Small Mouth Creating Problems

dThomas

Hello, I was curious about how to have an open mouth shape (with open throat of course) without cuasing extrinsic muscles to kick in. I'm aware that emborchure changes with vowel and style choice, but in terms of scales and practice (I'm practicing strengthening and expanding upper tenor/call register chest voice) I should have quite an open mouth. However, my mouth is quite small, and if I open my mouth wide enough to get good clear sounds with open throat, extrinsic swalowing muscles under the chin and around the throat along with a slight larynx raise occurs, and i have to REALLY support and relocate the tension to my support muscles to mitigate the involvement of extrinsic muscles and keep the larynx from raising too high. Does anyone have any tips on how to mitigate the influence of extrinsic muscles when opening your mouth for those with small mouths? I don't know if this is natural, that supporting like crazy is correct and needed in order to mitigate the extrinsic involvement. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Wigs

I feel like I have to use ALOT of support when at the top of my chest range, the whole idea of support is to take away tension from the throat. Otherwise you are using support incorrectly and allowing your throat to do the heavy lifting. If you can make a good sound with a relaxed throat and heaps of support, I suspect you are doing the right thing. With training and time, using that amount of support will feel less strenuous.