.

How long does it usually takes to heal a chronic vocal damage ?

You are wanderfull, thank you this lesson, you help people a lot whith this

Thank you for this video. I am currently having problems with hoarseness and I live in a part of the country that gets smokey from forest fires. I have had vocal problems in the past (2010) and went thru therapy for nodules, but since that recovery my cords are sensitive to things like the fire smoke. Do you have any suggestions on how to overcome that? I have been drinking lots of water and staying indoors. I am a singer with upcoming engagements and it's really stressing me out thinking I might have a vocal injury and am asking swelling worse. I don't want to lose my voice.

Great job... I couldn't help but to keep wondering if the Dr. was for real, or an actor. He delivered with the training of an actor, but also seemed to know and understand the medical descriptions with believable authority. At times, I felt like I was watching an SNL sketch. Some parts were pretty funny to me... (maybe it's the cannabis?) ☮️

Thank you very much for your very helpful video. Please help me, I don't know who else to go to. Apparently I had acid reflux. I did what the internist told me but although I don't feel the reflux anymore, my passaggio is still gone and since I'm a Hard Rock/Heavy Metal singer (and an English teacher), those notes are fundamental for my singing. I first visited and otorhinolaryngologist but he told me I was nodule and polyp free, and that all I needed was vocal technique and that I should just learn it with a singing teacher. I've been singing for 20 + years, and never had a problem, plus when I learned my singing teacher always praised my technique, but I obeyed his advice and went back to get her advice. She told me that because I was teaching English 8 hours/day to 25 student groups I had to buy a teacher amplification system, which I did, to no result. Later I went to another singing teacher for a second opinion, and it was he who asked me if I had acid reflux, which I did, and recommended me to go to an internist who had cured him from the very same problem. I went did my diet and took my medicine as instructed. The reflux went away (apparently, because they say it can be "silent") but my singing voice is still in very bad shape. I did your swellness checks and yes, I'm swollen. Please. What can I do? should I visit another otorhinolaryngologist? Should I visit a speech therapist? Or just vocalize (which I haven't being afraid of further damage) as the singing teachers recommended? Please help.

Awesome video !...VERY helpful and informative...

Thank you so much for such amazing advice. I need to ask, in minute 12:45 what do you mean by "athletic event"? Do you mean "vocal athletic event"? as in vocal exercise? Or just any running or general body exercise?

Just to clarify: so light chest voice in men is okay as well? if so, I assume that the note to mark would be somewhere around before M2. Is that right?

Thank you so much doctor..I did both swelling checks and I came to know that I have same problem..please suggest some medicine to treat this..because I am a singer and I want to keep my throat ok.Thanks please help me treat this.

Excellent! Dr...Congratulation.

You're a great professionist and a genius! Thank you so much for this really usefull video!

This is an excellent video! Thank you for sharing!

Great tips! Thank you!

Thank you for this outstanding help.

2 vocal chords swelling checks a day keep the doctor away 😂 I see what u did there 😂😂

Thank you so much, it was very informative.

Really thank you for your quite good videos..God bless you

Thank you and Regards from Italy! One question: if through the swelling check I find out that I need a rest (one day off, for example), is it still recomendable to go on with the "3 Simple Exercises to Build A Weak Voice" that you illustrates in another youtube video?

Thank you so much for the knowledge. How do you determine if it is a ceiling because of swelling/injury or it is just the limit of your range where it breaks to falsetto?

Excellent Explanations

Thank you very much for posting it.

Yes high Bb is also my musosal ceiling with hebby birfday lol. I'm a bass so I'm going to give myself a pat on the back now lol /PAT! :P

when you say extremely high pitch , what is that for a bass-baritone like myself? i would gess F4-A4 done in weak soft falseto?

I am wondering something. When I was first starting to sing, I wasn’t able to produce a clear tone in head voice because my voice wasn’t properly trained and was weak. Not because of overuse. It was just my starting point. How would you differentiate that from not being able to do the checks due to what you described? And another thing. How does this change during the pre menstrual cycle and during pregnancy? Thank you!

Excellent video!

when you say 'failing' the swelling test you just mean finding your mucosal ceiling? how would you then be able to tell if you have swelling or not? my mucosal ceiling seems to be the same note you used to demonstrate how that would sound - should i be concerned? i'm male and have usually been considered a baritone. thanks

This video is very informative and clear! I belive I must have this swelling. After singing while I was sick, one song that my voice was almost unrecognizable during, but I continued. Wished I wouldn't have. This has never happened to me before. This was 4 weeks ago, I've been sick ever since, but I have my voice, just not the high notes. I don't talk all day, I use an app to Text to Speech, but I still do the testing every couple of days and the results seem to be positive for damage. I wonder if it's because I am still fighting off this bug, or is this permanent damage. :/