Help on Technique!

dan2324

Hello! I have a bad habit where I use my swallowing muscle under my chin to sing higher notes. One of the reasons I believe I keep using the muscle is because before I got serious about singing, I would use my muscle to imitate vibrato. So basically, I would bring my larynx down and up repeatedly using the muscle. I later found out, if I hum very lightly, then the muscle won't come down. My questions are:

1. If I keep doing this will it help me neutralize the muscle?

2. If yes. How long should I do this for? If no, what should I do?

3. Should the muscle move at all or a little?

Thank you!

bentk

Hi @dan2324 !

Do you currently own the How To Sing Better Than Anyone Else course?
Ken does mention this muscle under the chin, and you do NOT rely on that muscle to sing. You want minimum tension in the face and throat.

The humming might feel similar to what we call the tongue exercise. So that is probably more the way you want to go technique-wise. The tongue exercise is a warm-up exercise in the course. The most important exercises lay in several vowel sounds, stretching your chest voice and bridging from chest to head.

If you do not own the course, check out some of Ken's free videos on his youtube channel, there is a lot of information to find about the bright LAH sounds and much more. However, if you really want to whole package, you need the course. The course will also give you access to the whole forum, which contains even more video content.

I hope i answered some of your questions.

All the best,

Ben

highmtn

The digastric muscle is of no help to singing. When it tenses, it just makes it harder to relax to sing. You should massage the digastric muscle to try to help it to relax. Learning to relax the throat is part of learning to sing well.

The larynx will raise and lower somewhat when you sing. That's separate from the digastric muscle under the chin. It's normal for the larynx to move. You just don't want it going to extremes, and neutral position is best.

It's common for people to feel tension in the digastric muscle, but you just have to learn to relax it and stop trying to use neck tension to help you sing high notes.

dan2324

Thank you for both of your responses. I went to an ENT not too long ago and I was told that I have Post-nasal drip so, I have an excess of mucus production. Does this prevent me from hitting high notes easily? What kind of warm-ups should I do? How should high notes feel like (Should I feel my vocal folds differently from low notes?)

Thank you

highmtn

Post-nasal is something that will keep your cords irritated from trying to clear it off all the time. Having the mucus on your cords will make it harder to sing, especially high notes. You can watch Ken's YouTube video on mucus to learn how to deal with that. High notes are just part of a regular regimen of learning to increase range through proper techniques and exercises.
High notes will feel like you are stretching your vocal cords more tightly, and low notes will feel like you are loosening your cords, because that's what you do to get high notes and low notes at the most basic level.

dan2324

Thank you so much!!! This helped tremendously!