Tongue Tied (part 1)
I’m sure we have all been told this at some point in our singing careers: “I think it’s tongue tension”. What does that even mean? How is that information useful? Why do we spend so much time addressing this issue? In many ways, I believe many of us have incorrectly mapped the tongue inside of our body – and most likely have been given incomplete information regarding how to release the tongue while singing.
What is the tongue?
The TONGUE is more than you may know. Many of us think of the tongue as what we see when we open our mouths – a fleshy plane with some tastebuds on top. Yet, the tongue is three-dimensional and it is MASSIVE. The tongue is like an iceberg: we see one thing but underneath the surface there is much more. The tongue, when resting, essentially ascends higher than our top lip and descends lower - down to our hyoid bone (right above the larynx). If you place your thumb on your jaw, then move back a bit into the fleshy area, you can push up and feel the bottom of your tongue. Crazy!
As singers, it may be useful to think of the tongue in 4 parts (though, of course, there is more to the tongue than this). Click on this link for a visual: https://classconnection.s3.amazonaws.com/128/flashcards/146128/png/untitled.png (Note: I do not own this image, if you are the content owner and would like it taken down please ask)
1) TIP / BLADE - the tip of the tongue is used to articulate consonants like [t] [d] [l] and the trilled [r]. The BLADE of the tongue is the area directly behind the tip of the tongue (which would sit below the alveolar ride while the tongue is at rest).
2) FRONT - The front of the tongue. We use this to form sounds like [i] and [e]. Thus, these vowels are called “front” vowels.
3) BACK - The back part of the visible tongue. We use this to form the back vowels like [u] and [o] (though these are somewhat centralized) and the velar consonants [k] and [g].
4) ROOT/BASE – The base of the tongue. This bunches up when we say things like the American r, and [l].
What do we do with this info?
One of the most common signs of tongue tension is the inability of a student to roll their [r]s. Many teachers use the infamous “Pot-o-tea” (roughly: [padati]) exercise to help students release the tongue. Let's analyze the individual elements of this saying:
We involve: The lips on [p] (which has nothing to do with the tongue), a low central vowel [a], tip of the tongue [d], a low central vowel [a], the tip of the tongue [t] and a front vowel. [i]. This exercise is weighted heavily towards addressing tension towards the tip/blade of the tongue. What do we do, then, if the tip/blade of the tongue is not the issue?
Information from earlier in the post should help one understand which consonants and vowels to use to target specific parts of the tongue. For example, [kikikikiki] engages the near-front and back of the tongue.
The Full-Tongue Work-Out:
Say we want to engage as many parts of the tongue as possible - maximizing motion in an attempt to minimize possible tension. We should look to englage front and back consonants (contrasting [t,d,l] with [k,g]), and ideally we should vary the general tongue height (think [a] vs [i] vs [u]).
You can (and should!) come up with you own ideas, but here are some sound combos that I find fun:
“Gotta Getta” – provides alternation between the back and front of the tongue and varies vowel height. Feel free to use “Gotta Gitta” with an open [I] for further variation. I often ask my younger students what their favorite animal is and make an exercise for them on "Gotta get a, gotta get a DOG/CAT/ETC". I'm sure your adults will appreciate some "coffee" or a "glass-o-wine".
“Kitty Giddy” – provides back/front consonants as well as variation in voicing/unvoicing. Does not vary vowel height.
“Glug-glug-glug” - The [gl] cluster can be a bit of work, but it certainly pays off.
“Kluck-a-Click-a” - You can think of this as the "upgraded" form of "glug". It provides a bit more variation in the middle of the tongue.
[ptkt] - This exercise is performed completely unvoiced, with the student instructed to release air through these consonants. It charts, back and forth, the front of the mouth [p], the tip/bade [t], the back [k], the tip/blade [t] and then repeats. It is useful as a "first step" when tongue tension is heavily linked to phonation.
WHAT'S NEXT??? While this post tries to be a bit more accessible and physically oriented, there are other factors that contribute to tongue tension that invole how we have mapped the tongue in our mouth, how we think of "making space" while singing, and how we address and change our muscle memory. I'll also talk about some ways to diagnose the retracting tongue as a teacher, and as a singer. Stay tuned for more next week!
