Head voice is gone/no sound coming out for months

singingsoul

Hey singers last year i practiced singing, almost everyday for 2 hours. I kept practicing for 8 months but I really had to stop it, because after 8 months my talking voice became very very hoarse, tired, croaky (it sounded like i did drugs) and my head voice was totally gone, when I did a siren from chest voice to head voice and back, my whole head voice cut out/no sound came out.

I'm resting my voice for 4 months now, the raspiness/croakiness/hoarseness in my talking voice is almost gone, but the head voice is still gone/no sound coming out. When i do a siren, my voice cuts out at D5/D#5, no sound comes out.

I know it is because of practicing with poor technique so I will never practice that way again. During my singing practices even simple lip trills/scales made my voice tired, but i took little rests between my exercises, but at the end of my 2 hour practice my voice was always tired and hoarse but i just got my sleep and the next day i started practicing again. But after 8 months I noticed my speaking voice was so hoarse and croaky and painful that I had to stop. And that my head voice was totally gone.

Before i started practicing singing everyday, there was nothing wrong with my head voice, i could do a seamless siren from lowest note to highest note, my head voice produced a clear sound and it didn't cut out.

I also have to say that for the last 6 years i have a problem with my speaking voice, talking hurts, even if i just talk 1 minute it starts to hurt/get tired, so then i stop talking, but I never practiced singing in those 6 years and I was always able to do a seamless siren in those 6 years from lowest to highest note without head voice cutting out, even though talking always hurted.
But since i started practicing singing, my head voice gradually disappeared, and now no sound is coming out.

My question is: will my head voice ever come back to it's original state? and has anybody else experienced this? did you get your head voice back? how did you do it?

I'm very scared i damaged my head voice permanently.

BTW, i'm a female, 29 years old, my passagio/first break is between D#4 and A#4 so losing all of my head voice is very disturbing because i'm not able to do a siren above D5/D#5, voice cuts out/no sound coming out. I really need my head voice..

any help/advice/story is welcome! thank you so much

Klaus_T

hi, i have no experience with this particular type of thing, but it sounds like maybe you over-sung on a regular basis 2hrs is long and if there were long standing speech issues before, you will have been even less prepared for such sessions. by over-singing i mean too much in terms of time but most likely also in terms of sound pressure. any chance we can hear one or a few of your scales from a recording (if you happened to record some sessions). normal training should be healthy and good for the voice. it needs to be the right scope and difficulty for the current abilities. this is why regular feedback on the course here on this forum is important with the scales.

i would suggest that for any medical advice, it is best to seek out an ENT doctor and make sure singing is not dangerous due to underlying conditions or potentially permanent damage you did. once that is out of the way, you can definitely work on your voice again and re-build it.

i am not an expert but i think most likely you can regain your voice and improve by proper training. Ken has the vocal repair course but also the normal course i believe should be likely to give you good results, given the damage is not done for good, which again i would strongly advise to check with a medical professional

singingsoul

Hi @Klaus_T thank you so much for your answer and advice. And best wishes of course!

I made an appointment with an ENT at the end of January!

I practice Kens youtube videos but apparently not in a good way.. i also never recorded anything (stupid me).

My talking chest voice is not so hoarse and croaky anymore, but i hear slight delayed onsets and a bit of hoarseness still. And of course talking really hurts after just one minute but that has always been like that..
And my head voice yes its completely gone still...

Because of this I have decided from now on to shut my mouth as much as possible to hopefully restore the damage that I don't know about yet... I just have to wait until my appointment and the end of this month...

What also interrupted my rest the last 4 months, was that last October and November I had a phone job and I had to talk 32/40 hours a week non stop. And my voice basically just hurts after 1 minute of normal speech (when im not working but just talk to others).

During my work everyday my voice immediately became tired and hoarse but yeah i needed money so i couldn't quit that stupid job.

And the end of the working day i had to speak in a soft head voice/like Mickey Mouse (i brought my head voice way back down in my chest register) because talking in chest voice hurted so much. When i spoke in a soft light head voice i felt my chest voice (or muscles) recovering.

But yes, i had to work everyday so i was never fully recovered and every working day my chest voice was hurting during work.

At the end of november my voice was so croaky and hoarse and painful again and i just could not talk anymore. I told my work my voice problems and that i wanted my voice to rest. I tested for like a week and then they FIRED me.

So yeah that job didnt contribute to my voice rest of course... And to my disappeared head voice...
Actually i realize now, my voice never had a rest it needed.

I think its a nodule or something because when i do a siren my head voice just doesnt produce sound.. my chest voice works but yeah it hurts to talk in chest voice.

So from now on i will shut my mouth as much as possible and talk very softly in chest voice if its really needed, and i will wait for the ENT appointment

Hopefully the damage is not permanent im so scared 😭

Anyway thank you so much Klaus!!

singingsoul

Do you/does anybody maybe also know how to check your own vocal cords at home?

Because... I can't go to the ENT every week...

I would like to keep a track on the health of my vocal cords and see them myself so i can detect early visible signs of damage in the future. That would be really handy.

Klaus_T

it sounds like there is an underlying condition that makes speaking painful, which is definitely something you should go to the doctor about asap, indeed you should probably have gone when it first started, or you noticed. anyway, it is what it is, go as soon as possible, and get this checked. you might also need some kind of speech therapy, seeing one minute of speaking is exhausting. your ENT will tell you and hopefully refer you to someone qualified if necessary.

there is no replacement for the ENT, there are these probe cameras you could buy, but you don't have the expertise to analyze the pictures, nor is it necessary for a healthy voice to get checked all the time.

if it turns out there is a condition where you need more regular checkups, this is a different story, but for now i would just go the normal way. if you don't fix the "voice hurts after 1 min" problem, you won't need to check 24/7 since you KNOW that this is not normal. once that is sorted, you can go without monitoring the cords weekly, as any normal voice can. see the ENT and let us know how it went, please

singingsoul

@Klaus_T Thanks for your answers and help!

Yes my speaking alone is a big problem already. I was too lazy to fix my speaking problem and i just wanted to sing.. i thought i could get away with it and just stop talking if it started to hurt (same goes for singing) but yeah now im in trouble..

I will definitely let you know how my ENT appointment went! ✌️

singingsoul

@Klaus_T sorry for the late answer. I was busy! I've been to the ENT. Here's what they found:

My vocal cords are okay, no nodules, no nothing so I'm happy with that!

However, that's the only positive thing because...

I have functional dysphonia.

The speech therapist found out there is an ENORMOUS amount of tension in ALL my laryngeal muscles (when i'm silent) Every muscle is rigid/stiff/does not move flexibel.

They also found out my cartilages almost touch each other and that should NOT happen, there has to be enough space between them.

Also on the picture you can see two bobbles (sorry i dont know the name of these muscles) but my mucous there is extremely red because of overusing and misusing the voice for years and years.
The two bobbles need to touch each other lightly, but with me speaking, they touch eachother too forceful.

The speech therapist also found out I totally have NO breath support and resonance when speaking, let alone singing.

Speech therapist is also thinking about acid reflux but I'm very sure i dont have that. Its a pure technical problem and singing made it extremely worse.

The speech therapist also said even if learn to talk in the right way, there is still an enormous amount of tension in ALL muscles so she also has to massage ALL tension AWAY.

Though im happy my vocal cords are okay, it sucks cause this is going be a looooong road for me and i just want to sing.

But now I understand why talking 1 minute hurts so much and why no sound is coming out. All my muscles are way too overused and tight to let my vocal cords phonate healthy...

Pfff im sad wish me luck with this 😭

Klaus_T

sorry to hear about that. i suggest you follow the advice of your therapist. you could look into some relaxation exercise like meditation, yoga etc to support the process

singingsoul

Thank you! @Klaus_T

However, the speech therapist doesn't know how to help me. The breath and resonance exercices she gives me hurt my voice immediately and they cause more pain. I really dont know how i ever get rid of this pain when talking and if i ever get my head voice back.
The speech therapist says she doesn't know how to help me anymore.

As soon as i make sound it hurts. as soon as i stop, the pain is slowly going away.

I know its a functional problem but if the professionals cant help me, then who will?

What should I do know?
Does anybody here have tips on what to do now?

I literally made no progress the last months. Not even 1%.

Everything hurts when making sound: even sovt/straw/laxvox exercises. Even laryngeal massages don't help. My voice stays the same, painful when talking/singing and head voice still completely gone.