Tongue Tied (part 2)
In the last blog entry, we talked a bit about the tongue and how to work on relieving tongue tension from the singing voice. You may be wondering why this information is important, so let’s clear that up.
What does tongue tension sound like? What does it feel like?
Given that the tongue has multiple parts, we must speak in generalizations about what “tongue tension” feels and sounds like. Root Tension: Oftentimes tongue tension can cause a voice to sound muffled and overly dark if the root of the tongue depresses downwards, obscuring the throat and pushing the larynx downwards. Oftentimes this tongue position is adopted when a singer tries to emulate the sound of somebody more mature than them. This type of tongue depression usually accompanies a distended jaw - oftentimes these behaviors cause the voice to seem HUGE inside of one’s head, but distorted to an outside listener.
Body Tension:
When the front part of the tongue becomes rigid, it can cause the entire voice to take on a too-bright quality that often is accompanied by a labored sensation. Do you find the tip of your tongue mashed up against your bottom teeth? Is the front portion of the tongue projecting out past your teeth? If so, you may be experiencing a form of tongue tension.
Why does our tongue do this to us???
1) The Well-Meaning Friend
I firmly believe that our bodies try to help us out as singers. Unfortunately, they often come up with creative “solutions” to problems that are not always the best technical answers. Sometimes the tongue will respond to things like lack of air-flow and attempt to correct for insufficient support. Or it will try to keep the sound inside of us, instead of allowing the sound to resonate in the room or performance space. Whatever the reason, it is best to go about working on your tongue from a place of kindness. The tongue is not your enemy – chastising remarks towards it will inevitably create anxiety and fear within you only leading to more tension.
2) Incorrect Body Mapping – “Making Space”
Sometimes a lack of knowledge can create strange habits. For example, the tongue is almost C shaped. When it rests, the top surface can lie higher in the back of the mouth than the top lip (in an up and forward kind of manner). This curvature needs to remain in tact while singing. If we try to flatten the tongue the mass must go somewhere – if the tongue cannot assume it upwards and frontwards curvature it will go downwards and backwards. This down and back depression both reduces pharyngeal space (gets in the way of the throat) and depresses the larynx.
Many teachers use the expression “make more space” with their students. It can be a very useful directive, but also very damaging if the student is not clear about what they need to do in order to make that space. When looking for oral space we can increase the mouth opening or we can let the jaw release within its socket (i.e.: “let there be space between the back molars”). Depressing the tongue can make it look like there is more room in the mouth, but it is not the answer we are looking for. Similarly, we must remember that the tongue rests in front of the spine – we cannot make space behind the skull! This sort of vocal space often leads to a flattened tongue that travels backwards into the throat.
3) Non-singing factors
I often tell my students that they don’t need to be extroverted, but their voice must be! When we are shy, anxious, uncomfortable, stressed or depressed it can be difficult to express ourselves. Making a freely produced tone is an extremely vulnerable feeling and it can be a challenge to get into a mindset that allows for this to happen. Working on power poses, expansive postures, and nonsense sounds can go a long way in freeing up the body and the brain.
4) Speech habits
In my studio, I enforce the “if you can’t speak it, you can’t sing it” rule. Of course, we do not sing exactly as we speak, but there are certain qualities of speech that translate well (articulator freedom, clarity of intent, legato, simplicity of production). Sometimes there are inefficiencies in our speaking voice that need to be addressed (nasality, throatiness, habitual fry) before truly meaningful progress will be made in the singing voice.
Simplicity is perhaps one of the greatest assets of speech in the voice studio. Singers often make singing harder than it needs to be. Singing is not easy, but it must be simple. If a singer is making all sorts of crazy shapes with their tongue, it is easy to see how tensions can creep in.
Testing for tongue tension:
Sometimes tongue tension can be worked out by raising awareness. Here are a few ideas to help you check for when the tongue is “trying to help out”.
1) The “L” test:
This test is fairly straightforward. ~ Place the tip of your tongue behind your top front teeth. ~ Now, make an [l] sound. Notice how the tongue feels as the consonant is produced. ~ Allow the tongue to relax into the elevated position. See if you can make an [a] sound without moving the tongue away from the top teeth. ~ Once you can make an [a] sound, see if you can go between the two sounds by saying [la] with the tip of the tongue remaining behind the top front teeth. Pay attention to the feeling of the tongue as it tenses and releases. ~ Try singing a simple three note scale (ex: DRMRD, 12321) while maintaining the quality of the [a] vowel. Does the sound or feeling revert to an [l] at any point? ~ Once you understand the feeling, experiment with other vowels and melodic patterns, or sing phrases from your repertoire to see where the tongue begins to grip.
2) Tongue out singing:
This is best done with a mirror handy so you can monitor yourself.
~ Let the tongue rest upwards and forwards over the bottom lip. You don’t need to be a hero, just make sure the tongue is out of the mouth. It’s best if the TMJ does not distend (pop out of its socket).
~ Speak the days of the week from this position. It will sound silly, that’s ok. Is your tongue still out of your mouth?
~ Give a phrase from your repertoire a try, noting when the tongue retracts back into the mouth. Try not to be too hard on yourself. Find spots, isolate them, and move on if you get too frustrated. Do the work, and the work will be good to you – learning new habits takes time.
Conclusions:
As with all things physical, no one answer is for everybody. As a voice teacher I look to combine rapid-motion exercises (as outlined in the previous blog posts) and tension-awareness techniques in addition to exploring the root causes of your tension as a way to release it. The goal is to start you on the path to self-correction and assist in building healthy habits in the long term. The biggest “short-cut” when making physical changes is focused, daily practice. Now get to it!
