There are many ways to make your singing voice better. There is, however, one persistent problem that many singers have…the problem of muscle tension.

Muscle tension can adversely affect the quality and tone of your voice. So, if you can overcome muscle tension, this would have a huge impact on your singing immediately.

Warm up exercises do help in releasing tension. You should definitely develop your own routine for warming up based on your particular vocal considerations.

Digastric Muscle Tension

One area of muscle tension that has made a huge difference for me is discovering muscle tension in my tongue. Before I go on about how to release tongue tension, let me explain why tongue tension is bad.

The sound of your voice is totally unique to you. Your individual body parts are what make your sound uniquely you…for example, the size and shape of your head.

The part of your head that can dramatically affect the tone and quality of your voice is your sinus cavity. Most of the time, this cavity is basically empty and the sound your voice produces resonates all around in this cavity.

Thus, adding a beautiful full tone to your voice that is uniquely you.

Years ago, I took a couple of voice lessons from a vocal coach. He kept saying that I needed to throw my voice into this sinus cavity. I sort of knew what he meant but I just couldn't get it down.

Years later, I discovered that the problem was tension in my tongue. When you use your tongue to sing it actually closes off the back of your throat, preventing the sound of your voice to resonate in the sinus cavity. It also raises your larynx causing a difficulty in reaching high notes.

Now, I’m not talking about using the tongue to form words. What I’m talking about is using the tongue to sing. That is, to help you sing on pitch or to reach a note. It is the back area of the tongue.

If you raise the back area of your tongue you are tensing your tongue and closing off your resonator, the sinus cavity. Singing should be a relaxing enjoyable experience. Even while performing!

By relaxing I mean that your muscles, especially the back of your tongue should be relaxed. When it is, your voice is allowed to resonate in the sinus cavity and the sound that is produced is maximized to its fullest potential.

Detecting Digastric Muscle Tension

So how do you know if you use your tongue to sing? I will attempt to explain a simple way to determine tongue tension. It would be much easier to show you, but words are all we have here.

What you do is put both thumbs right under your chin towards the back of your throat. Press in slightly while you sing something. If you feel the muscle tensing up as you sing, that’s your tongue! Bad tongue! This area should feel soft and “mushy”.

Technically, it’s actually your digastric muscle. When this muscle is tensed up it is actually raising your larynx and decreasing your range! What to do?

Releasing Digastric Muscle

The easiest way to release this particular tension is actually something I think of as self bio-feedback. Keep your thumbs on the digastric muscle and instead of singing your lyric, just speak the lyric in a plain speaking voice with no melody.

Did you feel the muscle release? It should have. Now that you are aware of this little bugger try to sing keeping the digastric muscle relaxed. A little bit difficult?

Well, don’t worry. With a little practice it will become second nature to you. You may also find that your voice is sounding better but the muscles in your throat are a little bit weak. This is also okay and will strengthen with practice.

After all, you probably spent years singing with tongue tension. It’s most likely how you learned to sing. So, don’t be discouraged if it takes a while to learn something new.

Conclusion

As you can see muscle tension is a big problem for a lot of singers. It can seriously throw your whole voice mechanism off kilter. It can be dealt with however. You simply have to become aware of where and when the tension comes in.

As you learn to release tongue tension you will be amazed with your voice! You will truly discover your inner singer. I truly believe every human being was meant to sing. So, keep singing!