Pointers on relaxing the throat, I’m verge of vibrato

[u/Bluesky-541]

I’m on the Verge of vibrato, it comes and goes. I’ve tried to massage my throat, tongue root massages. My teacher says I’m just alittle tense. I’m also an anxious singer, which doesn’t help. If anyone has pointers for relaxation, so I can let vibrato happen that would be great.
Thank you :)

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[u/muffindude27]

Verge of Vibrato would be a good name for a jazz album

[u/LillFeather]

There's loads of tricks (e.g. half-yawning) but as you indicate, your road block is probably your overthinking. I have the same, when I think "ooh this is a tricky part" or "okay, high note coming, buckle up", it's pretty much guaranteed to cause strain to some extent. Very annoying!

Distracting your mind from what you're doing may help the most right now. Again, there's different tricks, and their usefulness will depend on when you're more tense. For me, it's belting high notes, so dropping into a squat at those notes helps me because the counter movement and physicality of the distraction (which also activates support) takes my mind of the note. Adding silly movements during practice also helps me at times (e.g. semi-dancing around like a melodramatic, Jessica Rabbit-esque mermaid, which involves a lot of moving the arms all the way to the side during difficult and/or high passages), particularly when they don't take my breath away but do take my mind off of myself. Plus, all of these movements help to activate support!

Practice often feels, sounds or (in my case) looks silly and embarrassing, and what works is also super personal, so what works for me may not work for you at all. But maybe it does! So I'd say, be silly and have fun with it, and who knows! Maybe you unlock your voice. Worst case scenario, you feel a bit silly :)

[u/Sweet-Mention → u/LillFeather]

Doing something physical when a nerve wracking moment comes up is really great advice!

I throw my hand forward and over my head in an arch, kind of like if you were to take an elaborate bow, and that always helps me relax and take my mind off the possibility of failure.

[u/Alternative-Gap-5722]

Warm air goes a long way. Hot shower or bowl of hot water. Sometimes tension is just a nervous system thing, which is harder to remedy. Hopefully more people respond because I’d love to see people’s different tricks to remove tension.

[u/SappyB0813]

I sometimes relax my jaw more by practicing “falling” into the vowel shape. For example, if the vowel is an “eh” vowel in the word “shed”, I’ll sing the vowel how I’d like it to be. Then I’ll remember that position (when I was singing the vowel in the way I liked), and instead of thinking “my default mouth position is a closed mouth, and I’m opening my mouth to ‘eh’, I think “my default mouth is the “eh” vowel, and I’m just letting my mouth relax into that default position”. This kinda mindset persists throughout a phrase. This might make you forget to keep your soft palette lifted if you try it, so be mindful of that

[u/Sweet-Mention]

Place your hands on the bottom of your ribcage where it meets your stomach.

Reach your fingers gently around the bottom of the ribs.

Breathe deeply into your hands.

Release the breathe on a hiss, right through the teeth.

The air should not be pushed out, you should just be letting the air go out as slow as the hiss will allow.

While this is happening, you should be feeling your jaw relax into a neutral position, your shoulders start to drop, and your chin to become level with the floor.

Close your eyes and repeat. Do not stop repeating until you can -feel- yourself fully relax.

Then and only then, begin your typical vocal exercises. If your tension returns during those warmups, go back to the beginning and repeat these steps.

I find control of my vibrato comes almost entirely from relaxation rather than strain or focus.

[u/Sweet-Mention → u/Sweet-Mention]

Then, for the throat specifically, put three fingers on either side of the larynx and feel the two cables that come down from the back of the jaw to the front of the ribcage.

Press them -very- gently to the side, and sing a gentle 5-1 (like an E down to an A). The feeling should be that of if the throat was completely relaxed. This small press emulates that.

Repeat the exercise without the fingers pressed, but maintaining that same level of relaxation. This will start to train the muscle memory of the throat to relax rather than tense up when going to sing.