Digastric Tension

Lately I have been experiencing a bit of tension in this area—that between the underside of the chin and the Adam's apple.

Does anyone know what this means about how I'm singing?

Does anyone know how to alleviate tension in this area?

For reference and diagrams— http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digastric_muscle

Thanks, all;

--SE

Here is what I was taught.

Drop your larynx.

Then take your hand, and place the socket/web area between your thumb and index finger right on the mylohyoid muscle as if you were going to grab your neck; while pushing that muscle out by expanding it, push against it with your hand. Don't worry, you are not going to hurt yourself. You can and need to strengthen that muscle group, and this is how you do it. You have to make sure that when you sing that you have no tension in this area.

When you say to push that muscle out, do you mean in the way that would resemble the movement of a frog, if done quickly?

Yeah, except hold the position, and apply some pressure against it with your hand.

I actually use a book instead of my hand.

You need to build all those muscles up. Just make sure that it is the muscle you are applying pressure to, and not your larynx.

Is this happening in the studio or during performance?

In studio and rehearsal. At the moment I very seldom perform.

Curious: Why does one need to build up muscles that should be thoroughly relaxed while singing? I'm sure you're right about this, but if the throat and jaw and larynx are supposed to be relaxed, I'm not certain what these muscles are supposed to do.

I've never taught a student to "exercise and build" any muscles for relaxing the jaw and neck. I do suggest that they gently move or rotate their heads as they sing, especially when feeling tension there. The main area of negative tension for singers is where the jaw hinges at the ears. Put your fingers just under the ears and wiggle your jaw. That's the place. Moving or rotating your head gently and slightly wiggling your jaw as you sing keeps this loose and relaxed, along with the neck. In practice this movement may seem to look foolish, but when singing we never want to hold our head stiff anyway. It looks more foolish to hold the head stiff while singing. In performance this is easier to do, as movement is natural to the show. However many singers anchor themselves to the mic, especialy guitar and keyboard players on stage, and this causes tension problems. You certainly should take advantage of instrumental breaks to wiggle your jaw and rotate your head. Again, this should seem like part of the show.

Instead of building some muscles to keep the jaw and neck loose, build some habits to move, wiggle and rotate the neck, head and jaw. This must become a habit you don't have to think about (that's what a habit is).

In the studio, this kind of tension is even more prevalent. By necessity we are unable to move around much. But still, gently rotate your head and wiggle your jaw as often as you can without disturbing the connection with the mic.

Also, when holding long notes, these gentle movements will help a lot to control the quality and endurance.

al