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.

Vocal Fatigue

In a recent lesson with a student the subject of Vocal Fatigue came up.  After singing a lot of consecutive days, our student, was concerned something was really wrong with her voice.  She said her singing felt low, heavy, and less easy.  After working with her we realized there was nothing more wrong with her voice the simple vocal fatigue.  She was vocally tired and probably physically tired as well from too much singing.  The advice we gave her was to rest her voice a couple days by staying quiet.  We told her not to sing or talk and definitely not to whisper!  She told us that she absolutely needed to use her voice just one more time before she could take that necessary and important vocal rest.  In order to help her, we worked her breath support by giving her warm-ups to help her re-engage her support muscles and get back to singing ON her breath not WITH her breath.  We also helped her alleviate that heavy, low feeling, by making sure she was feeling her resonance high and forward in her face not in her throat or chest.