Euro Voice Care : reach your goals

Preparation is key, Euro Voice Care can help you prepare.

The overall theme for the Eurovision Song Contest Rotterdam 2021 is Open Up. Euro Voice Care will be present at the event to help you open up your voice and to reach your full potential during your performances.

Our professional team of speech-voice therapists and ENT specialists will be on site from the build up of the event until the finals are over. 

Euro Voice Care, proud to be hosting ESC 2021

This years Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Rotterdam. The city welcomes the festival, is the largest port in Europe, has over half a million habitants from all corners of the earth and houses the Euro Voice Care. The picture above you shows the Ahoy’ venue for the Eurovision Song Contest Rotterdam 2021. The event will take place there from 18 through 22 May 2021. After Duncan Lawrence won last years edition The Netherlands chose Rotterdam to host the event at the Ahoy Stadium.  

Euro Voice Care over a century of combined experience

EVC is an experienced team with specialist skills oriented on the singing voice. The team has been working together in consulting, training and treating some of the best known voices in The Netherlands.

Meet the team:

Vocal Coaches

Marjan Oosterbaan and Barbara Goes, both voice-therapists/specialists, with over 25 years of experience in everything involving speech, voices and singing, are on site daily to provide you with:

  • Famous Voice Bubbling
  • Vocal massages
  • Vocal exercises
  • Warming up and cooling down your Voice
  • Taping to support the muscle groups used during singing
  • Tips and advice to keep your Voice in shape and prevent Voice problems 
  • And if needed a Quick check by the ENT doctor.

ENT-surgeons

Jan Willem Arendse and Jaap van Twisk are certified ENT surgeons. With their experience, highly specialized in the treatment of vocal cord abnormalities in professional singers and speakers, they:

  • remove doubt concerning the quality of the vocal cords and create certainty regarding the performance.
  • use high-quality diagnostic equipment to visualize all the details of the vocal cords and by showing you the exact condition of your vocal cords.
  • help you to prevent or cure problems with your voice

A bit more about the Vocal Coaches.     

Vocal-coaches Barbara Goes and Marjan Oosterbaan  are both all-round educated to deal with the speaking voice/singing voice (both organic and non-organic), treat cough- and globusproblems and lung patients by using a special breathing program. They treat and guide professional speakers and singers, both professional and amateur.

Barbara often works with educators and conservatories.

Furthermore Barbara is “top of the bill” with regard to the supervision and treatment of the transgender-voice.

With her NLP-, Health Certification-, systemic work- and transactional analysis skills Marjan can help you to discover opportunities within your body and mind to make you feel better, more self-confidenced on stage and beyond; singing is enjoying yourself!

Their forms of working  towards a healthy mind in a healthy body with a healthy voice can be added to regular training, medicine or treatment and can supplement it (please see ‘we provide the following care’ above in header)

Both Barbara an Marjan have attended scientific research, many national and internationally organized conferences, symposia and training-courses on voice and voice-treatment.

We provide the following care:

VOICE BUBBLING

In 1991, Marketta Sihvo, Ph.D., a Finnish speech and voice therapist, introduced Lax Vox. She gave her students and patients a silicone tube and a bottle filled with water with which they made a noise. Within a few minutes, the test subjects noticed how it feels to use the voice in a healthy way. From that moment on, this simple tool is used to warm up and cool down the voice, before and after a demanding vocal task. 

In addition to the silicone tube, a glass tube was also introduced; the resonance tube method also called: Voice Bubbling Therapy.

Research

In the Netherlands we use the silicone tube or the glass tube with great success to train the voice optimally. Barbara Goes and Marjan Oosterbaan started looking for an academical explanation for this success. Together with Jan Willem Arendse ENT doctor, Prof. dr. Robert F. Mudde, Director of Education Applied Sciences, connected to the Technical University Delft, bubbling became the graduation assignment for, then still a student, Jermaine Ramlakhan.

We deliberately chose the glass tube in this study to ensure that the type of material, the length and the diameter, as well as the shape of the tube, was always the same.

The result of the research in a nutshell: as a result of the recoil of air in the tube, after 2 air bubbles have separated from the tube, the supra-glottic larynx musculature (the muscles above the vocal cords) is activated by bubbling .

Good information how to use this tube resonance technique is essential. We prefer to use the glass resonance tube because the body posture is usually good by itself, it is possible to practice with different resistances, which is important for warming up and cooling down in intensive voice use and last but not least, hygiene (glass can be cleaned better than silicone) and in contrast to the use of the silicone hose, no mention was made of an allergenic reaction to the material and has no nasty taste.

VOCAL TAPING

Too much muscle tension in the mouth, jaw or throat during swallowing, speaking or as a habit can cause pain or fatigue We can use tapes to help the muscles to remember what it feels like to be relaxed. By using the right voice techniques at the same time, the muscles know over time how they themselves can maintain this relaxation and the tapes are no longer needed.

BACKGROUND

Dr. Kenzo Kase developed the technique in 1973 in Japan called: Kinesiotaping. Kinesiotaping is a therapeutic tape method that has been tested for many years and can be used when extra support of muscle tension is required, in addition to exercises. The purpose and design of the tape is to facilitate the natural healing capacity of the body, while providing support and stability to the surrounding tissues, without limiting the movement of the body. The taping gives the muscles a kind of “recipe”. The Kinesio Tex Tape is latex-free and can be worn for 3 to 5 days. The tape can get wet without changing its properties. The tape is designed to be comparable to the weight and thickness of human skin and is safe for children, adults, and the elderly.

VOCAL EXCERCISES

The voice …….                                         

2 small muscles                                                                                                    

moving because of the air passing by out of the lungs                                                                                          ……that is the basis!

To do this as well as possible, many voice methods, therapies and exercises are used.

In the Netherlands, we make a choice of exercises and methods known as:

  • Resonance,
  • Coblenzer,
  • Pahn,
  • Smith,
  • Estill,
  • Sadolin:Complete Vocal Technique.

Curious? 

  • Do you have a question about your voice?
  • Would you like to warm up in a different way?
  • Are you looking for a safe and new challenge for your voice?
  • We listen to your voice; speaking, singing
  • Give an answer to the question you have about the voice.
  • Together we make a choice from all the solutions we have to guide you and your voice as well as possible

VOCAL MASSAGE

Jacob Liebermann developed a manual facilitation of the larynx with which posture-breathing, swallowing- and voice-muscle tissues can be examined and treated if necessary. The technique is called Laryngeal Manual Therapy.

This Laryngeal Manuele Therapy can be used for maintaining a good Voice.

Through massaging the muscles around the larynx, neck and shoulders are brought into balance so speaking and singing stays easy, is easy again.

Manuele Voice Therapy ensures good blood circulation and reduces fatique.

Often after referral or in consultation with the doctor, manual facilitation is used for throat-neck or shoulder-complaints such as: globus feeling, tension, pain, difficulty swallowing and it helps to prevent or to recover voice/singing problems.

TIPS

HOW TO BE NICE, GENTLE and CARING TO YOUR VOICE:

DO’S

  • Enjoy singing!!!!!!!!
  • Be kind to your voice, see the don’ts
  • Breath through the nose.
  • Ensure ventilated rooms with good humidity. 
  • Steam occasionally with chamomile.
  • Drink plenty of water, at least 2 liters per day  

DON’TS

  • Whispering with force ,
  • Smoking, scraping or coughing.
  • Noisy, smoky, dry and dusty rooms 
  • Screaming and jelling
  • Imitating voices (without technigue)
  • Using too much air conditioners; they cause drying out of mucous membranes. 
  • Alcohol, coffee and menthol-like products have a drying and irritating effect on the mucous membranes, so limit these beverages. 

Pay attention to:

  • Playing a wind instrument in connection with breathing.
  • Fitness training, don’t “fix” your breath.

Extra attention especially with singing and speaking professions:

  • Ensure a good condition and a rested body. 
  • Apply a correct breathing-voicetechnique.
  • Use warm up and cooldown voice-exercises.
  • Sing in a modified tessitura
  • Limit voice-load in case of colds or throat infections.
  • Use voice amplifiers.  
  • Take a  ‘vocal siesta’, 2-3 times per day, be silent for 20 minutes.

HUMIDIFICATION

Humidification for Speakers and Singers.

It is great to humidify  your vocal folds. Because of your safety in this Covid-19 time we will not be introducing this aid during the festival

breathe… 
nebulization…
aerosols…

We do want to let you know why humidification can be healthy for your voice

By nebulizing / inhaling salts, minerals, vitamins and mucus dissolvers, these substances reach the vocal cords, the larynx and the respiratory tract in the right amounts.

Nebulizing can be used to
• moisturizing, caring for the vocal cords, dry mucous membranes and the airway,
• stimulate blood flow and circulation and self-cleaning,
• “decongest” the mucous membranes of the vocal cords,
• fight infections, chronic irritations and inflammation of the vocal cords,
• support the healing process of allergies, asthma copd,
• reduce coughing,
• dissolve mucus and thin stuck mucus,
• support the mucous membranes of the vocal cords during intensive use of the voice,
• cleaning and humidifying airways after stimulation by smoking, air conditioning, dry air.

Instructions:
• Sit upright.
• Inhale slowly through the mouthpiece and out through the nose.
• After each use, wash the reservoir and mouthpiece in hot water with washing-up liquid, rinse and dry on a clean cloth / kitchen paper
• Boil the reservoir and mouthpiece 1x per week

Inhale / mist:
• 3x 10-12 minutes or