Tag Archives: tongue

Tongue out and hum exercise

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My last post was about the tongue and how it can get in the way when you are singing.

When you let your tongue hang out over your bottom lip, it cannot interfere with the back of your throat and stop you from mixing. This is a great way to exercise your voice, although you can look pretty silly doing it!

Try this: Choose a song where the highest pitches are above your passagio….(for women that is A, B flat, B or higher, and men that is E, F, F# or higher).

Let your tongue hang out and hum your song.  If you feel strain in your throat while humming the highest pitches, then lighten up. Try again with less volume.

If you feel the need to “flip” or “let go” in order to achieve the highest notes without strain, no worries! You are now in your head register but having trouble keeping the cords connected as you ascend in pitch.

With careful attention to the engagement of your body (from the top of your stomach and down…including your back and buttocks), and also attention to how loud you are humming your song, you should be able to hum your high pitches without disconnecting the cords (falcetto).

Once you have found this balance where you can hum your high pitches while keeping your vocal cords connected, it is time to allow some of the sound to come out of your mouth. Do not move on to the next exercise unless you can indeed hum your entire song with your tongue out….even if it appears to have no power or substance. If you do this exercise regularly with your songs, your cords will get stronger and allow you to hum with more pressure (volume).

There is more to tell about this delicate yet fascinating exercise. Stay tuned!

 

The interesting voice of Alanis Morissette

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Yes, there are loads of professional famous singers who sing with a high larynx. It’s their signature sound. It’s their uniqueness.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely not. It’s very limiting, tiring, and IMHO, usually not a marketable sound.

The key is the ability to sing with a larynx high (if one choses for artistic reasons, and to sing with the larynx stable and neutral if one choses). This is the case of Alanis Morrissette. I happen to think she is wildly creative and a very unique and interesting artist.

There are many important qualities that help the position of a high larynx create a manageable and non-straining sound. Optimum breath control and agility, strength and flexibility of the vocal cords are paramount.  The ability to produce oral twang and maintain strong oral resonance allows the singer to produce frequencies that appear loud and piercing to the listener.  Also, a singer needs control and ease of the jaw and tongue. This allows optimum freedom to form their speech-like voice with interesting and unique enunciation of vowels and consonants.

 

Get that sound out of the back of your throat

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I know how it feels. I know you want to control it. I know it’s uncomfortable.

But, if you want to take your singing to the next level, you need to be willing to let it go.

That’s right, let go. Stop relying on the inside of your throat, tongue and jaw area to help you control your sound, and let the sound go. I know it’s breathy. That’s OK. Experience it. Let’ go of it and start in the correct places to get control of it.

Control start deep down….way down. When you breath in, visualize your entire belly and groin area expanding to allow your breath to go low and deep. Allow your abdomen to rhythmically expand and relax with the timing of your breathing.

Be sure to allow your body to maintain that bouyancy sensation of your ribs and abdomen slightly expanding as you breath in, and slightly returning as you exhale. But, don’t let this spongy, bouyancy feeling of breathing in your body leave you. You can control it. You can go about your daily chores and activities with this sensation all day long. It may be uncomfortable. It may feel like you are expanding your rib cage and your back, and your upper belly in an unusual way. Learn to welcome it, learn to engage it, learn to live with it. You are re-learning how to breath like you did when you were born….diaphragmatic breathing.

Next, is learning how to take in a quick, small sip of air that will accompany your breath support when you go to sing. Notice I said small. At this point, that’s all you really need to sing your phrases. However, if you need a little more, your body will tell you. Typically it’s not the amount of air you take in that matters right now, it’s how you are taking it in, and how well your body is controlling it. It’s the quick, rhythmic intake that sets you up for that first onset of making great sound happen.

Spend some time getting to know your breath. Your singing will thank you for it. It may not feel exactly like mentioned above, but if you allow yourself to get in touch with your own breath, amazing things can happen!

Tongue out exercises

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Love ’em, love ’em, love ’em! And you should do ’em, do ’em, do ’em!

This is no easy task but it’s a sure fire way to find out if the back of your tongue is getting in the way of mixing from chest to head voice.

So, let your tongue hang out…not forced out like you would stick out your tongue at someone, but loose and lazy with a big mouth. You will notice that your jaw will drop and your larynx will automatically stay reasonably low and stable. Ideally you want your face to resemble the start of a nasty scream or a happy yell. Your cheeks and nasal area should raise, and your upper lip will spread  wide.

Now it’s time for making noises. Don’t try to sing. Making sounds with “g” like “gug” and “goo” in your middle to high register will challenge you to work your tongue high in the back of the throat. The tongue needs to touch your soft palate to make the ‘g’ sound, and yet in order to make these sounds in a mixed voice, your soft palate has to be high enough to allow the sound to resonate into the nasal area.

You should notice yourself making interesting facial expressions as you try to figure out how to get cord closure (so your sound isn’t breathy) into you high voice.

This is twanging in a mixed voice. Twanging is a term used in Estill Voice Technique, and Robert Lunte’s Four Pillars TVS program. For those of you working on Brett Manning’s Singing Success and Mastering Mix programs these are pharyngeal sounds. And by the way, all four of these are great invaluable programs with loads of insight into great singing.

Try it and let me know what you think. Can you do it? How high can you get without your cords allowing too much air to get through?

Oh, and the best place to do these exercises is in your car on your way to and from work:) The other drivers will love it!

Vowels

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A great deal of singing better is dependent on your ability to form vowels which involves the entire throat, the soft palate, the tongue, and the mouth all the way out to the lips.

Your efforts in perfecting your vowel formation can make dramatic advances towards your goal to become a better singer.

There are tons of tiny muscles pulling and pushing simultaneously as you form your words. Your strict attention to detail in this area will engage these muscles, eventually allowing you to raise the soft palate higher, move the tongue with ease, keep the throat open, etc.

The oo vowel (as in “boot”)  is especially helpful to allow the up and down changes in resonance. In other words, it helps you access your head voice. Work with oo everyday, and continually try to elongate and narrow the vowel even more. Relax your jaw and lift your soft palate as much as you can…..think of the beginning of a yawn and raise your eyebrows, and you will be well on your way. Again, exaggerate these movements to engage muscles that you don’t regularly use.

Another important vowel is ee (as in “beet”). Careful that you don’t squeeze this and make it thin and reedy. Instead, start with oo and keep that elongated open feeling in the back of your throat. Now, simply change the vowel to ee without changing the position of your jaw. Let the back of your mouth, tongue and soft palate do the work. Think of the ee as a horizontal line at the back of your throat. Be careful not to close the throat. This can be very challenging for some singers, but it’s very important work.

Any questions? Please let me know.

Laryngeal rise versus laryngeal tilt………

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There’s a big difference between the larynx rising and the larynx tilting.

Too much raising of the larynx will only cause you grief. You are basically choking yourself into a squeezed sound with nowhere to resonate.

Tilting the larynx, on the other hand, will allow you to sing in your high register because the cords are being stretched and thinned. Good tilting will actually give the listener the illusion of thicker cords (chest voice).

One of the best exercises for laryngeal tilt is the ‘ng’ sound. Say the word ‘sing’. See how the tongue touches the roof of your mouth. Leave it there. The ‘ng’ will block off sound leaving the mouth. With two fingers, plug your nose to see if you are doing it correctly…. the sound should stop completely.

Now practise this through the break in your voice. Ladies from middle C to high C……..men from A below middle C to A above middle C.

If you can make this sound smooth and consistently through your entire range then the larynx is tilting well!

***Note, the upper range will feel and sound like a whine or whimper. This is necessary to keep the cords closed while ascending.

Singing is an entire body experience

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Have you ever noticed the body language of your favourite singer? Odds are their body is engaged in a way that relays emotion to the song. Watch their face. Notice how the eyebrows may rise or the nostrils may flare. Watch the mouth and tongue, and pay special attention to the chin.

These details are not simply “acts” to add to the performance. These details are necessary to great singing.

Have you ever noticed that when you sing alone, and really get into it, your voice and body feel free? Have you noticed when you get in front of your teacher or an audience, your voice and body have trouble finding that freedom?

Don’t underestimate the role your body energy plays in your singing.  Sometimes we take this for granted and never consider it. We can actually engage energy outside the larynx and in turn, create freedom in the voice.