Hello there Vocalisters-

I have a question specifically regarding the throat tension that comes about by the strong reflex of the swallowing muscles- the digastric muscles.
I’ve been working with a mature age student who has studied vocal technique (in her 20’s), and has recently decided to take up singing lessons again. Unfortunately, after many years of singing without a teacher, she's developed some detrimental habits- one of which has severely affected her ease of producing sounds in her mid/head voice. It seems she's fallen into that trap of "bigger sound is better", and she's experiencing difficulties.

The swallowing muscles seem to engage REALLY strongly around Bb4- getting worse as she ascends.
The tension in her lower jaw/neck area is not only audible (her mid to head voice will cut off like she's gagging- cutting off the air) but is causing her pain as well. It’s somewhat frustrating as we’ve worked for several weeks now on this issue, and although I know this is not a problem that can be fixed overnight- I don’t get the feeling we’re making progress, or that the tension is letting up. it's a little discouraging.

I’ve had her do several things- amongst others- vocalizing gently while placing hr fingers under her jaw and monitoring when it tightens, vocalizing on the “ng” sound, singing with less air- thinking of that small, pointy sound, singing scales on the pure vowels- helping her notice lack of tongue involvement in the back of the throat, vocalizing with closed lips and humming with her tongue sticking out ……

I’m stumped, and am running out of ideas- I’d be grateful for your thoughts/exercises/solutions, especially if you have encountered this pesky problem in your own teaching or singing, and how you went about breaking it down to instill a better functioning voice.

Thanks, and sorry for the rather long post-

Virginia