Correct tongue position

kuchy · January 2018

Hello gang,

I see that whenever Ken does his vowel exercises such as "LAH" he is able to keep the back of his tongue stuck to the bottom of his mouth so that you can see his uvula. I am sometimes able to do that too, but most of the time the back of my throat rises. How do I fix that?

Thank you

bentk · February 2018

You can start trying to place your tongue lower, making space, however, eventually you want your tongue to more or less relax. You will find a relaxed state with time, and in that relaxed state it will just lay there, giving you all the space you need for singing. Remember to open your mouth very wide, probably more than you might think, but never over-stretch it. It is not needed to completely force open the mouth, but it does have to be open enough. Ken demonstrates this very well. You need that space!

On some vowels, the tongue might rise, i think it might do that a little on the 'EE' vowel. But you aim for relaxation. Unfortunately, it's just a process of trying. Trying to keep down your tongue at first is fine, but you can find that relaxed state with time by experimenting. Whilst learning to sing, you have to eliminate such obstacles one by one to become better and better. It's all part of the progress.

Hope this helps. Experiment, and give it time. Make sure you are not starting to stress other parts in your throat whilst trying to correct your tongue placement. Remember, you want to relax as much as you can. Especially in areas such as the throat. In KTVA you will eventually achieve a 'relaxation' response between your abdominal support and the sound that comes out of your mouth. There is never ZERO tension, but you can relax a lot, including the tongue. This also highlights why your abdominal support is so important, it takes up a lot of the stress as it is more able to.

All the best,

Ben

kuchy · February 2018

That makes sense!

Thanks Ben!

Furious_Phil · February 2018

Also, as it is a muscle, sometimes it just doesn't know what to do or what shape to adopt.
Most General Practitioner doctors use a tongue depressor to speed things up during a checkup... And in the beginning, you can use that as well to teach your tongue how to conform to the new required shape. Once it knows how to rest correctly, you're golden... and it doesn't usually take very many sessions for it to comply. You'll learn to relax it more as you go.

Cheers,

Phillip

kuchy · February 2018

I got ya! Thanks Phillip!

Correct tongue position

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