When we talk about tension in relationship to singing, we are really talking about any type of physical habit that negatively impacts the open flow of energy and sound throughout your body. In this three-part series, I have been addressing the most common physical tensions that I see affecting singers: jaw tension, neck tension, and finally today we will be talking about tongue tension.
In my experience, tongue tension results most often when a singer is changing the timber of their sound to make it either sound stronger or better inside their head. It may sound great to them, but out here to the rest of the world it sounds uncomfortable and inauthentic. Most often tongue tension manifests in the tongue muscle contracting and bearing down on the larynx putting an undo amount of pressure on the vocal folds as they attempt to freely vibrate. This can be extremely damaging to the vocal folds over time.
Make a “thumbs up” gesture with your hand. Then gently place your thumb under your jaw in the soft tissue area behind your chin. If you press up with your thumb you’ll feel the base of your tongue. Rest your thumb there and allow the tongue muscle to release and melt down around your thumb. Then, do a simple descending five-note scale on an “ah” from this released place.
If you sing with a lot of tongue tension, you will feel your tongue contracting, hardening, and bearing down where your thumb is. Use your thumb as a reminder that the tongue doesn’t need to do so much work. Let the tongue soften around your finger as you vibrate down the scale, and keep releasing little by little as you continue the exercise. You may feel a little vibrating under your thumb (it’s not always completely still down there), but you should not feel any hardness or bearing down while singing. At first your sound may feel smaller, less resonant, or less powerful to you. That is OK, let it be that way. The way to be more resonant and to find a richer sound is by strengthening your lower support and the energy/stretch of the soft palate instead. Engage those things more and you will see you are able to have a powerful, resonant sound without bearing down with the tongue.
What I always tell my students is that singing should feel good if you are doing it right. If something hurts, feels overworked, or stressed in your mechanism while singing, or if you get easily vocally fatigued, that’s your body telling you that you are not doing something right. Listen to your body, start to become aware of these tensions, work to undo them, and then build back your support and resonance from a much more efficient and healthy place of support.
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