The correct tongue and mouth position makes a big difference when singing.
You will see a huge improvement after you learn how to shape your mouth and where to place your tongue.
That’s because the shape of your mouth and location of your tongue both affect how sound resonates in your mouth.
Your tongue also affects airflow.
So how do you position your mouth and tongue for singing?
Keep reading to find out. We will cover everything you need to know and throw in some warm-up and singing exercises to boot. The singing exercises are a great opportunity to practice what you are about to learn.
Table of Contents
- 1 Mouth Position While Singing
- 2 Correct Tongue Position
- 3 Exercises To Enhance Singing
- 4 Mouth And Tongue Position For Singers: Final Thoughts
Mouth Position While Singing
While singing, your mouth should form a nice comfortable oval, with the corners of your mouth drawn in and your jaw down.
Keep your lips relaxed and not pursed or pushed outward, because that can cause unnecessary tension around your mouth and jaw and create problems. Here are some general things to pay attention to.
Mouth Wide Open For Vowels
Make sure your mouth is open when singing vowels. If you find this difficult, try putting two or three fingers inside your mouth. Remove the fingers and keep your mouth open just as wide as when the fingers were in there.
Of course, this is not how wide you want to keep your mouth open usually, but for the purposes of getting used to opening your mouth wider than you do now, it helps to keep it open even wider at first.
Drop Your Jaw For “Ahhh” Sounds
When you sing “ahhh” sound, open your mouth and drop your jaw. This makes the sound fuller and more natural. But make sure you don’t drop your jaw too rigidly. That will cause singing difficulties.
Your mouth should adopt an oval position with the corners down and the jaw let gently down. Avoid rigidity in the region where the jaw attaches to the skull (known as the temporomandibular joint).
“O” Shape For “Ohhh” Sounds
When you sing “ohhhh” sounds, keep your mouth in an “O” shape to make the sound full and rich.
Small “o” For “Oooo” Sounds
Singing “Ooooo” sounds with a smaller “o” opening keep this vowel sounding its best. You also want your throat to be open and your tongue lightly pressed against your front teeth, to help keep you from going off key.
Oval Shape For “Eee” Sounds
When you make the oval shape for an “Eeee” sound, you want the longer part of the oval to be the vertical part. And keep your throat open.
Mouth Wide Open And Stretched Throat For High Notes
When you sing high notes, open your mouth like you are yawning, so that your vocal cords to vibrate in the right way to correctly hit high notes.
Protruding Lips
It helps to stick out your lips a little bit when singing. It opens up your throat more and results in a warmer sound. This is not easy to get used to, but keep at it. You’ll get the right position eventually, through trial and error.
Small Circle To Breathe
Whenever you need to breathe in, form a small circle shape with your mouth and imagine you are sucking the air in through a straw. This will help you breathe quickly, so you don’t have to worry about missing a beat.
Try To Keep Your Face Relaxed
A big problem when concentrating on all of these different mouth shapes is that you inadvertently tense up your face. When you are tense, it becomes more difficult to sing on pitch, so on top of everything else, try to remember to keep your face relaxed.
Correct Tongue Position
The correct tongue position while singing is one that opens up the area at the base of your tongue. You can imagine the beginning of a yawn; this position opens up the pathways by lifting the soft palate.
You also want to keep some space between the upper and lower molars. This opens up the back of your throat naturally.
Keep your tongue relaxed and keep it forward. Hold your jaw still and say “ya, ya, ya.” As you are doing that, pay attention to how your tongue feels during and after the words. That is exactly how it should feel when you are singing, since it does not block your airway in that position.
Most of the time, the tip of your tongue should rest at the back of the bottom front teeth. Do not pull your tongue back into your mouth, since that will cut off the airflow and divide the mouth and throat into two separate resonators.
Even if you move your tongue while singing certain words and fricative consonants, you should return it to this position as soon as you can.
Similarly, avoid lifting your tongue too far up. That could also separate your mouth into front and back resonators, which is undesirable. Lifting the tongue high up and at the back of the mouth will also cause you to struggle while breathing.
That said, for vowel sounds, move your tongue to your top teeth. This makes it much easier to articulate vowel sounds. But you want to make sure your tongue doesn’t go back into your mouth and block your throat.
Finally, keep your tongue soft. That gives you a clean, clear pitch. It is difficult to sing well with a hard tongue.
A Tongue Massage Can Help Warm Up The Tongue
Our tongue has a tremendous potential to store tension. Therefore, relaxing various parts of the tongue is important (even though most singers overlook this) prior to preparing for singing.
To massage the tension away, press your thumb and index finger under your jaw where you can find the root of your tongue.
Exercises To Enhance Singing
I know it is hard to keep all of the above in mind when you are singing. The best way is to focus on certain things at a time while doing exercises.
To that end, here are some good exercises to help strengthen your singing. Some work well to practice tongue and mouth position, while others are just good exercises to do in general, like this first one and the warm-up exercises.
Spine Strengthening Exercises
You might wonder what physical exercises have to do with singing performance. Well, your spine is the source of power for your singing. Therefore, you must strengthen it with the proper posture and through regular stretching exercises.
- Sit on the floor with your legs outstretched in front of you. Lean forward and try to touch whatever part of your legs you can touch.
- Try the same exercises standing up.
- It is not how far you stretch but how long. Try to hold each stretch for at least 1 ½ minutes.
This exercise will help strengthen your spine which can power up your singing as well.
Warm-Up Exercises Before Singing
Perform the following set of warming-up exercises to help prepare your voice and warm up your vocal cords.
- Yawn with your mouth closed: This exercise involves taking in air with the mouth closed as if you are trying to stifle a yawn. You can exhale through the nose as a sigh.
- Humming: Place the tip of your tongue at the back of the bottom front teeth and hum. Relax your jaw and keep your mouth closed. You can also alternate between singing “mum” and “mee” on a comfortable pitch, focusing on achieving a smooth transition between the two sounds. This exercise helps in balancing resonance between the nasal and oral cavities.
- Straw humming: You need a straw and a glass filled with a bit of water for this exercise. Hum your favorite tune or song through the straw into the glass of water to blow controlled bubbles.
- Lip trills: This exercise helps relax the lips and engages the breath support. Lip trills as they play an important role in improving vocal quality. Place your lips close together. Breathe in through your nose and exhale through your mouth while vibrating the lips and making a “brrrrrr” sound like a motorboat engine or a telephone ringing.
- Tongue trills: This is a great exercise to improve your vocal range. It involves rolling your r’s. Relax your facial muscles. Keeping the tongue light and soft, run it from the back of the top front teeth to the soft palate. Curl the tongue slightly and drop the jaw while keeping it relaxed and say ‘r’. Breathe deeply into the diaphragm and sigh. The tongue should trill or flutter slightly. Blow and aim for this position.
- Tongue Twisters: Practice reciting tongue twisters with clear articulation and correct pronunciation. This exercise helps improve the tongue’s diction and agility, which contributes to better tone production.
Singing And Vocal Cord Exercises
These next exercises are great to enhance your singing and they also offer a great opportunity to practice the correct tongue and mouth positions.
Exercise 1: Sing The Vowel ‘Ah’
Using a medium volume start singing the Ah vowel as in ‘father’. Use low, quiet breaths. Squeeze the air up to the cords using the lower support muscles. Aim the air along the pathway.
As you are singing the ‘Ahhh’ sound, remember what you learned above. Make sure your mouth and tongue are positioned correctly for this sound.
Exercise 2: Lifting/Elevating The Tone
Use the Ah vowel again and lift the tone this time. Hold the note and breathe in a controlled manner. Use the lower support muscles to press the air back up. Pace yourself and do not blow too much air into one note. Again, pay extra attention to your mouth and tongue position.
Exercise 3: Arpeggio
This exercise helps your voice get stronger and more flexible. As in the second exercise above, start on the Ah sound using lower support muscles. Open your mouth to a full oval position before the first note.
Keep the low jaw position. You can start by singing the lowest note of the chord, then move up to the next note, and then the next, until you reach the highest note. Then you can come back down to the lowest note again.
Exercise 4: Ee and Ah
This exercise helps balance resonance between the nasal and oral cavities. Sing the Eee and Ahhh vowels over and over in quick succession. Yes, it does sound like the braying of a donkey or chewing with your mouth wide open!
Exercise 5: Octave Jumps
This vocal exercise is designed to work with pulling the anchored sensation together. It also deepens the throat and chest resonance.
Make an oval with your mouth and sing the Ah. Progress to the octave note and then sing and deepen the top tone for three counts, then sing down the scale. Try holding the top note for three counts.
Mouth And Tongue Position For Singers: Final Thoughts
How you position your mouth and tongue has a great impact on the way your voice sounds. Learning to position them correctly will lead to a great improvement in your singing voice.
Of course, this is easier said than done. It is hard to unlearn habits you have been accustomed to your whole life. It will take time and patience. And a lot of practice. But it is worth it.
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