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From:  Melanie <mkkuolt@s...>
Date:  Sat May 27, 2000  4:33 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Re: Tongue Tension


At 14:41 5/27/2000 -0000, you wrote:
>--- In vocalist-temporary@egroups.com, "Rachel Hughes" <>
>wrote:
>when I sing (and often when I speak) there's a lot
>> of tension in my tongue. Specifically, when I watch myself in the
>mirror
>> singing "ah", I notice a "caving" in at the center of the tongue.
>When I'm
>> able to loosen it, the improvement in tone is stunning, but I can't
>seem to
>> do this consistently.
>>
>> Does anyone have any advice on what might help
>
>Rachel -
>
>I really used to have a problem with this, too!! My teacher
>suggested a couple of things: one is to do some exercises before you
>start warming up by sticking your tongue out and down as far as it
>will go several times. This really seems to relax the muscles in the
>back of the tongue and stretch them out - as well as making you aware
>of holding tension there. The other thing that I do is make sure
>that my tongue is resting lightly against the back of my lower front
>teeth - try doing exercises that take you from ee to oh, making sure
>that you keep your tongue in the same place. She has me do quick
>triplets up the octave (i.e. 123,234,345,etc. or do,re,mi; re,mi,fa;
>mi,fa,so, etc.) Hope that makes sense! Try to move from ee to ah on
>single tones as well, keeping the tongue in the same place.
>
>Hope this is helpful!!
>
>Sarah


I say, "why stop at the back of the front teeth?" I think that the tongue
going back into the mouth is a huge issue with a lot of singers. The
tongue is really a huge muscle, and I don't know about you all, but
sometimes I wish I could just take a knife and cut mine off a bit!

Anyway, one thing that I often do (with myself and with my students) is to
sing with the tongue sticking out of the mouth-- not with tension, but just
let the flop out where is wants to go. When it's time to sing pieces,
sometimes we sing phrases with our tongue sticking out, and when we don't
do that, we'll just let it lay slightly over the bottom teeth. I was just
messing around with some vocalizing, and for me it feels that if I let my
tongue sit gently *behind* my bottom teeth, that my tongue is too far back.
It think by doing exercises with the tongue sticking out, one begins to
realize just how monsterous the tongue is! After they come to terms with
the size of this muscle, they can better understand it's function (or in
most cases, it's LACK of function!--if you will)

Anyway, hope that helps!

Melanie


Melanie Kuolt--mezzo-soprano
University of Wisconsin at Madison
School of Music
Department of Women's Studies
mkkuolt@s...


  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
1928 Re: Tongue Tension Sarah Daughtrey-Huff   Sat  5/27/2000   2 KB

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