Don't swallow your sound!

Picture your typical boring university professor, waving his hand incessantly while droning on about 19th century German design.

It's not too difficult for me to imagine since I have the pleasure of enduring this three days a week. My roommate and I constantly mock this professor for fitting the Ferris-Bueller-teacher stereotype a little too perfectly. And sometimes I just want to shout out in class, stop speaking like that!

I'm sure you can hear it in your head. I think we've all come across someone like this in our lifetime. Hell, maybe you are one of these people, to some degree, and don't even realize it.

Sure, your throat is relaxed and people hear you. But where's your tongue at? Getting swallowed in the back of your throat while you produce your sound?

It's easy to be loud in clubs this way, but it's also boring and ugly to listen to.

A quick trick for getting out of this swallowing-your-sound mode is to just imagine frontward motion from your head. Any form of motion will do. A unicorn's horn drilling out from the bridge of your nose, laser beams shooting out your eyes, nerf balls pouring out your forehead, whatever. This will get your subconscious placing more resonance forward, in the mask. You may even feel more buzzing going on around your nose, cheeks, teeth, lips, or forehead. That's a good thing!

Stand in front of a mirror and sing the descending scale "so fa mi re do" in a comfortable key. While doing this, pay careful attention to your tongue. Make sure it is low, and not flopping all around or raring its back up while you sing - especially on fa, as most people tend to have problems on "ah" vowels.

Another thing that helps to imagine this frontward motion, and helps mask placement, is to slightly tilt your head downward. Don't lean your head down or forward, just tilt it SLIGHTLY and keep looking straight ahead. Your eyebrows may also narrow. Hell, try snarling and singing that descending scale. This will provide a nice contrast in sounds, and you can find a happy medium.

This should help you avoid swallowing your sound too much, which helps both in singing and speaking.