A little more about the Tongue

In one of our recent blog posts we spoke about maintaining a tongue position that is as relaxed as possible. Remember pretending to falling asleep in the chair or putting your tongue into the (EE) position? By maintaining that (EE) position of the tongue with all of your vowels, you are creating the most space it is possible for you to have in the back of your throat. The more space you have in the back of your throat the better the sound will be that comes out of your mouth. Another great outcome of keeping that tongue relaxed and the throat open is that you will definitely produce a louder and bigger sound! It is also imperative to remember to take in as much air as possible and then manage it properly so that you can stay relaxed in your throat and tongue. The throat will not stay open nor will the tongue stay relaxed if you do not have the right breath support. Tension is the enemy of great and healthy singing! In learning to have correct breath support, a relaxed tongue, and open throat you are starting to give yourself a real shot at a singing career. If you wanted to become a dancer, would you expect to do that without taking lessons? You have to learn how to sing also! No singer is free of tension and vocal problems if they never learn a vocal technique. We want you to help you build a technique with your voice so that you can have a long and healthy singing career. Contact us today so that we can get you started on a successful singing career!

Tongue tension Issues?

I want to talk to you today about something we all need to tackle as singers and that is tongue tension. When we lack adequate breath support we tend to use other body parts to support our voices and one of the the most commonly used is our tongue. In order to have that beautiful sound we are all striving for with our voices, we need to maintain a very relaxed tongue position. So, how do we get there? Let’s imagine that you fell asleep in a chair with your head falling back. In what position do you find your tongue? Chances are the tip of your tongue is resting at the front of your bottom teeth and is slightly up in the back. This is the most relaxed position your tongue can ever be in. Another way to identify the correct tongue position is by singing in an (EE) vowel. The (EE) position of the tongue is the same relaxed position as the falling asleep in a chair position. It is also important for you to know that the base of your tongue is attached to your larynx. It is because of this laryngeal attachment that we must have our tongues as relaxed as possible which will also help you have the correct laryngeal position. Practice keeping your tongue in this (EE) position while singing and start to visualize that relaxed tongue position on all of your vowels. We do not want you to distort your vowels but if you can sing through that (EE) tongue position on all your vowels, you will achieve a much better overall sound in your voice. To fully tackle your tongue tension you also have to tackle the lack of adequate breath support. Everything with singing builds on each other and all of this requires guidance from a well trained voice teacher. Contact us to help you to find a more relaxed and beautiful sound.

Tongue Tension

We wanted to help you to relieve another common tension issue that plagues many singers and that is tension in the lips.  Lip tension happens for a variety of reasons but the most common cause of lip tension is inadequate breath support.  When breath support is lacking a singer will actually use their lips to support their voice.  A fantastic exercise for relieving lip tension is to literally hold you upper lip with the index finger and thumb of one hand and your lower lip with index finger and thumb of the other while you are singing.  We believe you are going to feel an immediate improvement in your singing and breath support because you are taking away the tension in your lips. The next step in this process is to starting singing while holding your lips, then let go of them while still singing and keep that same relaxed feeling going in your lips.  Building breath support and relieving tension is paramount to healthy singing.