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S1: E28 Part II Vocal Health with Darlene Jebson

Health Series
Season One:  Episode 28 Part II
Vocal Health with Darlene Jebson


Darlene Jebson is the Director of Worship at Brightmoor Christian Church as well as the Vocal Music and Drama Teacher at Novi Christian Academy.  She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Music Education with a focus on voice and her Master's Degree in Education - both from Marygrove College.  She lives with her husband Mark, daughter Molly, and son Max in Commerce Township, Michigan.


TRANSCRIPT OF THE SHOW

Jessica:  So I'd love to shift gears because you sing so much and not just with students in the classroom, but you're leading worship on weekends at church and you do some of the productions at church so you sing a lot.  And I don't know if it's been a year or two years - it's been a little while I think, but you had some things happen with your voice.  I'd love to hear about your experience with your vocal health.

Darlene:  It started - gosh... probably I was preparing for my senior recital so we're talking - it was 1997 so twenty-two years ago.  I'm preparing for my senior recital the summer before my senior year.  So we, my junior year we picked all the music.  We started to learn it and knew that it was coming up in ten months or so and the summer going into my senior year I got sick.  Some kind of - I don't know if it was bronchitis or a really bad cold or something.  Got sick and I was doing a show.  I was doing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat and I was the narrator.  Basically had to sing through it.  Bad choice.  So this was like, I want to say June that I did the show.

Fast forward to September.  We've started my senior year of college.  Again, prepping for my senior recital and it's classical.  I mean it's, it's 'real music' so they say and my voice teacher is noticing there's something.  A huskiness in my voice.  And I'm noticing that I'm losing my voice a lot and every time I lose it, my range is getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller.  To the point where I really can't sing more than a third or a fourth.

And I go to the doctor.  They scope me and I have two nodules on the top of my vocal chords.  Again, keep in mind this is like over 20 years ago.  So I freak out.  They gave me the option of surgery or complete voice rest and therapy.  I chose the voice rest and therapy so I went through vocal therapy for - I don't remember how long it was - a few months.  I was on complete voice rest for about six months.  Thankfully I was a dual major so I switched my recital to piano.  So I graduated.  Came back after five-six months rest and it was healthier than it had ever been.  They scoped me again.  She said it looks as though they're gone.  They're not rubbing so don't worry about it.  So fast forward twenty years.

The same thing happens and in twenty years, Jessica, I've never had a problem.  I mean I've had laryngitis from like being sick or whatever, but I've never gone to the point where I needed to go to the doctor because my voice wasn't coming back.  So fast forward to four years ago this summer and the same thing happened.  I was getting sick.  I remember we were on vacation in Florida.  I had like a terrible sore throat, a sore throat like I'd never had before, but that's all I had and it lasted for like weeks.  And then it kind of migrated down into my chest.  I never really lost my voice, but I was sick for like nine months and I kept going back - not nine months.  Nine weeks.

I kept going back to the doctor.  This one doctor he would just put me on a steroid or he would put me on an antibiotic.  He would never really look at me and see what was wrong.  Just medicated me.  So nine weeks.  I finally went to my current doctor.  I dropped him.  I went to a different doctor who actually goes to our church.  She sat down with me for about an hour and a half and she talked to me about my symptoms.  She did a chest x-ray.  She did a breathing treatment, I mean, you name it she did it.  And it turns out that I had an undiagnosed case of bronchitis.  Unfortunately what happened through all of that was just a lot of coughing for nine weeks.  The exact same thing happened.

I started using my voice again.  I'm leading worship.  I'm teaching.  I'm leading worship three times a week.  I'm prepping for our Christmas program that I'm the lead in and I'm singing like nine songs and my voice - I'm losing it like all the time again and I'm like, 'I can't.  I can't do this again.'

So I went to U of M (University of Michigan).  I actually, truly, it was an act of God, I got in with a doctor that has years waiting lists and I got in within a couple of days because he's just the top of the top.  He treats vocalists like professional vocalists and I got in with him.  And he scoped me and he said, 'You have two nodules.  They're in the exact same place.'  He said, 'Chances are they've never gone away.  That they've always been there, but it was the bronchitis that flared them up.'  And he said, 'Singers who use their voice as much as you do, it's not uncommon for...' because all I hear is nodule and I'm done.  Yeah, I'm done.  At that point I'm like 38 years old and my career is over.  I'm not a young chicken anymore who is going to rebound from this, but he said, 'People who use their voice like you do, they've probably always been there.  You don't need to worry about it.'

And what's funny is that when I told him about my experience the last time that I went on six months voice rest, he said, 'You will never stop using your voice.  We're going to teach you how to use it through this.'  Which I, which kind of freaked me out, you know, like I need to start talking really, really quiet and a lot softer and he's like, 'No.  All you're going to do is hurt yourself.'  So I literally spent.  I took about three weeks off of leading worship just to give it a rest, but I got through the Christmas show because he gave me some wonderful steroids that they were truly a miracle because Jessica, I had nothing.  I didn't even have a squeak and it was, again, it was a classical musical.  It was nine full soprano songs.  It wasn't like I could belt something.  It was like real music.

But he gave me some steroids and he said this will get you through the next two weeks and then we're going to take it form there.  So I went through nine months, once a week driving down to Ann Arbor for therapy and I spent nine months humming into a straw.  That's all I did.

It's a method and I can't remember the name of it, but I'll look it up and I'll send it to you.  And I've spent the next four years warming up every single day in a straw.

**Video link for straw exercises**

Jessica:  And do you do it in like a small amount of water?

Darlene:  I don't.  It's pure.... I take like a - not a big thick straw and not a teeny tiny straws - just a normal straw.

Jessica:  Oh okay.

Darlene:  Yeah.  I should go get one right now.  And it's literally, it's a hard hum.  So you put the straw in your mouth and it's a (demonstrates hard hums) really in your lower register.  And I do it like on a Sunday morning or if I know I'm singing for something, I'll warm up as I'm getting ready.  I'll do it in the shower because it's just in my mouth.  You know, and I can curl my hair while I'm warming up, but I remember the first thing is how do you warm up?  And I'm like 'woo-oo-oo-oo-oo.'   Okay let's go.  You know, I'm like I don't warm up.  I've gotten in a really bad habit of not warming up and she said, 'you know' - she reminded me - 'you know vocal chords are muscle like structures.  And you would never get up and run a marathon without stretching.  You would never just get out of bed and go for a ten mile run without warming up or cooling down.  Why do you think you can do that to your vocal chords?'

That's what I do - a lot of lip trills, a lot of - all of that to say is I probably still have two nodules on my vocal chords.  If I warm up and I use my voice like right now I can feel it because we've been talking for like an hour.  This is a lot of talking and I should probably go get a drink of water, but that's all I drink.  I drink water.  I will occasionally have like a pop or something, but I don't, I don't really like pop.  But I am a coffee drinker.  Black coffee.  And a lot of it.  But I counter balance it if I know I'm singing.  If I know I'm singing, I won't drink coffee.  I'll stay away from the caffeine to keep the lubricant on my vocal chords.

And I, on Sunday mornings Jessica I pee probably fifteen times within a span of like three hours because I drink so much water and I always have, I always have water with me.  The staff laughs because they know Darlene's coming because they can hear her.  They can hear me because I have a straw in my mouth and I'm humming as I walk through the office, but it is, it is truly saved my career.  It has saved my voice.

So the, what I was saying, is the way he describes it - it's like giving your vocal chords a massage or a warm bath.  It's a warm up and a cool down.  So when you take that air, the air that's coming out of your mouth... and you, you can do it in your hands if you have a really good suction on your hands or in a cup if you poke a hole in it.  But when you take that air and you force it through this teeny tiny hole, it's forcing the rest of your air back into your mouth and it warms your vocal chords.  It's like a hot tub for them.  Like a nice bath.  So that's what I swear by these days and it's been four years.

And I sing hard.  I mean I don't - I'm not a light singer.  I'm a hard singer and it saved me, but I also know when to close my mouth.  I know that Mondays my voice is a lot more tired.  Sunday afternoons my voice is a lot more tired.  So I don't not talk, but chances are I'm going to talk a lot less.  But I do teach in a microphone and I teach into a microphone so I can hear myself.  Really not so the kids can hear me.  It's so I'm not pushing.  So I make sure that the monitor is pointed toward me more than them because if I feel like if I can't hear myself, I'm going to overprotect and I'm going to... you know when I'm talking passionately, I'm hardly talking at all because the microphone is my amplification.

Jessica:  Yeah.  And is it an amplification system that's in your classroom or just a microphone?

Darlene:  No, no.  No because I teach in our church creative arts room, I've got like a state of the art whole sound system in there which is just fabulous.

Jessica:  Yeah.  Oh that's great.  What are some things that we can do as vocalists and educators to maintain our vocal health?  So the straw and then is there anything else?  And drinking water.

Darlene:  Yes, I mean really the water is key.  The water's for sure key and I would say, for me it's the straw.  For somebody else, and I think Jessica that it depends on your vocal chords.  You know some people have really resilient chords and will probably never have a problem.  Some people have really weak chords and might be susceptible to vocal problems more, but I honestly believe because your vocal chords are muscle-like membranes, the more you use them, the stronger they get.  You know, if I don't sing - well, this never happens because I'm always singing - but if like there's a time where I'm not using my voice for a period of time and then I go to sing again, it's a lot harder just because, you know, it's out of shape.



But I really think the more you use it properly and I'm not talking about yelling or whispering or belting 24-7, but if you're using your voice properly, you know, you've got your placement right and your amplification is right like when I sing at church I use in-ear monitors so I can completely control my own mix.  And I have myself - our sound guys think I'm crazy, but I have myself pretty loud in my ears because I never want to have to push.  Because for me, again it's a personal preference, but if I can't hear myself I think other people can't hear me.  And so therefore I'm over singing.  I've over talking.  But if my, if what I hear is a good mix then I don't need to over push it, but water for sure.  Water, water, water.

And you know I know a lot of people are really big on like lemon and the citrus stuff, but for me it strips my chords.  The acidity of it does not help them.  I don't like lemon in my water.  I like just plain room temperature water or warm water.  I'm not a big cold water fan.

Jessica:  Yeah.  That's interesting because I'm the same way and I don't like the lemony stuff like it doesn't feel good on my throat and I drink water like crazy.

Darlene:  Yeah like I'm going to go get some water right now as we're talking.

Jessica:  I know.  I always have a glass on the stool next to me that way I can kind of go back and forth.  But the lemon doesn't really help me and then on top of that I do not like cold water and so I don't like ice in my water.  I just like it room temperature.  And Jeremy and the girls think that's weird.

Darlene:  I know right?!

Jessica:  Yeah.  I'm like 'huh that's the way I like it.'

Darlene:  Yeah and the other thing that I have found - and again this is what works for me and my voice, but cough drops.  I enjoy having something in my mouth.  It keeps me lubricated, but cough drops with menthol strip my vocal chords of the liquid that I need so I usually...they do sell some without the menthol in it.  It doesn't help you if you're in a coughing fit.  You know that's what that menthol's for, but I really just like them because, again, it keeps liquid in my mouth.  But I just like a plain old mint, you know, as opposed to a cough drop.  Anything that is meant to take - anything that's diuretic - that's meant to take the water away.  To dry you out.  I'm staying away from.  Except for coffee.  I can't stay away from coffee so like I said I counter balance it so if I have a cup of coffee, I'll have five cups of water.

Jessica:  There you go!  Well to each his own you know.  You have to know yourself.  What you can live with and what you can not live with.

Darlene:  Exactly.

Jessica:  Have you been sick at all in the last four years then?

Darlene: No mm hm.

Jessica:  'Cause I was going to ask how you tell the difference between if it's just a cold or your voice is tired, you know?

Darlene:  Oh!  I had a really really bad case of bronchitis again.  This was probably the worst, but they caught it right away.  It was back in January.  I was sick for - I took an entire week off of school. I was laid up on my bed.  I can tell the difference because if I'm getting sick it immediately goes to my chest.  That's just where it hits.  And I have a really really good doctor, like I said, who also goes to our church so she knows what I do and I basically have her on speed dial and if I know I'm getting sick, she's immediately calling in a prescription and she gets me a cough syrup with codeine that just basically knocks me out.  And she's taught me like to take care of my body.  The healthier - and right now I'm not very healthy - but the healthier I am, the healthier I am!  You know the more I'm eating better, the more I'm exercising, the more I'm taking care of my physical body, the less I'm getting sick.  Now I live in Michigan so it's... so any time there's a change of season, we're gonna get something.  But I will typically the minute I feel some kind of tickle knowing that it's going to hit right here (chest) which means it's going to take this (voice), I'm getting a Sudafed and just...

But again the Sudafed is stripping me of the liquid so I'm going to be drinking a lot of water.

Jessica:  It takes so much to be an educator and a vocalist because it's like you said - it's not just taking care of your voice, but also all the things that affect your voice.  You know, which is basically everything!  Yeah.

Darlene:  Mmm!  Seriously.  And being a mom and being a wife.

Jessica:  Yes!

Darlene:  Yes, it's like I need... I need... a Hawaiian cruise with just me and a couple of my girlfriends.

Jessica:  There you go!

Final Questions:
Tea, coffee, or something else that suits your fancy -  Black Coffee
Artists, song, or genre - Rita Springer "Defender"... worship songs that she'll be introducing to the worship team at church
What is something you do, or try to do, every day - Praying with my students every day...
How to get in touch with Darlene -  Facebook or email:  darlenejebson@yahoo.com   (doesn't like talking on the phone lol)


















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