Another Approach to Therapy - Learning to Sing

I've always had a loud, deep voice, but it's become noticeably more raspy since my accident. I've also lost some control over my volume and pitch. Speech language therapy I had early on seemed to give me little relief. Part of that (perhaps a large part!) was that I found the exercises difficult to keep doing because I had trouble applying them in practice.

I'd been conscious my voice still needed work, though, and eventually I came across another way. I've started singing lessons. My singing instructor certainly doesn't have a speech therapy background. She was quite surprised when I explained my plans and hopes with my learning to sing, but we started lessons anyway.

I noticed an immediate improvement in the quality of my voice and I feel there is big potential for further progress. Singing allows me to practice using my full vocal range. As well as that, by it's very nature, singing well involves a much greater need for control over one's voice (compared to speaking). Perhaps because of the way our brains are wired, it's easier to hear when I'm not singing well compared to when I'm not speaking well. So it's easier to feel like I'm making progress.

I don't propose that learning to sing will work for everyone. Instead, I write about this here to discuss the value of thinking outside the box to help TBI recovery. Think about what it is you want to achieve. How have you been working on it so far and how has that been going? What other things, what completely new approaches, might help you out?

Cheers,
Mike