I do not have the VNS but my son does. He is now 35 years old and he got it when he was 18. His voice cracks every 5 minutes and if he is in the middle of a sentence he has to wait for it to stop. It is a pain but the seizures have minimized so at the same time, it is a blessing.

Hi! I'm a singer and I have the vns. I try to train daily as I rebuild my skills because the vns is close to vocal cords. However, you can connect the magnets together when you sing and it helps. It's hard to explain unless you have a vns. But, my calling and purpose is an artist so I'm training everyday until muscle memory is there! Great to connect to another vocalist.

I had to stop performing. I was in the band during school age and had taken music lessons since I was 8 years old. By the age of 12 I was playing with the symphony and at 17 it all ended. When I am about to have a seizure, my eye starts to jump and I feel like I'm going into a deep tunnel. I play all woodwinds and just knew I would be performing. I was left paralyzed on the left side at 17. I got usage back but not like before. My music career ended before it had a chance to start. Now I just sing occasionally.

Thanks for bringing this up no one really talks about this. I feel like my improvising skills are not affected(i practice every day which im sure you know is essential to maintaining your chops) but I do struggle with long term momory(mainly in classical pieces or pieces i havnt played in a while).Certain things are engrained in my head like chord shapes and scale shapes(knowing music theory and playing a little piano helps with this ememsly). I also feel like its a psychological game as well like you psych yourself out because youre anticipating to forget. Keep in mind the best musicians in history also feel nervous/forget/mess up and have had issues like epilepsy or drug addiction that has affected the way they hear things/sound, learning from mistakes and embracing our musical "uniqueness"are what make us better players.