Singers who experience jaw tension – that’s probably most of us – not only have the physical pain association with jaw tension, but also the tension that is added to your voice that doesn’t sound all that cool. But what’s a singer to do?

If you read my two previous blogs, you would have read about a meditative breathing exercise that I begins all of my students’ lessons. An exercise to explore how to inhale in a way that opens and relaxes the body. You would also have read about a technique of saying to yourself as you drop off to sleep at night, ‘breathing in I release my jaw, breathing out I release my jaw.’ Both are life-changing exercises.

Here’s another practice for you to slay the dragon of nasty jaw tension.

Begin with just inhale – opening the airways and ALLOWING the breath to come into your body
As you switch from inhale to exhale pay very close attention to the jaw and drop it down a bit MORE as you exhale
Get comfortable with this dummy jaw approach
Now you are ready to add sound
Use the same inhale – opening the airways and ALLOWING the breath to come into your body
As you switch from inhale to exhale add ‘Yooooo’ on the exhale CONTINUING to release the jaw as you say ‘Yo’
Get comfortable with this dummy jaw approach while saying ‘Yo’
Now you are ready to add musical pitch
Use the same inhale – opening the airways and ALLOWING the breath to come into your body
As you switch from inhale to exhale, play a pitch and match that pitch as you ‘Yooooo’ on the exhale CONTINUING to release the jaw as you sing ‘Yo’

Take the time to do this exercise with total focus on releasing the tension in your jaw. You will notice after a bit of time that your jaw is happier, your singing freer and your audience will cheer!!!

About the author

Sally Morgan is a professional vocal trainer with over 30 years of experience. Sally is also the creator and author of SingLikeYouSpeak(TM)!

• Blog

View Sally's Profile      Subscribe via RSS