Canadian Musician - January/February 2018 | Page 32

PHOTO: JEN SQUIRES
VOCALS
Lydia Persaud is a Toronto-based vocalist with a BA in Jazz Performance from Humber College. Her active involvement in the
Canadian music scene has led to her work with The O’Pears and Dwayne Gretzky, as well as the release of her debut solo EP,
Low Light, earlier this year. www.lydiapersaud.com.
By Lydia Persaud
Accepting the Obstacles
M
y journey through music began when I was a very young
girl. I have vague memories of performing for my parents
at the age of five, and I recall the satisfaction that I felt from
their excitement and support. My enjoyment for singing
and performing is something that my parents had attributed to my con-
fidence as a child – confidence that had undoubtably developed from
many years of singing at church.
I performed through grades one to eight, partaking in talent shows
and choirs. I was accepted into the vocal program at Mayfield Second-
ary School, located just outside my hometown of Brampton, ON. My
time at Mayfield felt like a musical awakening. I fell in love with musical
theatre and I started singing soul, jazz, classical, and R&B. I had many
performances and remember belting for hours followed by uncontrol-
lable laughter from hanging out with my friends.
While I was growing musically, I was also figuring out what type of
instrument I was working with. My choir directors used to joke that if I
stood outside our choir room during rehearsal, they would still be able to
hear me. I had a very resonant voice but was undoubtably over-singing
most of the time.
After high school I was accepted into Humber College’s Jazz Perfor-
mance program and realized that this was the perfect musical foundation
for me to establish while continuing to perform the music that I loved.
I dove into my courses and I joined a working soul band during my first
year. When I wasn’t singing, I continued talking and laughing loudly.
Looking back, I realize how I was overusing my voice in every way.
Identifying Obstacles & Finding a Workaround
I have a very vivid memory of preparing myself for a performance of
Pink Floyd’s “Great Gig in the Sky.” It was hours before the performance
and I was running through the song in a practice room. I was shouting
to hit the high notes, and I was pushing harder and harder to sing. After
the performance, my throat felt strange. I booked an appointment with
an ear, nose, and throat specialist later to find out that I had a soft vocal
node on the left side of my vocal chords.
The only thing that I knew about vocal nodes was to avoid them like
the plague or else my career would be deemed over, but here I was, 21
years old with vocal nodes.
I slipped into a deep depression and began questioning all of the
stages that it took for me to get to where I was. I tried to rest my voice
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and back out of commitments, but the workload was heavy and the
emotional load was even heavier. While realizing my improper vocal ten-
dencies, I was also made aware that my speaking voice needed attention.
I enrolled into speech pathology therapy at St. Michael’s Hospital in
Toronto. I was undergoing therapy alongside smokers, thyroid cancer
survivors, and a slew of others who were recovering from vocal damage.
I continued my therapy while completing my studies at Humber, and
was eventually told that I had yet another growth on my chords, this
time on my right side. I was devastated. I thought I had dealt with these
issues. Where were the youthful chords that I used to have? Why were
they so weak? Why wasn’t my voice doing what I wanted it to do? Why
did life bring me here only then to realize that singing might not be the
right path for me? So many questions and they all felt like dead ends.
A friend of mine had mentioned an opera singer/educator by the
name of Kyra Millan. Kyra’s years of opera training made her speaking
and singing voice incredibly strong and resonant, and I was desperate
for her guidance. My first lesson with Kyra consisted of many defeated
tears. She could see that I had been struggling for years and that I was
in need of direction. To this day, Kyra continues to be a big part of my
vocal development.
The Takeaway
The honesty of this story is that my journey of managing my vocal issues
is still something that I deal with on a daily basis. Improving my tech-
nique through warming up before performances, supportive breathing,
connection to resonance, physical tension release, healthy living, and
countless other maintenance tips have become a part of my lifestyle.
To this day, I continue to sing a lot; however, I have become so much
more aware of what my body and my mind can handle, and above all,
I have learned to be gentle with myself both physically and mentally.
As vocalists, we are athletes. Our voices get tired as we train and run
marathons, and like athletes, it should come as no surprise when a part
of our body is injured from being overworked. I am a big advocate for
keeping an open dialogue between vocalists and musicians alike who
struggle with performance-related injuries. If we continue to share our
honest experiences, we will realize that we all struggle in our own ways,
which will inevitably bring us together and encourage support within
the community.