Voice Exercise for Spasmodic Dysphonia

On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 6:01 PM, Maria Shellyn Chua wrote:

Hi Valerie,

Ah, yes! I can feel the buzz on my mouth (more on the upper lip) and the bridge of my nose and the sides! Placing my finger on the side of my nose works! But right now, I can touch more vibration on my upper mouth, just a little on the side of my nose.

Today is my 4th day of practice. I'm not sure if I can say it's an intensive. But it is intensive to me :-)

I'll continue to "practice on the numbers" I think I'll be able to feel if I can move forward already. But meantime, I think sustaining the Hum with Numbers is harder than the simple Hum. I have a feeling I'll have to do this exercise in a longer period of time. How long did you have to do the Practice on the Numbers?

Blessings,
Misty

--- On Wed, 7/13/11, Valerie Gabriel wrote:

Hi Misty,

Do you feel the buzz near your mouth area, or just the back part of your nose? When I hum, I usually feel it on the bridge and side of my nose and a little around the front of my mouth. Maybe you're not using enough "pressurization" to get the buzz? Don't know if that's it, but it's a thought.

It's all one step at a time. In daily conversation, you can try to keep your pitch up. That's why he recommends 3-4 weeks of intensive therapy because by the time you leave you are able to speak with no SD symptoms. As Dr. Cooper says, "you practice on the numbers". So, if you want you can move to humming with numbers and make sure you say them as a question. "Um-hmm one?" "Um-hmm two?" This really does help. Also, another tip to feel the resonance is to place one finger on the side of your nose. Make sure you feel a constant vibration.

Let me know if that helps.
Valerie

On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 11:24 PM, Maria Shellyn Chua wrote:

Hi Valerie,

When I hum now I can feel the buzz on my nose. But it's at the back part of my nose. The part where you'll feel your mucous when you have colds. There's no buzz on the tip of my nose. Should it be at the tip of the nose?

I'm wondering how to move from the voice I have for humming (which is now quite good) to using that same voice in speaking daily conversations!

After I do the humming correctly and master it, the next step is to Hum with Numbers is that correct?

Blessings,
Misty