Tongue-root Intention.
If you were convinced by the evidence that implies a key role for intention in effective teaching and learning (it can be found here), how would you go about teaching with intention? What would a pedagogic system built on the principles of intention look like?
Here’s a reminder of the two Principles of Intentional Singing:
The Preservation of Intent: relevant intent should be preserved in all the exercises, instructions and demonstrations of vocal pedagogy.
The Primacy of Intent: a singer’s intent as they sing is the primary perspective, both for understanding and changing their singing.
If we followed those two principles, how would we deal with “tongue-root tension”?
(Tongue-root tension here refers only to habitual tensions, encountered during the act of singing: pathological problems should be dealt with by a specialist.)
A Functional Approach.
Let’s first imagine a “functional” approach to the problem:
A teacher hears a singer, and, through sound and sight, offers a diagnosis of “tongue-root tension”.
Functional exercises are proposed. Known examples of these include tongue stretches, curls or protrusions. Holding on to the protruded tongue with the fingers, whilst singing, has also sometimes been recommended.
Related, but rarer, exercises involve forced jaw opening, with either fingers or pencil between the teeth.
The purpose of these exercises include stretching the tongue, releasing its tension, and showing the feeling of a released “tongue root”.
It is recommended these exercises be repeated until “muscle memory” is built.
Such a functional approach can be found in the pedagogic literature: what might be its limitations?
Wrong name, wrong place?
First, we might ask: how accurate or helpful is the identification of “tongue-root” as the location and source of the problem?
Bozeman points out that the majority of the root of the tongue is further forward, just under and behind the lower front teeth. The tension commonly referred to as tongue root tension is further back, in the complex musculature of the angle of chin and neck.
What about the identification of a specific area? Is that helpful?
Singing is a coordinated act of interlinked complexity. Richard Miller has the articulation of tongue-root, larynx and jaw as interlinked. Theodore Dimon points out that full-body alignment and support plays into freedom of the tongue and throat.
How helpful is it to isolate and name the “tongue-root”? What solutions will that suggest to the singer? The functional exercises described above are proposed as solutions, and, in themselves, they focus exclusively on the tongue root area, suggesting it can be independently released.
An Intention-Stripped Tongue?
We can also see that the very framing and naming of the problem, as “tongue-root tension”, is intention-stripped. A part of the tongue “has” tension: the cause has vanished, from both the problem, and the proposed solutions. Even “tongue-root tensing” would be better, at least hinting at some intentional activity on the part of the singer.
Instead, the singer hears “I have tongue-root tension”, and may think of it as an affliction, not as one physical indication of their misguided intentions. Further, they think of an affliction in a specific area: the “tongue root”. The exercises given are also intention-stripped: the tongue is manipulated directly, rather than moving in response to coordinating intentions.
Intention-Stripping and the Principles of Motor Learning.
According to research into the Principles of Motor learning, intention-stripping is problematic:
Attempts directly to manipulate the tongue induce an internal focus. Internal foci have been found to be less effective than external equivalents, and in some cases, to be worse than no focus at all. It is hard to convince people of the significance of this: it seems just common sense to deal with the tongue problem directly. However, extensive evidence suggests that internal foci are worse than external equivalents: they simply don’t work as well. You can use them, but there are better alternatives.
Direct manipulations of the tongue are not goal-directed or task-specific. The PMLs suggests this will limit transfer of learning into the differently intentional act of singing. Even if the tongue exercises are mastered, that mastery may not transfer into singing.
Direct manipulations of the tongue break complex coordinations. As mentioned, many pedagogues see tongue, larynx and jaw, in fact the entire body, as coordinated in action. This view is supported by the research literature. Attempts only to manipulate a named part may be futile, and disrupt autonomous, complex and full-body activity.
On top of these intention-stripping problems, we can ask other questions of the functional approach:
Does muscle memory exist? The concept is still debated, and it doesn’t appear in the principles of motor learning. Should we rely on it as a key mechanism in learning to sing?
Does stretching the tongue work? The musculature of the tongue is different in nature from that of the limbs: it is not clear if stretching is an effective strategy for releasing tension. If, indeed, it were the tongue that were tense…
This is a substantial list of problems: how would an intentional approach do things differently?
The Intentional Tongue.
So, if intent is our primary perspective, and if all exercises and instructions we use must have intent preserved, how does our approach change?
Instead of the diagnosis and solution of a physical problem, we apply the same process to an intentional one: we must diagnose, and then alter, intent.
In order to do this, we need full imaginative and vocal empathy with the singer, initially to understand what it is they are currently intending to do (this is perhaps a reason why singers are best placed to teach other singers). Then, to help them create and act on an alternative intention.
Understanding Inappropriate Intentions.
How can we come to understand what a singer is intending to do when they sing?
In the case of tongue-root tension, our ears will first tell us that something is amiss. Our kinaesthetic, mirrored understanding allows us to understand that, amongst a suite of other sensations, the singer is experiencing relative tightness in the angle of the chin (whether or not they yet know it).
But, this physical manifestation of their intention is not the problem in itself. The singer is not intending to tense the root of their tongue, and their tongue has not decided to sabotage their singing.
The singer is intended to do something else, and one manifestation of that intention is tightness under the chin: we need to find the else. The tightness is a clue to the problem, not the problem itself.
Many different intentions can activate this tension, so we need deeply to understand what, specifically, the singer is trying to do: what intention causes them to tighten the “tongue-root”?
We listen and watch them sing. We absorb everything that they are doing. We engage imaginatively, imitatively and empathetically with all their actions. In this way, we come to “understand” what they are currently intending, and then can begin to see how that intention might be changed.
Intentions that lead to “tongue-root tension”.
It is perhaps useful at this point to give some examples of inappropriate intentions that can activate hyperactivity in the angle of the chin. Some are sketched here: a full discussion is in the coming book.
Misplaced intentions that induce tension in the “tongue-root” can include:
Intending to sing “in tune”
Misunderstanding “legato”
Associating higher pitches with tension in the throat.
“Holding” notes.
Falsely darkening the sound.
These are some of the most commonly misplaced intentions that are encountered in the voice studio: there are more. Every singer is unique, their mind and body like no other. Each combination of mind and body yields countless possibilities for misplaced intentions, and then different reflections in the body. Deep empathy is needed to find any given singer’s exact misplaced intention: empathy is a key skill for a singing teacher.
Then, once the misplaced intention is found, it needs to be changed.
Changing Intentions.
When singer and teacher have both understood the misplaced intention that, as part of a coordinated bodily response, over-activated the musculature under the chin, a new intention must be built: discussion, exercise, caricature and kinaesthetic skill can all help do this.
Kinaesthesia is a key skill in learning to sing. Knowledge of appropriate sensations whilst pursuing an intention is powerful knowledge, both for changing and stabilising performance. However, kinaesthesia is not functionalism. The singer must aim to sing, whilst neutrally noticing sensations in the body: noticing is not doing. The singer notices the body, whilst doing something else. As always, relevant intent must be preserved.
From one- to multi-dimensional sound.
Let’s take an example of tongue-root tension caused by an over-enthusiastic, misplaced intention to “sing in tune”.
We can imagine that, in order to secure ultra-precise pitching, a singer was, amongst other things, tightening their tongue-root. This tightening gave them a feeling of control over pitch, but reduced their tone quality. Their tone was too-straight, lacked depth and induced sympathetic tension in the listener. In focussing only on the pitch dimension of their sound, other dimensions were lost.
Now, instead of issuing a diagnosis of tongue-root tension, the intentional teacher looks instead for the intention that causes it. They demonstrate, mirror, discuss, empathise. Together, singer and teacher discover that the singer is overly concerned with singing in tune. This intention is causing the tongue-root tension, as well as other physical misuses.
This understood, a new intention now needs to be created.
Perhaps, instead of an intent to “sing the correct pitch”, an intent to “produce a chiaroscuro sound on the given pitch” is presented as an alternative. This intention, an acoustic intention, captures the desire to “be in tune”, but includes and enhances sound intent. The articulators of the vocal tract are organised through acoustic intent: changing that intent has a real, physical impact.
The singer now aims for a warmer and freer tone, one that happens to be on the right pitch. This new acoustic intent requires the release of the throat: a tight tongue-root cannot sound warm and free.
Using a mix of sensational knowledge, adjusted sound target, perhaps caricature and other intentional overrule techniques, the singer is able to explore, and then habituate, an improved intention.
Changing Minds to Change Bodies.
Instead of attempting to change the body, and create “muscle memory”, the singer’s intent has been changed, and their body responds to it, without an inkling of tightness in the tongue-root.
At all times, the intentional approach maintained an external focus, preserved complex coordination, was goal-directed and task-specific. The tongue-root tension is gone, but, much more than that, the whole body is now responding differently to an altered intention. It is possible that, throughout the change of intention, the tongue-root was never mentioned.
In a sense, the original diagnosis of “tongue-root tension” was simply the identification of the tip of a misplaced intentional iceberg. If one just attempted to remove the tip from the iceberg, it would simply bob up again, and reveal a truncated, but equally unwanted, berg.
The intentional approach gently melts the iceberg back into the ocean, uniting it with the body of water, and removing the danger to shipping.
Conclusion.
Intentional teaching improves singing by changing intent.
It sees physical problems as manifestations of intentional problems: it seeks to understand misplaced intentions and replaces them with appropriate alternatives.
From an intentional perspective, “tongue-root tension”, if it has to be mentioned, is a clue. It is not one physical problem on a list of physical problems to be solved: it is one clue pointing to a misplaced intention, that is affecting the whole body.
When the tongue-root tension is gone, the whole body will be responding differently during singing. The singer’s entire intentional outlook will have changed, and they will have taken a significant step to their full potential.
They will be empowered by a deeper understanding of their singing and their intentions. The teacher too is empowered, by the perspective of intention and also by the automatic observance of many of the Principles of Motor Learning.
The tongue is freely serving the expressive intentions of the singer.