Relaxing - The Base of the Tongue

NOTE: of the tension spots, this is probably the last you should address.

The base of the tongue is the furthest back part of the tongue. This spot has a tendency to hold tension which impedes singing. To find the exact spot and recognize the tension, try this exercise:

First, make a terrible impression of a pigeon or Chewbacca. You usually kinda flap the back of your tongue to do this. This is too high, but helps recognize the feeling of the back of the tongue. Try to make the same sound but farther down. Continue to do this further and further down until you cannot move your tongue back. Usually it kinda sounds like you're pretending to breathe fire like a dragon when you get down far enough. This is the base of the tongue.

Now that you've found it, focus on that spot and sing an easy note. If you feel nothing, you're probably good. If you feel tension or tightness in that spot then we have to relax the base of the tongue.

In order to do this, we work to produce the sound to effortlessly that we are "uncertain if we made the sound out loud." I have my students sing the easiest note possible for them on a schwa. A schwa is a generic sound that you make when you put no effort at all into making a set vowel. Think of it as the vowel infants make sound on. If this sound on its own isn't enough, try singing it on a gentle sigh. Hopefully this will be enough, if not, there may be other tension happening in conjunction with this and I recommend addressing it with your voice teacher or signing up for a singing lesson by clicking here.

Once you have found the feeling of a relaxed base of the tongue, the next step is to sing with it. Can you sing some simple note patterns with it relaxed? Then finally, if you are able move onto singing with set vowels or even words. This step will be difficult as your tongue will be in use again. The goal isn't to avoid using your whole tongue, but to only use the necessary parts of your tongue while singing and keep the base relaxed.