Common Questions about Tongue Ties and Singing
*Original post: Oct 25, 2022. Reposted June 6, 2023*
Welcome to my first blog post! After creating lots of videos, shorts, and lectures, I still wanted a space where people could interact and ask me questions- hence, this blog!
For my first inaugural post, here are some questions and answers to the most common questions regarding tongue ties in singing. One of my past clients, Julia Mihalich, interviewed me for her thesis on tongue ties, and I thought her questions were so succinct and helpful, that they should be publicly published! So without further ado…
Q: What some common signs that singers and/or voice teachers look for that could indicate the presence of a tongue tie?
A: Well I want to preface by saying that tongue ties don’t look or cause the same things in all singers, so identifying can sometimes be tricky, but a short list of common symptoms would be:
- A lot of tension on high notes
- Inability to sing closed vowels on high notes
- Chronic jaw tension/pain during singing
- Feelings of “clunks” or big shifts between voice registers
- Chronic fatigue (when singing for over 1 hour despite good technique)
- Discomfort/pain/tension on one or two specific isolated vowels but not all vowels
- Discomfort/pain/tension specific pitches or pitches area but nowhere else
- Mental understanding of a technique, but inability to apply it despite tons of practice
Q: Can tongue tie affect your lower range as well as your high notes?
A: Definitely! Singers tend to feel more pain and pressure to have good high notes, but they manifest with the same issues: singers mention pain, tension, inability to negotiate that area, and the feeling that that area is “different” from the rest of the voice.
Q: What is the difference between tongue tension and tongue tie? What is the difference between tongue tie verses general muscular dysphonia?
A: Well, they are not mutually exclusive- people can have one or both or a combination of all those three, but what is pretty much across the board is that singers with a tongue tie will have some kind of tongue tension that manifests in some way. That much is very clear over my experience. Now singers without a tongue tie can certainly still have tongue tension from a misuse of the body, but a tongue restriction will prohibit the tongue from moving in a free and ergonomic way which will cause tension in mild cases, and in severe ones- pain and suffering and can even completely prohibit certain singing tasks and technique choices.
A good metaphor would be that a tongue tied singer is attempting to run a marathon with their shoe laces tied between their feet to each other- can it be done, sure, but it will not be enjoyable, will be very difficult, and could even injure you.
Q: I would always get comments on how much tongue tension I had from a few of my teachers, and so I have personal experience with a tongue tie being overlooked completely in favor of just “bad technique”.
A: Yes, and that is my pet peeve about some teachers. All these poor students! A lot of teacher and students tend to be obsessed with the larynx as singers, when we need to expand our vision to our tongues and mouths and faces. My clients know very well after working with me just how important and informative a mirror can be; just watching what we are doing can make massive changes. And our tongues and mouths and faces are some of the few aspects of signing that we CAN see! So we are missing a big trick by ignoring that simple task.
Please leave us a comment if you enjoyed this! To watch the full interview, follow my youtube channel @OpusOM here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2o_OIH8pLw&t=14s