Chennai: Every year, when the music festival approaches, it is not just the sabhas that are overcrowded, ENT clinics too are.
“ENT surgeons are thronged by singers - budding and also established singers. They visit with the single problem of voice. The most important reason is lack of awareness on voice culture. Of all classical music in the world, only Carnatic music doesn’t have voice culture. It’s time we addressed this issue,” says Dr Mohan Kameswaran, managing director and senior consultant of Madras ENT Research Foundation.
A workshop was conducted recently by MERF for singers. “The importance of diet and how to conserve voice, how to deal with vocal and non-vocal habits, lifestyle and the importance of breathing were discussed at the workshop,” says Dr Ranjith Rajeswaran, leading audiologist and principal of the MERF institute of speech and hearing, adding that any ENT disorder will affect one’s voice. “Voice is as good as hearing. We trained singers on muscle relaxation technique,” he added.
With the increasing number of concerts that singers perform during the music season, coupled with the cold weather, vocalists have also started showing interest in taking care of their voices. “Unlike before, now singers are aware that they have to treat the problem,” says Dr Rajeswaran.
Musician T.N. Seshagopalan says that one should understand the limitations of one’s vocal chords. Apart from his routine exercises in the morning, vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan makes sure that he’s well protected when he goes out, such as sporting a scarf.
“Earlier, I used to be paranoid but you get used to it when you travel outside, especially in extreme cold and snow. Also, the temperature has to be maintained in the place where one performs. What we learn in the beginning like varnam is a real warm-up,” he says. Vocologists say that one has to take plenty of rest between concerts and adopt a voice-friendly method of singing.
