Tongue Independence Exercise

The next exercise is going to help create independence of the muscles in the larynx and the muscles of the tongue.

Understanding the Tongue

Many people don't know that what we see of our tongue is actually just the tip of the iceberg of the muscles of the tongue. The tongue extends all the way down the throat and sits right above the larynx. The root of the tongue muscles are one of the biggest culprits in strain of the voice.

Objective

With this exercise, we're going to get the tongue outside of the mouth and out of the way of tone production.

Materials Needed

I would highly recommend getting a dish towel or some paper towel that won't fall apart during this exercise.

Exercise Instructions

1. Pull your tongue out.
2. Grab the tip of your tongue and pull on it to get a nice stretch in the back of the tongue.

It's going to look like this:

This is where we're going to have our first shift in scale. We're going to move to a five-tone scale, making it slightly more difficult and something you'll have to get used to in this new module.

If you don't have a washcloth handy, pause the video now and go get one.

Let's Do It Together

Now that you have your washcloth, let's do it together. It's really as simple as that.

• We're thinking "A" as in "cat."
• I don't want you to think of slamming into it.
• We don't want to have a very strong or tense "A."
• Instead, we want to try to keep it as relaxed as possible while we have our tongue out.

Voice Quality

The other aspect to draw your attention to in this exercise is that it almost sounds like a little kid-type sound.

If you've ever heard a little kid whine: "Wah! No, I don't want to! I don't want to!"

That type of voice is what we're tapping into. This is a portion of the voice that's very necessary for the cut and clarity of the voice.

Conclusion

So again, what we're going to be doing is, refer to the audio for the full exercise.