Singing and speaking voice

Toos Nauta van Loon

It is a must for teachers and others who have a profession in which they are using their voice a lot , to be aware of all the factors that influence the quality of their voice
In my work as a voice teacher for many years in a high school where students learned to be teachers I did a voice screening test at more than two hundred students . The results of the screening were : 79% had a high and audible pattern of breathing, 60% of the students had a flabby, collapsed posture, 55% had insufficient action of articulation and 35% made too much tension when they had to speak loud..
To communicate, to express yourself you are not only using your vocal cords but your whole body, that’s why I introduced a self discovering course for the students: Body and Voice (developed in my book: goedgestemd voor de klas, uitg: Wolters Noordhoff 2005 )
Recently in the neuro biology the term: the embodied mind is often used. where body and mind are considered as a wholeness. In speaking and singing : the embodied voice is introduced
I am very impressed by the method of Moshe Feldenkrais, who introduced mind in motion , awareness through movement It is a self-discovery process using movement. Its aim is to produce an individual organized to perform with minimum effort and maximum efficiency during speaking and singing

Toos Nauta van Loon, Logopedist,stemtherapeut
Kam.Onnesstraat 75/77
9727 HG Groningen