Hi,  I just wanted to check in after leaving the board some months ago, and let anyone know I'm booked at Yeson for surgery on 1/19.  I am traveling alone and haven't booked a hotel yet, I'm trying to decide between cost and convenience / walking distance. 

Dr. Kim says I will need a Botox injection due to vocal fold tremors.  Other than that, I guess I'm alright as a candidate.  I'm keeping my expectations low, but hope this will help round out my voice and get rid of those resonant lows that make it such a pain to talk in bathrooms or high-ceilinged rooms.

My old username was Ducks if you didn't get my punny new name

Anyone else going to be there around this time?

Good news   I was there 28 days ago - really good experience - and I can honestly say I love Seoul to bits now - the tube can just get a wee bit cramped at times lol.  As far as the hotel goes, I stayed in Gangnam, but everywhere is near a subway station, so getting around is fine - the ticket machines have an English option, so easy to use.  I had an app called subway Korea that was free - easy to use and told you where to change etc.  Apart from the Op time, have fun out there

Thanks, Kim!  BTW, are you the person who wrote the app that talks for you?   That would be cool to have if it spoke Korean.

in 2 weeks I will have my feet on South Korean soil!  I am so psyched to get there that I've been re-reading Jennygirl's thread over from the beginning.  Wow, so much great info and inspiring results there, it is stunning!  (and I'm not even half-way caught up on the thread) 

If garage band's piano keyboard is correct, my range is D1 to C4 maybe D4, but my break is in that general area and I can't positively say I get to D4 without slipping into false.   It took a few trips through the vocal exercises to get my bottom end to show up at all. I had maybe an octave in my habitual speaking range and haven't tried to sing much over the past 20 years.  That's probably why my voice is so breathy in the 'ahs' below

Here's my audition for Dr. Kim to decide if I was a candidate or not.   Obviously my voice will really benefit from his magic!  http://vocaroo.com/i/s0CWAjjud1Vs

Your voice sounds not clearly male to me, so tha tis good already. But of course increasing pitch will help - I can hear the "vocal tremor" , I believe , in the A sounds. Its that issue to not be alte to hold a note precisely. I think your vocal range description may be wrong. I think a D1 is too low even for a very bassy voice which I cannot hear from the voice recording. The upper end seems also too low, the break usually is above 300Hz, I think and your real vocal range of course goes beyond that in the head voice. Almost everyone said that the break becomes less intense or even almost goes away with VFS, so I would also record that part

I will be a month after you, February 23-March 5 - I still wonder if anyone else will be there at that time.

Oh and I think I should read the long thread in parts again too, mostly for the tipps about shopping, sightseeing and food

Anjaq, thanks for your thoughts!  I thought D1 was way too low, but went with the label on the app.  In my head voice I get another octave on top.  Of course, I'll have a better idea after Dr. Kim does his exam and post some stuff  on that if I can.

I am probably not going to be much help on the shopping and sight seeing stuff, I intend to hunker down and read some books that I haven't made time for in real life, and do some meditation and gentle yoga.  I haven't been able to really chill for a long time and look forward to having some time to myself. 

Also, thanks for the vote of confidence on the speaking voice, I agree, even a moderate raise in pitch would help a lot.

Quick question for you (or anyone who's been there) - do you intend to do any practice / exercise before going over?  I'm contemplating starting the vocal exercises now, as I can't even do the lip trill thing without flubbing it a few times first.   Thoughts?

Well - I will also take some reading with me and a friend, so it certainly will not be boring. I dont know your app - I use praat and it gives me the same results as the examinations at the ENT I go to, so it seems to work fine. D1 would be below the buzz from AC current

I have been doing vocal exercises with a voice rehab person for the past year and will continue to do them until the week before the flight and then start again once the resting period is over, plus of course the more daily exercises from Yeson. Right now I only do the vocal exercises at the rehab every week and then sometimes if I think about it I will do lip trills and such.

Quote from: anjaq on January 03, 2015, 04:15:49 PM
Well - I will also take some reading with me and a friend, so it certainly will not be boring. I dont know your app - I use praat and it gives me the same results as the examinations at the ENT I go to, so it seems to work fine. D1 would be below the buzz from AC current

I have been doing vocal exercises with a voice rehab person for the past year and will continue to do them until the week before the flight and then start again once the resting period is over, plus of course the more daily exercises from Yeson. Right now I only do the vocal exercises at the rehab every week and then sometimes if I think about it I will do lip trills and such.

LOL, yeah D1 for sure is wrong.  The app is just the built in fake piano keyboard that comes with my iPhone - it doesn't do any analysis.  It doesn't show the whole 88 keys so when you want to go lower you have to page down to that range, and it puts a label on the octave, like C1, C2, ...  I forgot you did exercises already, so for you no decision, just carry on.  I'll probably just keep practicing the ones I can't do well so I don't embarrass myself too badly.

Cool. Keep us apprised of your progress.

Proper exercises can never be wrong - except in those 2 or 3 months post op in which Dr Kim tells you to not use them.

My fundamental frequency was 135 hz Dr. Kim says about 209 hz should be possible but perhaps more with training.  I have a tremor and my cords don't close properly which causes me to use a lot more air and to strain a lot to get sound out.  Botox for me then finding a speech therapist after 2 months seem to be the keys.

Killing time until Monday morning surgery.  My body is still on pacific time.

Aww - good luck then. I am not even sure anymore what my fundamental frequency is. If I talk nowadays it is more like 130, but if I talk monotonously it is 110, if I talk with more melody it is 160 or 170 even. I have no idea what number to take. I will have to let them surprise me.
The lady at the bank counter was again telling me that she would not have thought anything to be wrong with my voice when I told her where to wire the money and why. I keep wondering why that is, given that I clearly have a low pitch. Apparently people really often dont give as much on pitch as we think they do.

pitch is def only one piece of the puzzle, im sure you'll do great!  one sleep left for me, no food after 8pm, considering pizza 4 lunch

Hehe - yeah - stack up on the food while you can - Thumbs pressed for tomorrow. - I am sure it will all be great for you. But it soooo long until one can hear the results - patience, patience...

Jessie told me my Fo is at 133Hz. With 74Hz average increase in pitch I'll be pretty happy. I'll be contacting them soon to book as I want to get this done in June (school is out so we won't miss school or find a babysitter).

surgery is complete and except for a persistent headache, recovery was not too hard at all!   I've got my follow up on Friday then fly home, I'm excited to see my own bed.  its hard not speaking, I never realized how much I 'mutter' to myself

Headache, I assume that's the anesthesia wearing off?

ImagineKate, yeah I think you're right, could also be lack of caffeine after a long day.  It finally let go after lunch. 

Ah thats not too bad. One day headache - After my last surgery I was pretty tired for some days.
So - you already wish you were home again? No drive to see Seoul?

Anyways - Congrats on the surgery - will they botox you on friday? - That is not even the full week - are they sending you home early?

I'm  not much for sightseeing right now, I cant talk or understand the language so the timing is off.  maybe if I wasn't alone.  I thought I was doing pretty well so I took the stairs 6 floors, and was gasping by the time I made it to the top.  The surgery took a bit more out of me than I thought. 

yes, botox tomorrow,  surgery on a Monday messes up the timeline some, I had my first check then a weekend off before surgery, I walked around Seoul a bit then.  When I pointed out the botox was only 5 days after surgery, Dr. Kim said it was OK.