Chin Muscle Test Vocal Exercise

Series Summary

Because of its virtually limitless potential as a platform for the creative manipulation of sounds and melodies, music is one of the most influential and exciting forms of human expression today. Music is unique in that it facilitates a conversation between a musician and an audience that language alone cannot, creating a special connection between people, one not limited by time, distance, or relationship.

It comes as no surprise that the human voice is one of the most complex and capable musical instruments known to man. Thanks to the group effort of the lungs, diaphragm, sinus cavities, larynx, vocal cords, palate, mouth and lips, with a restraint or release of breath, the voice can change pitch, timbre, and volume. The training that goes into understanding how to best utilize these vocal techniques are of varying degrees of difficulty, and usually require a vocal coach or trainer…which is why you are here today.

In these free singing lessons on video, learn from vocal coach James Meny some of the basic voice techniques you need to be able to sing on pitch, with good volume, for an extended period of time, and consistently. He’ll discuss some important methods for training your voice to be able to sing comfortably in any key, including some simple vocal exercises.

So, let’s get singing! James can be contacted at jamesmeny@gmail.com or 512-659-7799.

Video Transcript

"JAMES MENY: I'm going to talk a little bit about an exercise that I find really useful to determining whether you are carrying baggage or not. And I don't care how good a singer you are. If you do this exercise and you find it not working, then there is something else you're doing to sing than the bare minimum. Okay. So this is really simple. You find your chin and you go back a few inches and you're going to feel this big, soft muscle here. As long as you relax, it's soft, okay. And this is part of the hyoid set of muscles here that are underneath the jaw. We're not talking on the neck and it's not right at the chin. It's right below the jaw line or the mandible. And it should remain soft. I'm going to give you a scale, real simple, that you can check. And you want to go up and down on it until you find that this is not working. The idea of it is that this muscle has nothing to do with your singing other than to pull the mandible down. It doesn't create phonation, it doesn't do anything for you to make you sound better or worse. So if this is moving or if it stiffens while you are doing the scale or singing, particularly when you're doing a scale. I understand in singing, 'cause you gotta say words, it might move. But in the scale itself, if this moves or stiffens, then you're not doing your singing correctly. You're using outside neck muscles."