u/RUSSmma

Hi I'm 32 years old, started classical voice lessons 4 years ago and I was extremely quiet and breathy but that went away within a few months. I'm just going to info dump here about my situation. Starting range in chest was D2-G3, quickly became Ab1-F4 within a couple of years, and since then my low range has expanded. I was concerned about issues with neck tension so I saw an SLP 6 months age and she gave me exercises for lowering the larynx (it was so tense she couldn't manually lower it) and tongue tension. I also struggled to hold a note for more than 8-9 seconds, apparently normal for a healthy voice (including non singers) is 15-25 seconds. She thinks damage is unlikely.

Fast forward to now and I'm just confused. Made huge progress on tongue and laryngeal tension but still can't hold notes longer than 8-9 seconds, except for C2 which I can hold 15 seconds and D2 for 11. My low range now extends to Gb1 on a compressed hum when I'm not warmed up, and E1 when warmed up (also on a compressed hum). At about A1 and lower my larynx goes up. I have up to F#4 highest in chest if I massacre the vowel, and up to B4 in falsetto (very strained). I can only phonate on high pressure, I can hold an sss for up to 40 seconds but when I add phonation (like a zzz) I can only manage 8-9 seconds.

I normally can't do vocal fry, except for after doing a hum with a glottal start on a few notes, that unlocks brief vocal fry. I can hold this for up to 25 seconds max, and when I do SOVTs (which I've done a lot to improve closure to no avail) I can do straw in water for up to 25 seconds. I've found brief success with glottals and staccato, but I usually see a day or 2 of improvement then it plateaus.

I struggle with volume and resonance as you'd expect for someone with apparent closure issues, and I hoped to be able to do opera/oratorio by 40 as that seems to be the beginning of the prime of a bass and I'm getting worried that at my current progress I won't make that.

Ultimately the actual question is that I found a place that does stroboscopy of the vocal folds, but it's half a grand to do a full vocal evaluation and I'm not sure if it's worth it? Any tips on improving closure are welcome, although I've tried almost everything to do with SOVTs.

Edit: clip https://voca.ro/153BMgV9nSkf

other clip cut out low note, here's something low E1ish but high larynx and bright https://voca.ro/1gfTUm2GDcy1

Hi I'm 32 years old, started classical singing 4 years ago. I was very breathy and quiet but that seemingly disappeared quickly. Have gained a lot of range since then but I'm still seemingly quite quiet for the voice I have.

If I try to do a held hiss (ssss) I can do this up to 40 seconds, yet if I add phonation I generally get around 8-9 seconds. Part of this is it seems I can't phonate at all with low air pressure like on a hiss, been doing straw in water SOVT (given to me by speech therapist last October) and I can't do it with gentle bubbles if I'm phoning, only a violent "boil" of bubbles.

Possibly related I've heard that vocal fry can be good for lowering tension/therapeutic but I can't really do it. I can barely do very breathy slow fry if I do a couple of minutes of straw in water SOVT but normally am locked out.

Anyone have any idea what causes this and a solution? I've worked on tongue and laryngeal tension with my speech therapists exercises to great success but in the 6 months since I still struggle with holding notes long.