Part 1 of this column, which appeared in the May Issue, exposed the factors that give rise to tongue tension and the ways it can interfere with singing. Part 2 offers the means to diagnose the specific articulation and compensation issues tongue tension may be causing you and provides techniques to resolve them.
Retraining the Tongue
Singers so commonly present with a shortened, overactive hyoglossus that I often refer to it as the tight hamstring complex of the voice. Just as most people develop tightness in their legs that makes it increasingly difficult to touch their toes, most singers fall prey to habitual speech patterns that create a problematic tightness in the tongue. Fortunately, it is relatively simple to alleviate tension and improve coordination in the hyoglossus.
My February 2015 column for this magazine detailed strategies for retraining the muscles governing upper-body alignment and breathing in order to facilitate good breath management. Like all the muscles of movement and stabilization, the muscles of the tongue are composed of skeletal muscle fibers and will therefore respond to the same strategies that exercise scientists have been applying for decades to relieve tight muscles throughout the body:
1. Release the hyoglossus and its synergists.
2. Stretch and lengthen these muscles.
3. Train movements to create articulation, resonance, and laryngeal stability while inhibiting activation of the hyoglossus.
4. Integrate these movements into your technique.
Release the Hyoglossus
Stretches are made far more effective by first applying a technique to make tight muscles more pliable and warm up the surrounding fascia. Larger muscles can be released through self-myofascial release with a foam roller—but the small, sensitive muscles governing articulation, like the hyoglossus, require gentle, targeted massage.
With your thumbs, gently massage the soft underside of your chin between the jawbone and the larynx. Familiarize yourself with the way this area feels when completely relaxed, as stiffness in this area during singing indicates excessive tongue tension. A hand-held massager is also an effective tool for releasing muscular tension in this area.
Stretch and Lengthen the Hyoglossus
Many muscles in the body can be described as paired agonists/antagonists—when you move a joint in one direction, you contract, or shorten, one muscle group while stretching, or lengthening, another. For example, when you bend your knee, you contract the hamstrings and stretch the quadriceps. If you want to stretch the hyoglossus, you must contract its antagonist. This is the genioglossus (see fig. 1), the muscle that protrudes, or sticks out, the tongue.
You can stretch the hyoglossus by contracting your genioglossus to stick out your tongue. For a more challenging stretch, place a pencil underneath your tongue and hold it in place by pressing the tip of your tongue against the back of your lower front teeth. If that is too intense, use another cylindrical item with a smaller circumference, such as a crochet hook. For a static stretch to be effective, remember to hold it for at least 30 seconds in order for the tight muscle fibers to have the opportunity to properly relax.
I have also encountered tongue exercises involving grasping the tongue with the fingers and pulling it forward in order to stretch the hyoglossus. As it may not be possible to inhibit salivation while simultaneously relaxing the hyoglossus, you may want to use a paper towel to help grasp your tongue! This is the oral equivalent of using a yoga strap to lengthen the hamstrings.
Train New Movements while Inhibiting the Hyoglossus
Before you undertake a practice regimen to retrain tongue movement, it’s important to identify the reasons you were retracting your tongue in the first place. In Part 1 of this article, I described three main categories of motivation for retracting the tongue: vowel articulation, resonance enhancement, and laryngeal stabilization. Alleviating tongue tension requires that you cultivate the means to achieve all of these things without involving the hyoglossus.
While training these new movements, you must monitor the hyoglossus for tension. You can do this either by gently placing your thumb under your chin or observing your tongue in a mirror. When the hyoglossus is relaxed, your tongue will take on whatever degree of arch is necessary for the vowel you are articulating; when it retracts, you will see a concave space towards the back of your tongue and possibly a deep groove reaching all the way to the tip.
Vowel Rehabilitation
As I mentioned earlier, there are many different resonating shapes that will result in a given vowel. Your job is to identify the ones that will promote vocal freedom rather than create entanglement. This may require some patient exploration, but rest assured that there is a way to articulate all your vowels without retracting your tongue.
• Vocalize on [a], [ɛ], [i] or the tongue vowel of your choice while holding a pencil under your tongue.
• Practice onsets on various vowels while gently pressing a thumb under your chin. Experiment with different internal resonating shapes for each vowel until you find shapes that do not recruit the hyoglossus.
Rethinking Resonance
If you have been expanding and lengthening your supraglottal tract by displacing your larynx down with tongue tension, you will need to relinquish that space and seek to expand your resonance elsewhere. You will most likely find the space you need in the oropharynx and nasopharynx. Elicit a yawn and note the expansive sensation you feel in your mouth and throat (on yawning, you may also feel your tongue depress and retract, but keep your focus on the sensations in the higher pharyngeal regions). You’ll likely notice that there is room for expansion that you have not been in the habit of accessing.
For the larynx to rest in a low position, it is neither necessary nor desirable to tense the base of the tongue. Rather, you must create conditions that will allow the larynx to achieve a low position without force. There are a variety of reasons that your larynx may be elevating when you sing if you do not hold it in place with the surrounding musculature, and there is not room in this column to cover them all. However, if you can inhibit tongue retraction, you will be able to observe the movements of your larynx more clearly and can then begin to troubleshoot the possible culprits.
Taking Off the Training Wheels
When you removed the training wheels from your bicycle, you were a little wobbly in the seat until you learned to keep your balance and became accustomed to the stability that momentum provides. When you stop using muscular tension to hold your larynx in place, your voice may feel a little wobbly as well. By releasing your tongue, you will almost certainly unveil other areas of technical deficiency previously masked by the tension you have dismissed.
This is a good thing. If you have been feeding breath to individual notes rather than releasing it consistently, you will notice it. If you’ve been emphasizing high and sustained notes rather than energizing your voice consistently, you’ll notice that too. And if your communicative intent has been less than perfectly continuous, that will also be revealed. If you have a strong concept of vocal technique, awareness is often curative where such things are concerned. Strip away the compensations to reveal the problems and you may swiftly realize what it is that you must do to solve them.
While retracting and depressing the tongue with the hyoglossus may seem to be an efficient way to define certain vowels, deepen resonance, and control the larynx, it merely provides compensation for a lack of optimal articulation, resonance, and stability. Investigate whether, why, and to what extent you retract your tongue when you sing and use the information you gather to work on releasing and stretching this muscle in order to eliminate undue tension.
The good news is that to whatever extent you alleviate tension in the hyoglossus, you will enjoy an immediate payoff in articulatory freedom, enhanced resonance, and ease of vocal production.
The bad news is that whenever you relinquish a compensatory behavior, there will be a period of adjustment while you no longer indulge in your old strategies but have not quite become accustomed to the new. Letting go of tongue tension means that, for the short term, you can expect to experience imprecise vowel definition, shallower resonance, and/or laryngeal instability.
Take heart in knowing that learning proper, free articulation, resonance, and stability will be well worth the time it takes. Like me, you may discover that you had been only imitating a beautiful, powerful, and incisive voice. With concerted effort, you may uncover an authentic voice that is more expansive and wonderful than you can imagine.
