THE VOICE CONNECTION
SOUND OFF

Welcome to The Voice Connection Sound Off; a forum for users of books like Raise Your Voice, Melody to Madness, The Ultimate Breathing Workout, and Unleash Your Creative Mindset, as well as a place for Vendera Vocal Academy members to interact.

This message board was created so that singers could come together and "sound off" to help support each other during vocal development and the creative process of unleashing the creative spark that occurs when writing and producing music. Currently, myself and vocal coaches Ben Valen, Ray West, and Ryan Wall are here to respond periodicially to your questions, with new vocal coaches coming soon. But, feel free to help each other too:)

This board is here for you to ask questions about my and my fellow coach's books, videos, and MP3 programs, as well as offer others help with our vocal techniques. You may also post videos of yourself and your band to share your music and ask for critiques.

Please refrain from negative comments, profanities, spamming, and inappropriate criticisms of vocal methodologies, vocal coaches, and singers. All negative posts will be deleted and subject to banning without question. I will not respond to negative posts, because, as Mark Twain once said, “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” With that said, positive criticism is welcome because that is how you'll grow as a singer during the training process.


The Voice Connection - Sound Off
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Tongue Tension

Today I was vocalizing after doing the falsetto slides, and I noticed a problem I've always had, with tension under the tongue and at the top of the throat.

So I tried pulling my tongue out like I do during the warm up, and WOW. When I started to sing, my tongue literally yanked itself out of my grip (which really HURT because I was using a dry handcerkief to hold it!). Took me a while to get to where I could sing while holding my tongue and not have it painfully yank back, BUT I noticed that my voice opened up much more when I was able to do that.

So I'm going to start working on that. Other than holding the tongue out, are there any exercises I can do to relax it?

Re: Tongue Tension

Try vocalizing using "Gn", "Y" or "Th" in front of an open vowel. These sounds naturally relax the back of the tongue and let its tip rest properly slightly on top of your lower front teeth.

Than, if you vocalize on a simple vowel (Ex: "a") only, slightly motion the back of your tongue as if you were saying those sounds without actually doing so; just pretend you were. Again, it will help relax your tongue and get you that nice "U" shape.

Re: Tongue Tension

There are a couple new tongue tension exercises in RYV II that will solve the problem.

JV