Day 4: Tongue Position And Twang

From: 14-day Pop Vocals Course With Abram
by Abram Poliakoff
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Description:

The next few adjustments we can make to give our sound an energy boost without any push or strain involve the tongue and the pharynx. The pharynx is the top portion of your throat. If you say “Ahh” and look in a mirror, the back wall you see (behind your mouth) is your oropharynx. Above it is your nasopharynx, behind the nose, and below it is the laryngopharynx, behind the larynx.

You can find some twang by talking like a witch or making some goat sounds . Compare the sound of your voice with and without twang by saying “whee!” with your normal voice. And now, in a witchy or Oompa Loompa voice. Is there a difference in sensation?

Take this twangy sound into an exercise that sounds like this

Exercise 1: NYEAH (5-3-1) 

Another way to boost energy and brightness is by retracting the back of your tongue, while keeping the front of your tongue forward. Let’s take this step by step. First, release any tongue tension you may be holding by bringing the tip of the tongue to the roof of the mouth, sliding it backward, and then forward all the way to lion’s pose. Let’s do an exercise to train this independence further. 

First say WEE, and feel the front of the tongue move forward. Then make an RR sound and let the tongue pull back. Can you feel the back of the tongue moving? Now go back to EE, but keep the back of the tongue where it is [demonstrate all]. Listen carefully and you’ll notice the second EE vowel you sing has much more “ring” to it than the first. 

Exercise 2: WEE-RR-EE (single pitch)

Let’s see if we can find any spots in our songs to adjust our tongue position for a bright, belty sound!

Song work: play with twang & tongue position on select words

Play & sing “Never Leave You” Full

C#m
You’re in my head
A
You’re in my dreams
G#m
The words you said
A
Comfort me

E
“I will never leave you
B
I’ll always hold you tight
C#m
I’ll Love you and protect you
A
And I will never leave you”
(E)

If you’re up for it, try listening to Adam Levine or Shakira as your homework. Listen to any of their songs, and try to copy their sound. Adam uses more twang by moving the tongue forward and Shakira in particular uses an extreme amount of tongue retraction. They are both really fun to do an impression of, and hopefully in doing so, you can feel your own tongue position adjusting to make those sounds.

Lessons:

Instructor: Abram Poliakoff

Abram Poliakoff is a singer, guitarist, pianist, teacher, conductor, and composer. He received a Bachelors of Music in Vocal Arts from USC’s Thornton School of Music and has been teaching music for 8 years. He is currently both the Associate Artistic Director and a tenor in the L.A. Choral Lab, which recently released its first studio album Sonic Visions in the fall of 2019. Abram teaches and performs a wide range of genres including Classical, Jazz, Folk and Popular music in the Los Angeles area. He has also sung with the San Francisco Opera and Pocket Opera in the Bay Area. His teaching mission is to help his students utilize vocal technique to find their authentic and healthy voice while maximizing genre flexibility and a naturalness of expression.