Numi Vocal Damage? (Opera Singer Reacts)

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]like concerts and stuff before. I toured way back in the day, but I lose my voice so easily now.

[00:00:08]Actually, I have one working vocal cord I realized. I had my throat scoped because I was losing my voice so easily.

[00:00:14]So I actually only have one. So it's actually really hard for me to sing like a whole concert worth of songs. Wait, what? Wait, how how many are you supposed to have?

[00:00:21]>> to have two and your vocal cords are supposed to like your they're like they're like a flap pretty much that like >> All right.

[00:00:30]So these are the vocal folds. This is not I I like to use the anatomy because like actual footage of the vocal folds can make it sound like or make it look like something that gets the video demonetized. So these come together and they oscillate and vibrate at a certain frequency. For example, A4 is an oscillation of 440 cycles per second. Put another way, 440 hertz. So different pitches have different oscillations, different frequencies.

[00:00:58]touch and untouch like to form the words, but I only have one that works and it does the work of both. So it reaches a way it reaches across the whole gap and that's why my voice is so like breathy and airy because there's just always air coming through. I can never fully close my vocal cords.

[00:01:14]But yeah. Yeah, so if we go back to Z anatomy, so what she's saying is one of these one of these is paralyzed so it doesn't close all the way. You can actually look at this in a spectrogram and see the consequences of breathy air breathy air lack of vocal closure which will cause air to leak through the vocal folds.

[00:01:40]>> [singing] >> High vocal closure looks like this. Oh, it can look like a lot of things, but the difference here is that there's no like white noise or static whereas if you go >> [sighs] >> you can see that there's like this white noise the static here. That's air leaking through. This happened This happens because these things are not fully abducted.

[00:02:02]Meaning they're not fully closed.

[00:02:04]Now, as you go to high notes, uh as you go to higher and higher notes, they will not always close fully.

[00:02:10]Uh they will be more There's like a ratio.

[00:02:14]Um so bring this up in in paint because uh we use MS Paint here cuz we're Giga Chads.

[00:02:24]That's right. So, smash special wider.

[00:02:28]All right. So, if they're fully abducted, if they're brought together all the way, this is a combination of two things, the Bernoulli effect and the arytenoid cartilages coming together.

[00:02:37]So, when you uh blow through Let me get two things here real quick.

[00:02:43]Oops. All right. So, Okay.

[00:02:47]So, what I just do? I blew air through through these two things. Now, you'd think that that would send them farther away, but what happens is the pressure on the outside ends up being greater than the pressure on the inside cuz I'm blowing through and creating a pressure difference. Nature pours a vacuum.

[00:03:03]And so, the And so, this is the Bernoulli effect.

[00:03:06]And this is uh so, the two little acoustic foam things, they come together.

[00:03:11]That's how the vocal folds work. It's not entirely uh it's not like the all-encompassing explanation, but for the most part, that's what we got going on. Now, you can also uh increase vocal closure by having a good vowel.

[00:03:23]Again, hodgepodge on this channel and all that shit. It's a that's it's a complicated explanation. It's quite involved. But, the point is is that a good vowel that's nice and resonant will help you with your vocal closure.

[00:03:35]If you have a paralyzed vocal fold, this kind of doesn't really matter anymore, um to a certain degree. Now, I I need to do a little bit more research. I imagine basic fundamentals of technique still apply.

[00:03:47]But, if one fold won't move, one fold won't move, and there's some there's some consequences to that.

[00:03:54]So, if you use more air, your vocal folds will come together more, generally, with some exceptions. If you use less air, they will come together less. This is why high notes take less air because vocal closure is not just close or open.

[00:04:10]There's this whole range of motion, and on top of that, they can get fat. They can get fatter if you use more air. So, this is why low notes require more air.

[00:04:18]concert worth of songs. We have one. We have How many are you supposed to have?

[00:04:22]>> have two, and they were So, um this is something I didn't mention before is that uh the reason why having vocal closure leads to a little bit more longevity in your ability to sing is because your folds, if they just kind of get air through them, like like people try to save their voice by whispering.

[00:04:43]It's actually not ideal because it dries out the mucosal lining, which is a protective mucus around your vocal folds. So, having that thing dry out is not ideal and can tire you out, and and you can kind of get the friction of the air against the vocal folds as well cuz they're tiny, very tiny. For uh for female vocalists, you're talking about the collectively put together about the size of a dime. Cuz they're supposed to like your your They're like they're like um like flaps, pretty much, that like touch and untouch like to form the words, but I only have one that works, and it does the work of both. So, it reaches a way it reaches across the whole gap, and that's why my voice is so like breathy and airy um because there's just always air coming through. I can never fully close my vocal cords.

[00:05:24]Oh, shit. It's why they It's why it tires my one working vocal cord, I call her, my heart my hardest worker.

[00:05:31]>> because I'm the exact same way. Girl, get your get your throat scoped. Cuz [laughter] I'm like Okay, so like in the very, very beginning of my streaming career, I was like juggling, you know, finishing university, uh job, streaming, you know, all of the of that what most people do before they decide to become a full-time content creator aka Towur.

[00:05:52]And I was overworking because I wanted to also do music. So, I was doing all of the above. And it was back before I was even making any money on my music. Uh my voice died and then I went to the doctor and then they were like Well, they were like "Have you um ever thought of another career choice?"

[00:06:12]No. Have you ever tried not? That's crazy.

[00:06:16]And I was There's so many people I always found this odd. Like, there's so many people who tell people to quit singing or quit music. Like, why? This isn't like Deadliest Catch or Ice Road Truckers or like going to war. It's singing.

[00:06:31]>> [laughter] >> What?

[00:06:34]Like, what? It doesn't make any sense at all to discourage somebody from doing music. Like, and there are so many avenues to express yourself.

[00:06:45]Um the This is just wild.

[00:06:49]Um so, Numi's Numi's success uh and this is this may be reductive cuz I've only listened to a few tracks. But, her success as an artist is not predicated on ridiculous vocal technique, right?

[00:07:03]There are many ways to express yourself.

[00:07:05]I think as a I think a lot of Numi's music comes through artistically through the lyrics, right? I think she has a presence. She seems relatable, right?

[00:07:14]So, not everything is about how many notes you have, right? I think the appeal of Michi and I've talked about this a lot is the honesty of her delivery and she has a charisma. I have more notes in my range than Michi. Go ahead and ask her fans how much they give a fuck. They'll probably tell you they don't cuz they have a relationship with Michi and as an artist. I'm not just cuz I have more notes a replacement for Michi. So, you can make your a name for yourself and serve people with a myriad I always hate when I do this. I put the A in myriad. With myriad, there you go. Different elements of artistry and vocal technique is a means to an end. It is not the end all be all. It's not. So, yeah. Why would you tell someone to quit? That doesn't make any sense. That's just some ignorant shit.

[00:08:04]That makes me kind of mad.

[00:08:05]>> It's like it's all I have.

[00:08:07]>> [laughter] >> That's so funny cuz I pivoted and I went let it be all three of my jobs.

[00:08:11]>> [laughter] >> I did the same thing. I was like matter of fact, let me do the exact opposite but worse. Um, so if anybody watch my stream since the very beginning, they know this. Also when when I watch old clips, the new bus are able to see it but in um my my voice dropped well like one to two octaves since I first started streaming.

[00:08:32]Um, and if I I can't stream more than like three days a week, three to four days a week, um and otherwise my voice will just die. Like even right now, my voice is not great today. Like it hurts a little more to talk because I've been yelling a lot on streams and doing a lot of singing. So like I'm like ooh, I have to do like three to four days to completely get my my voice back of no talking but I'm like I don't have time for that.

[00:08:58]>> Yeah.

[00:08:59]I I don't mean to alarm you but that's what happened to me is I I I used to be a soprano and I lost my full upper register but now I can go really low.

[00:09:07]I'm more of an alto now but I can't do that. I can't do the high squeaky characters I used to do for voice acting. I'll get called back in and they're like and here's your reference from eight years ago and I go that's not happening.

[00:09:17]>> [laughter] >> Why does it sound like I am like Listen, if you're in LA I can recommend you to someone but yeah I mean it does happen aging. Women just our voices just drop but it's a it's a mine This is this is also I mean this happens to everybody.

[00:09:32]The voices drop a little bit particularly if you have kids. Um, well I mean that that's definitely more of a of a thing for for women. If you have children, uh the most dramatic example I can think of is uh Kirsten Flagstad. Kirsten Flagstad was like a fully lyric soprano who had children and then became one of the biggest dramatic sopranos to ever exist in existence. It's kind of like a crazy crazy transition. So, kids can do a number.

[00:09:59]Um, but yeah, also over time the voice changes. Uh I've had my I've had a weird as I age I've had it I've had it go kind of weird for me where everyone thought I was like this light lyric tenor that I was going to be singing Rossinian stuff. You would have thought that if that were my trajectory that I was at ages like the high notes would come in up to a certain point would come in a little bit more easy as I get better. But, all that happened for me actually was my voice got larger and my note high notes slowly came in. Which is actually much more idiomatic of a of a progression of a lyric tenor, which is different. So, as things age thing like, you know, the voice is weird. And you know, human the human body is weird. And we like to anticipate we like to try to think that there are general trends and there are, but that doesn't mean it's going to happen one way for everybody.

[00:10:46]The best thing you can do is know thyself and know your voice. Is a a long COVID thing. COVID can um paralyze your vocal cords. That's that's what happened to me. But, I'm literally following your footsteps, Senpai. [laughter] Oh, mini me. Don't worry, mini me. I protect you. Stand behind me, princess.

[00:11:05]>> [laughter] >> Oh my god, Senpai. I'm dying, too.

[00:11:08]>> There's things you can do. You're fine.

[00:11:10]You're fine. You might just be becoming more woman, more lady. Oh. I [laughter] think that would make sense if it didn't hurt to talk.

[00:11:17]>> That's so fair. That's so fair.

[00:11:20]But, yeah, I can still do a concert. I just had to like when I was making my setlist, I had to like strategically put it in a way where my voice wouldn't suffer.

[00:11:30]>> And this this that's smart to do anyway.

[00:11:32]Um that's just a good thing to do. Uh I'm going to need to start doing that for my shizzle nizzle. I just said shizzle nizzle. I'm going to move on and pretend I didn't. Mhm.

[00:11:42]I'd have to do like I was like Yeah, I would do a concert if it was like sing one song two or pre-recorded sing one song the next two are pre-recorded. Like I could do that, but that would just suck. What if I like three?

[00:11:56]Three pre-recorded? No, like three live.

[00:11:59]>> Oh my god. Oh my god. I could not do two back-to-back. Even if I could do one one one one maybe.

[00:12:06]Even if they were like chill songs that didn't >> Um go crazy.

[00:12:11]>> Because it's the actual it's the breathing that dries my vocal cords out.

[00:12:16]That's what really does it.

[00:12:17]>> Yeah. Wait, you can literally only do like one song live at a time?

[00:12:21]>> When I record a song like he like like a cover, I break that song up into like five different sessions. I never sit down and record a whole song.

[00:12:31]I can't. I like physically can't.

[00:12:33]Holy shit. I wonder what could be done about that. And that's where I want to discuss this matter with Hush Baja. Um like how much can can like >> [snorts] >> technical fundamentals help and what are the limitations? These are things I don't I don't uh have a good point of reference for because um I don't run into a lot of uh people with permanent vocal injury and each each consideration is unique, right? So it's often the expression is you know, if you've met one person with a disability, you've met one person with that disability, right? So paralysis of the vocal folds um yeah. It's it's going to have its own idioms. And so I I would need to have a lot more knowledge than I do now. Luckily, I have contacts that can help me with that. Um so that that would be I think where I would just stop here before I would make any more presumptions. And I'm going to reach out to some contacts just cuz I should understand more. There's a lot of There's a lot of vocal injury in the space. There's a lot. People are talking all day and then they do covers and then they do they they use their voice.

[00:13:39]They work really ridiculously long hours. Like it is not surprising to find out that again, Michi's like been a little vocally tired. You know, listen, I stream 15 hours and start doing some tracking, I'll get vocally tired. You know, let alone if I start trying to do some technically difficult stuff even on stream during an 8-hour and that's happened to me. I So, Amour also does a ton of talking at conventions during signings and stuff.

[00:14:05]Probably doesn't help. Yeah, I mean that's yeah, it's vocal tiring. She's very nice. Signed my signature at Anime NYC. That's dope. I know nothing about this person.

[00:14:11]Uh but so happy to hear that they're they're nice. Um yeah, I'm going to have to I'm going to have to learn.

[00:14:17]Um a lot of people in this space are self-taught and uh so don't know how to take care of their voice.

[00:14:24]I mean, yeah, but also there are a lot of people who are trained who also don't know how to take care of their voice.

[00:14:28]So, uh you know, um but yeah, it's going to be more of a probably an issue of usage and um I don't know. I've I've not The only point of reference I have for um for a community of singers is like classical music. Um and people get voice injuries there. Right? The second most common cause of vocal injury is opera singing, right? So, the difference is that there's a there's a infrastructure that exists and an industry exists that caters to to opera singers.

[00:15:01]Um and those resources are readily available. Uh I don't know how it works in the space.

[00:15:06]So, I couldn't comment. Um you know,