TONGUE AWARENESS, PART 1

One of the most essential yet forgotten parts of the vocal instrument is the tongue!


The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth about 10cm in length, with approximately 10,000 taste buds. It is responsible for allowing us to taste and feel the texture of food. However, as a speaker and singer, it is the articulator allowing us to pronounce vowels, consonants, and syllables to communicate emotional content into words.

Let’s see what happens when you either place your finger on your tongue or don’t allow your tongue to move while you’re speaking. What do you hear? What do you feel? Try and change the pitch without moving the tongue. Can you hear that the pitch can change, but we have no idea what you are trying to say?


There are 5 parts of the tongue:

1. The Tip (touches back of the bottom teeth)

2. The Blade (flat front of the tongue, not attached to the floor of the mouth)

3. The Middle (under the centre of the hard palate)

4. The Back (under the back of the hard palate and soft palate)

5. Root (attached to the larynx by the hyoid bone)

The roots of the tongue are attached by means to the Hyoid bone to the larynx. The Hyoid bone is a moveable bone under your chin, place both hands on either side of your neck just under your chin and see if you can find it. When you find it, you will be able to move it from side to side.

Now, take yourself to a mirror, open your mouth and look at your tongue; look at the tip and all the way to the back of your tongue. Gently breathe and see if there is any movement. Now pull the tongue back into the throat. What do you feel? How does it relate to your larynx? Stick it forward, like you’re licking an ice cream. What do you feel and see?

Within the thickness of the tongue lie muscles that are very sensitive to our psychological condition. When there is any nervous tension in the body or difficulty communicating, contractions will arise in the tongue. It will pull back, flatten out and become stiff or bunch up in the throat. These shapes change the cavity of the throat and mouth, distorting resonance and vocal quality. Since the tongue is connected to the larynx, jaw and face, one must affect the other. Tension in the tongue spreads to the larynx, jaw and face or tension in the larynx, jaw, and face spreads tension to the tongue. For emotion to be expressed freely through the voice, the tongue must be relaxed.


Tongue tension can lead to vocal fatigue, poor pitch and reduction of range.

Identifying tongue tension

A retracted tongue puts much pressure on the larynx. To find this, make a Kermit the frog sound.

Or

Put your thumb under your chin and sing a few phrases. Is the tongue pushing down, bulging out or feels stiff?

Below is a voice recording of the written exercises.

Exercises to release tongue tension

1. Tongue slides Roof of Mouth

Place tongue on the roof of the mouth. With gentle pressure, slide the tongue along the roof of the mouth, from the back of the top teeth to the soft palate and back again. Do this x 10.

2. Tongue to Hand

Stick the tongue straight out of the mouth. Raise the back of one hand and let the tongue gently but firmly push against the back of your hand. Press for 15 sec, rest x 5.


3. Sirens

Let the tongue hang over your bottom lip. Hold your chin, pointer finger on top and thumb under the chin. Gently siren from high to low, keeping the tongue out relaxed, fat and juicy. Notice if the tongue wants to pull back. Try and keep it forward at all times. Keeping the jaw relaxed and stable (you don’t want the jaw to move).

4. Tongue Blerr’s

Make a Blerr sound and let the tongue shake between the top and bottom lip. While you make this sound gently glide up and down on pitch - you may sound ridiculous, but enjoy it! If you can slide easily through pitch doing this, it means that the tongue is relaxed.

5. Tongue Rolls

Place the tongue deep down behind the bottom teeth, the tip of the tongue should be touching the lower gums ridge, and the blade should be against the back of the bottom teeth. Now, think about the middle of the tongue. Roll it forward and out over the bottom teeth like a large wave. Keep the tip of the tongue connected to the bottom gum teeth line. You should feel the whole tongue coming out of the throat and being stretched from tip to root. Then allow the tongue to rest back down like an Ah vowel position. Continue this motion rolling forward and back. Make sure the jaw remains relaxed and open throughout the whole movement.

In June’s blog, I will continue sharing more about tongue awareness with some simple vocal exercises to release your tongue.

In Love and Song,
The Sound Weaver

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