A Singer With Muscle Tension Dysphonia (MTD)–One Case

This is my first blog post as a singing voice rehabilitation specialist.

It is important to state that I do not work in a clinical setting, but privately, on referral from Speech-Language Pathologists and other Singing Voice Rehabilitation Specialists. This is one case, one approach. For every singer recovering from MTD, there will be different needs, different reasons for the condition, and different exercises.

If you’d like a good article on MTD and solutions, read “Collaboration and Conquest: MTD as Viewed by a Singing Voice Specialist and a SLP,” by Goffi-Fynn and Carroll. (PubMed) Communicating in a unified medical language can be important, so that the team of an otolaryngologist, speech-language pathologist and voice teacher can communicate about their patient-student.

Roz is in her late 20’s and has already experienced more than her share of vocal pathology and vocal issues. She holds a BM degree in vocal performance and is a professional chorister with excellent musicianship and a beautiful voice. She loves to sing early Western choral music and was employed at a large cathedral as a soprano in their octet. She is an event photographer as her day job.

She recently left her church job to seek medical help when her voice started skipping pitches. She also was not able to phonate the beginnings of phrases that started with vowels. Then her singing became breathy and cut out at about C-5. Her speaking voice was starting to catch in the middle of phrases.

Roz’ SLP  forwarded me her diagnosis and history, which included treatment for reflux, pre-nodules, partial paresis of the left vocal fold, vocal fold scarring and a non-vocal surgery. This history had left her ultra-aware of when to seek help.

Right now, the suggested standard medical protocol for a singer with vocal fold dysfunction is to first see a qualified otolaryngologist who truly understands a singers’ needs. This is still a rare thing.

Many otolaryngologists and ENT’s do not have this sub-specialty, and even those who say they work with singers often are inexperienced and just making guesses or don’t use the right equipment to view vocal fold behavior. Then a speech-language pathologist, usually associated with the voice clinic, sees the patient for “voice rehabilitation.” Some speech-language pathologists are singing voice specialists, and many are not. (Just like some voice teachers are singing voice specialists and many are not.)

I had been teaching singing for about 27 years before I began to move in this direction, and it became a way to turn lemons into lemonade after I was diagnosed with bi-lateral vocal fold paralysis in early 2013. My singing voice specialist is Jeanie Lovetri, founder of Somatic Voicework tm: The Lovetri Method and The Voice Workshop in New York City.

Roz’ SLP saw her for one session, during which Roz was shown how to do neck massages  to begin to unwinding her tension responses. After this session, she began her work with me and I took the work deeper: I introduced her to Vibrant Voice Technique and the use of a vibrator to help make the manual massages more effective. We studied neck muscle anatomy so she could become knowledgable about how to apply the massage and began to understand her own throat. The wise use of a vibrator helps relax muscles that do not belong in the singing process, and allows “the right” muscles to begin to work before strengthening them.  In pathology patients, it is not an instant fix but improvement is seen and felt almost right away. After her session with me, the SLP felt she had improved enough to discharge her.

MTD’s pathology is not life-threatening and can be solved, but is insufficient to explain the degree of dysphonia is causes. There are many reasons why someone can develop this frustrating condition. In Roz’s initial consultation with me, she shared that she had been singing in an abusive situation. She knew that she was reacting to, and recoiling from, the abysmal choral conducting and not-so-subtle emotional abuses of the church organist who was also the choral conductor at the cathedral where she sang.

Singers who have not had an opportunity to learn how to deflect this kind of negativity will have it reflect in their bodies and throats. In her case, over time, her effective vocal technique became unable able to respond to the glorious music, collaboration with other singers and the conductor. She also was stiffening and collapsing muscles in her throat to create the stylized “no vibrato” sound and was anxious because she could not follow the director’s waving and stabbing of his fingers in the air as he played the organ. And she was cowing under his constant criticism of the sopranos, of which she was one of two. While it is possible to sing in the musical style she loves with minimum vibrato, it becomes impossible under this kind of conductor unless you can focus solely on what you need to do and block out everything else that does not serve your goals.

“Learned vocalization for speech and song is developed by auditory input of one’s environment but not in the mammalian system.  In many people these two systems are often disassociated.”  (Christy Ludow, Communication Sciences and Disorders, James Madison University.)  I based all of Roz’s initial vocal exercises on sounds that come from our limbic system. (involuntary sounds made when we have not been severed from the spontaneous expressions of anger, fear, desire, surprise, etc.)

In Roz’s case, her muscles were in hyper-function, but this masked hypo-function. Her voice stopped speaking somewhere along the line so she kept forcing vocal fold closure in order to get sound, which eventually led to the dysphonia.

In her case, the exercises were kept very short, often on whatever pitch came out as opposed to specific pitches, using the syllables “thack” or (thae.) Roz had a great deal of anger and disappointment left over from her experience, so all the exercises were preceded with physical expression of those emotions by punching a pillow for a minute, or punching the air, etc, followed by one sound of emotional expression on that specific syllable.

A week later we removed the “th” and went through a similar procedure. Every single time, she phonated on a vowel when she allowed it to come from her emotional motor system! (limbic part of the brain.)

Pacing of the lesson was important to ensure she didn’t get tired or discouraged and she used the vibrator off and on all through the lessons. After about two lessons she was able to phonate short pitch patterns, moving up and down the scale, stopping for frequent short breaks. She could sing certain vowels over short intervals, which enabled her to really feel her progress.

After 3-4 lessons, the tongue attachments to the hyoid bone and  were sufficiently released that we could add tiny squeaks and squeals to help activate the cryco-thyroid muscles. This had to be done slowly, with her using the vibrator and me manually massaging the back neck muscles to watch for a return to hyper-function of the neck muscles, but she progressed. Then we moved from one tiny squeak down an interval of a third. Then we moved to exercises involving more than one syllable like “ihi-(eehee)-ihi-ihi-ihi” on one pitch or a pattern, coordinating with conscious use of transverse abdominals to get things going.  She had no trouble accessing and isolating various abdominal muscles, which was a testimony to her former technique.

From there we moved to a sustained (i) over short traditional vocalize patterns. When the voice skipped, she’d rest, repeat all the patterns in sequence. and take off again. She is almost ready to move into the standard voice therapy exercises (Stempler, semi-occluded variations, straw bubbling in water, etc.) We absolutely could not start with those.

Slowly her beautiful voice is reemerging, and she realizes she will sing again before the year is out. But now she will look for a choral situation that is what she knows the experience can be!

If you liked this post, please comment, like or share. This helps me know that others found it useful or fun, and encourages me to post more like it! Thanks for being here!



  1. Just beautiful! What a bundle of good information! Please tell Roz we’re pulling for her!! I’m glad she’s found such a safe team! It made me tear up to think. As the therapist Ann Smith said, “Positive people need a positive environment.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Jared, thanks for taking the time to read and comment. I really can’t give you an opinion with just hearing your story. It would be pretty unethical of me. However, it is true that MTD shows up in different ways, and getting a diagnosis is important for effective treatment.


  2. My name is Pj I’m a practicing actor and singer. and I believe I’m recovering from mtd, 2 weeks ago I couldn’t talk without terrible pain, now I can talk and sing but my range has decreased and of course vocal fatigue. I am so grateful for this article, it can get frustrating out here but it’s so nice to see things that give not just hope but useful information.

    I am wondering if you are able to do a 1 hour video session, it’s hard trying to get professional help in Ireland where I live, oh and I have seen an ENT, I don’t have nodules🙏.



  3. My daughter has been singing with a voice teacher since age 11. She will be a sophomore in college in a few months with a music education major-vocal emphasis. She was also in an opera ensemble last year as well as leading worship at church her school choir. About 2 years ago she was diagnosed with vocal cord dysfunction after the flu which went away after a month. Right at the beginning of summer this year she began getting tightness in her throat and a feeling of a lump. She saw an ENT who scoped her and diagnosed her with muscle tension dysphonia. She does not have any pain as most say they have or hoarseness-she just has throat tightness and a feeling of a lump like mucus she has to try to clear. It occasionally happens when she is not doing anything but is always happening now when she sings. Singing high notes makes it worse. She is going to begin speech therapy in 3 weeks. I am wondering if her singing so much last year could have caused this. Also perhaps she is singing incorrectly. Singing worship for church is different than the classical singing she has been trained for and is used to. I am not sure if her voice teacher in college will be able to help her correct the tension when she sings or if there is some kind of special vocal coach that specializes in poor technique that results and medical issues and helps correct them during the lesson. This is devastating for her since her future depends on her voice. Any insights would be helpful.


    1. Hi Maria, I have no way of knowing what kind of training your daughter received, because classical training is only as effective as the teacher. Most credible teachers of singing these days have knowledge of several classical and popular styles, and I would be interested in what her college teacher says. Ideally, she would see an otolaryngologist (not an ENT) who specialized in voice disorders, because Muscle Tension Dysphonia always is the result of something gone awry, not a cause. To say she has MTD without finding a cause is not a complete diagnosis. Speech language pathology is a great place to start, because there may be issues with her speaking voice that need to be addressed. Also, ideally, she will have an experienced voice teacher in college who can work with her to first undo what needs to be released, and then strengthen her throat. Also singing a singing voice rehabilitation specialist who can work with her college teacher would be another ideal. I work by Zoom with students and their singing teachers, but her college teacher would have to be open to it, and it is an out-of-pocket expense. If you are near a university voice care clinic, that would be a place to start. You can also read about my services here–https://www.catefnstudios.com/collegial-consults


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