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Tongue Problems
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 1996 16:30:07 -0500
From: Peter Hobbs Subject: Compilation of "Tongue Problems" Responses LONG Here are the replies to the request for exercises for "Tongue Problems" (see below) that I posted on March 14. Because this seems to be a topic of interest on both Choralist *and* Vocalist, I am posting all the replies. Hope this isn't overdoing it. (I'm sure you will tell me, if so.) >My singing teacher asked that I post a request for exercises and techniques >that she could use to teach students how to relax their tongue and keep it >from interfering with proper vocal production. She has found that the >tongue may be held too far back in the mouth, or may be kept too rigid, or >it may close off the breath, etc. Exercises that would specifically address >the problem of "how to relax the tongue" are what she seeks. > >Peter Hobbs >Assistant Administrator >Amadeus Choir of Greater Toronto Replies follow: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- From: "Susan Zemlin" School-Minnesota Your teacher would probably enjoy going to a workshop this summer called "TheVoiceCare Network Impact Course". For information contact Dr. Axel Theimer at: atheimer(a)csbsju.edu or visit their www site at http://www.csbsju.edu/VoiceCare The course deals with several solutions to vocal issues such as tongue placement. I found it extremely valuable! ---------------------------------------------------------- From: fleming(a)tnpubs.ENET.dec.com Cindy Fleming-Wood When you sing, the back of your tongue should be down (relaxed so that you can see your uvula.) The best two exercises I know are the following: First exercise: 1. Stand in front of a mirror to sing. 2. Open your mouth and put your index finger on the tip of your tongue and push your tongue into your mouth with your finger. 3. Now, use your tongue to force your finger back out of your mouth. Note: You should see the back (or base of the tongue go down when you do this.) 4. With the base of the tongue down, sing a descending scale. This will sound odd to you at first, but not to the listener. You should very quickly then be able to lower your tongue yourself. The second excercise: Take your right thumb and find the point in your jaw where your jawbone makes a 90 degree bend (just below your ear). Find the corresponding point on your left jawbone with that thumb. Place your thumbs behind the bends in your jawbones. When you sing, drop your jaw down. If you are doing it properly, your thumbs will move away from your neck. (Point, when the jaw is properly opened, the tongue cannot rise up in the back of the throat. If you jut your jaw forward when you sing, you tongue will ALWAYs go up and close your throat.) If the thumbs do not move, you are jutting your jaw forward. ----------------------------------------------------- From: claffair(a)skypoint.com (Steven Michael Utzig) Northwestern College of Chiropractic, Bloomington, MN A couple of exercise that I have found helpful: 1. Relax the jaw first. Tension in the jaw, it seems, will automatically make the tongue tense. Massage the muscles around TM joint and up into the temples; gently cup the jaw in the palms of your hands (fingers at the TM joints, heels meeting at the chin) and gently move the jaw up and down with the palms of your hands; grasp the chin with your fingers and gently work the jaw up and down, slowly at first then speeding up. 2. Massage the tongue muscles under the chin with the flat part of your thumb. 3. Sigh with an [m] hum and/or an [a] with the tip tongue gently resting on the lower lip. The tongue will stick maybe a centimeter or two at the most. The tongue needs to stay as relaxed and passive as possible and wide as possible. Resting the tongue on the chin also provides a reference point for people - they may think that their tongue is forward.when, in fact, it is quite far back and tense. 4. Vocalize by trilling/rolling the tongue 5. Vocalize with a [ja] syllable easily moving the tongue to articulate the [j] sound - most people will also want to move their jaw at first. 6. Vocalize moving from a [i] to [e] to [a] on the same pitch (on that's quite comfortable for the singers) asking the singers not to move their tongues from the first forward [i] position. Move through the vowels very slowly. This will help to break up the idea that to form an [a] soound that one needs to pull the tongue down and back and will also help the alignment of the vowels. Just a few thought. Let me know what else you find out. ------------------------------------------------ From: desta(a)iserver.ychs.ycusd.k12.ca.us (Dean M. Estabrook) Try some vocalises, e.g., 123454321 on Ah, in a low to medium part of the register, with the tongue lolling out over the lower lip....super relaxed. Also, before singing at all, stick your tongue out as far as you can 50 times. ------------------------------------------------ From: RRuss604(a)aol.com My voice professor at Cal State U, Bakersfield, CA, Peggy Sears, had us do the following to relax the tongue: 1. Keep your tongue touching your lower lip while singing. 2. Practice singing with you tongue hanging over your bottom teeth. 3. Practice singing with your head laid on the floor or table. While in this bent over position, press your jaw against the surface with a hand. This relaxes the entire lower jaw area. Note: this is often called "drool position." ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: GS320116(a)WVNVAXA.WVNET.EDU Keith Haan Glenville State College, Glenville, West Virginia Smart teacher. I do a number of variations on scale tones 123454321 and 54321, singing down the scale on thee, thah, thee, thah, thee; lilly repeated on each pitch. One of particular benefit seems to be ah-ee on each descending pitch sustaining ah at the bottom or each separate syllable on each pitch as ah, ee, ah, ee, ah with the tongue doing the moving and NOT the jaw for each of these exercises. After 30 years in this business, I'm convinced most vocal problems relate to the tongue: not being down, flat and forward; raised and tense in the back. Good luck. I'm looking forward to a compilation of ideas. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Lisa Caldwell Voice instructor, Georgia Southern Univ. Conductor, Ogeechee Choral Society, Statesboro, GA Will you please e-mail me the compilation of exercises, it is an area that I am very interested in as well. I might be able to help with a few exercises. The object of most of them is to learn to feel the sensations of phonating without tongue tension--what do we rely on instead---the breath!! 1) sing while sticking the tongue way out of the mouth--no vowels, but it can eliminate the usage of the tongue during phonation, sing exercises, or actual literature. 2) sing while rapidly sticking the tongue in and out of the mouth as a snake might. The theory is, if its moving, it cannot be tense. 3) (this one I love--) while singing, place thumb under your own chin, this is a check for tongue tension. If you feel downward pressure, or bumps and clicks especially when changing notes or at passaggio or at any .difficult passage, (or always) you must find a way to sing without this feeling....no exercises, just sing without that downward pressure...It is frustrating, but this works about as well as anything I know. I learned it from David Greedy at Luther College, and spent 4 years of undergrad lessons with my thumb under my chin....It is a great reminder. There might be some slight pulsation when vowels change, after all, the tongue is responsible for most of that....but absolutely no pressure or tension. Singing without tongue tension feels disconnected at first, but that soon .changes when you learn to rely on the breath. The connection of breath is a far more pleasurable sensation, and will unlock parts of the voice that you never dreamed you would have. ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: DFK4401(a)aol.com Margaret Kvamme I had a voice teacher (a former Stanford faculty person) who fixed my problem tongue by having me actually hold my tongue out of my mouth while singing. Not a great way to prevent the spread of colds and flu, but it was very helpful in my vocal technique. ------------------------------------------------------------------ From: PTcoul(a)aol.com Peter T. Coulianos L.M.T. Your posting caught my eye since tongue tension is one of the things I specialize in as a neuromuscular massage therapist (and singer). First of all let me congratulate you and your singing teacher for tackling a subject that no one really wants to deal with. All singing teachers will tell you that tongue tension is undesirable but few teachers actually know how to deal with it in a practical way. By quick way of background...I have been singing for about 30 years(started as a choirboy) and while I still sing professionally, my main profession is working with singers (and others) with chronic pain and tension in the TMJ (jaw), along with all the muscles of the head and neck. (They ALL get "involved" in singing). My clients include many world class singers at the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera, as well as international artists who seek me out when they come to New York. I do both manual therapy as well as teach patients exercises for their jaws and tongues to keep them out of trouble and so that their singing is as free as possible. So.... in my opinion, focusing on the tongue without focusing on the jaw is practically impossible. You probably notice in your own singing if there is tightness in the tongue there is also tightness in the jaw, and vice versa...and it all stems from holding back the breath! However, your question from your teacher was specifically the tongue, so lets just deal with that for now, and if, in the future you wish to go into further discussions about the jaw, etc. please feel free to write back. The tongue should be thought of as a muscle like other muscles. It contracts and relaxes to perform its functions, i.e. swallowing & pronouncing words. If it gets overworked, or improperly worked, it gets tired, just like our hands do from poor piano (or typing!!) technique. When our hands get tired, we stop and shake them out, and stretch them. To loosen the tongue, stick it way out (stretch) and wiggle it from side toside. You can make up variations of that like singing part of a song while wiggling the tongue (stuck out past the teeth), then singing the song with sloppy diction while wiggling the tongue. (You may find at first, especially in those with particularly tight tongue and jaw muscles that they may not be able to move the tongue independently of the jaw at first. Try then moving both the tongue and the jaw side to side, then, just the jaw, then just the tongue). Another excellent relaxer for the tongue is to take a tissue (or paper towel), fold it a couple of times long way, and wrap around the tip of the tongue. Then proceed to sing (either all vowels or sloppy diction). Only do this for about 1 minute or so. The tongue will get quite tired at first. Or,just wiggle the tongue back and forth while breathing out a few times. Then and the singing. One more and then I'll leave you to try these and let me know if this is all along the lines of what your teacher is looking for: Sing a song with the TIP of the tongue flickering quickly back and forth on the middle of the upper lip. The best way to describe it is to pretend you're playing a mandolin, and your tongue is the plectrum. In order to keep the sound going on the mandolin you have to repeat the plucking rapidly. You keep the sound (and air) going as long as the tongue is moving. When the tongue stops the sound (air) stops and vice versa. (I hope that description was clear enough!) Well, I hope this is a help for you. I think it's a good starting point. I will be very curious to know how both you and your singing teacher respond to these exercises. There's so much more to talk about, but first things first! I also teach these techniques in private or workshop setting. So if your teacher is interested in the possibility of something along those lines, we can discuss it. Then we could incorporate the rest of the techniques for jaw, neck, diaphragm, self massage of specific head & neck muscles, etc. --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: OhSuzan419(a)aol.com Susan Hoffman The Woodlands, TX Peter: This is the difficulty that plagues me in my own singing, so what ever you get, I would most appreciate your sharing it with me, privately or posted to the list. My own favorite exercise is to "purr like a cat," but on pitch, sliding up and down the scale, with the "ah" space in the jaw. It brings the air forward to the teeth, and it helps me get the words onto the tip of the tongue instead of hung up in the back of the oral pharynx. The trick is then to transfer these sensations into the text and song at hand. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Howard Austin The tongue pulling back and up, blocking the space and interfering with resonance and diction and generally inhibiting optimum singing results is not uncommon. An effective approach: Extend the tongue reaching for the chin or hold it in that position with your fingers (with moist napkin) but DON'T pull. On 1-2-3-2-1 of the scale, Sing 'aah' 'aah' .. Easy, comfortable range to start, like C-D-E-D-C - - - - Then sing the same 'aah' 'aah' w/tongue resting flat, in the mouth, tip touching the back of the lower teeth. Then sing "on and on" WITH THE TONGUE IN THAT SAME POSITION. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Kathleen Treole I have been reading a bit on tongue tension on the list lately, and thought I'd share. The reason so many speakers & singers have difficulty with tongue tension is because of the protective mechanism of the larynx. The first and primary function of the larynx is to act as the protector of the airway. The tongue and epiglottis move posteriorly to protect the glottis (i.e. opening to the airway, the trachea). The ventricular folds (false folds) medialize over the true vocal folds to protect the airway, as well. Therefore, I believe tongue tension is simply the body's protecive mechanism in action. I think it is difficult to break the habit because you are re-training your laryngeal reactions. That's what I have theorized and thought it might be interesting to you folks; back to the dissertation! --------------------------------------------------------------------- From: midivox(a)ix.netcom.com (Timothy Kelly) Sub: Re: tongue tension, taco tongue. Tongue tension is the ultimate voice killer muscle wise. First thereÆs the hidden tension that can occur and build up by simply keeping the teeth together for most of the day, which cramps up the tongue behind the closed teeth all day. Next is the way many speakers and singers are always pulling the tongue up and back towards the roof of the mouth, blocking the throat, and trapping the sound inside the throat. Any good vocal teacher teaches that the tip of the tongue is forward and the back of the tongue is down, out of the sounds way. Sticking the tongue out and wriggling it around is a good way to shake some of the tension out of it. Resting the tip on top of your front teeth or even on top of your lower lips while reading or watching tv, lets the tongue and other vocal muscles unwind by just hanging. Stand in front of a mirror with a small flashlight. Can you curl, curve your tongue like a taco? If you have a nice taco tongue all the way back down your tongue, so you can see your throat clearly, the sound can bounce around freely in all your bodys resonant chambers and then slide out your tonge without being trapped in your throat. If the back of your tongue is high and tight, you lose a lot of overtones, range, and carrying power. One way to just to take 90 days and train it down. Use a fingertip to hold the tongue down, or a rectangular piece of candy, a tongue depresser, a q tip, dont use a lot of force to hold it down, just a light touch to guide it down. Use something the tongue can naturally wrap around. And something that physically gives you feedback as too how tight your tongue really is. If you have a lot of tongue and throat tension, it will feel like your tongue is bucking like a wild horse or an earthquake. But a minute here and there, and the tongue will stay out of the sounds way over time. Going from a no taco tongue to a taco tongue will increase your range and carrying power a lot. You'll get an extra octave of useable musical tones at least, plus get a lot more sound with less effort.
on November 9, 2007 10:00pm
This is my biggest problem! Tongue Tension. In the past year, I have worked very hard on getting volume. But, I have been getting little knots on the left side of my tongue muscles under my chin. I know it's at least partly caused by inadequate breath support. But I also feel like my tongue muscles get really stiff when it's that time of the month for me. I don't know what to do to offset that. But these posts are really good! |
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I always used to push down the larynx with the base of my tongue never realising that the two can work independently of each other.
Your tongue should stay in a relaxed position, not high, but not low either. If you use sufficiently constat breath, your larynx will lower, and your tonque will stay relaxed. This is very difficult to maintain at first on all vowels and consonants but with practice, it will get easier, and is very satisfying.