If you have been singing for a while there is a good chance that you know the pain you feel when the tension/lack of mobility in your jaw is causing locking, popping or failure to perform technical aspects of the song you are singing. Generally speaking, all kind of tension is bad for you when you are singing or even speaking, and your body can store up tension in many parts of the body. In this article, we are focusing solely on the jaw.

So how to get rid of jaw tension? There are many ways to do this. We are going to look at five of them in this article. Start by standing straight with good posture, roll your shoulders back and let them relax. Shake your body around in order to find a good mix of looseness and flexibility. Now put your hands’ palms up onto your cheeks and start to yawn slowly, softly and gently. Smile a gentle smile and feel how your jaw is now hanging in a “lazy” position. Finally, in this position try moving your jaw gently from side to side so you will remember the feeling of this position.

Did it work? Great! You should now have a much more relaxed jaw than just moments before, however, if this didn’t work for you there might the possibility that you are carrying so much tension that doing this just once will not be enough. In that case, read on.

 

Jaw Tension Fixes And Why You Should Care

Jaw tightening up is called a compensatory activity, which means that there is a lack of support in the breathing mechanism which leads to the jaw tightening up. This is often unconscious and the way to release the unwanted tension is to direct the focus to the body instead. This can be done by improving breathing technique, body control and being more conscious of the jaw.

Signs that you might carry a tight jaw include:

1. limited range of motion when you try to open your mouth
2. locking of the jaw joint
3. clicking sounds

It is Important to note these problems early on because a locked jaw can cause a loss in range, (meaning you won’t be singing those money notes) and a dimmed sound. This is true when it comes to all kind of tension experienced in the body. It is not desirable to tense up when singing even though some people are unfortunately taught this, thinking they are supporting the sound.

The reason for this absurd teaching might originate from the thought that occurs while observing famous singers who are singing impressive high notes with great passion and what ends up happening is that this passion is misunderstood for tension. Passion is good and often helps to create a more engaging and beautiful experience for the listener and performer; tension, on the other hand, does the opposite.

Your face has tons of muscles in it and they are all interacting with each other and the jaw, so in order to try to loosen up that tension try this: start smiling like you would be really excited and happy. Now make a face that Homer Simpson has when he’s drooling for donuts. Repeat.

Keep in mind that when I asked you to smile wide and then change that expression we are shooting for polar opposites of movement.

Now with your tongue massage your gums in a circular motion seven times each direction. This will loosen and strengthen your tongue, which is working together with your jaw.

Now repeat the first exercise I gave you (yawning). It can be very helpful to sing a song or do warmups with the back of your palms on your cheeks in order for you to feel the movement of the jaw. Remember that we want the jaw to move but we want it to be loose. Quite the paradox. Keeping your hand on your face will help you determine how much movement you actually need.

And here is the final exercise for you, which will increase your ability to be conscious of your body and in particular jaw placement. Start by singing a note that is within your comfortable range.

Now keep singing that note and saying Ya-Ya-Ya… Your tongue is supposed to be the one creating the Ya sound –  if you notice that your jaw is moving alongside with the tongue just simply stop it.

After doing the Ya-Ya-Ya now try to do La-La-La same concept… One note, jaw relaxed in place.

You can change up the vowels and consonants but these are two good ones to keep in mind. After you have done this with a single note try doing scales up and down and see how that feels.

More often than not people will realize that they start to tense up at certain points when they are starting to leave their comfort zone. This exercise is a great way to shine a light on those issues and start to work on them one day at a time

Related Questions

Jaw Pain

If you are still reading there is a good chance that you are experiencing jaw pain. Actually, many singers probably won’t even search this up because they are not even aware of all the tension they are carrying in the first place! So at least you have that going for you.

In order to alleviate pain in your jaw do all of the exercises mentioned above and try massaging your face in a circular motion in order to get the blood flowing. If you have dry skin borrow some moisturizer and it will be easier.

Stress and compulsive worryings/anxiety over things that are out of your control can also cause tension in the body. If that could be the case I suggest you be honest with yourself and do another Google search related to that.

Effect On Sound

I remember when I discovered how tight my jaw was. It was amazing what I felt I could do after loosening up properly. And I don’t mean technical virtuoso type stuff, even though that was immediately easier too, but It felt like I sounded like me for the first time!

For me realizing how much tension I was carrying, and applying my focus on releasing it, helped me create my own original sound and I think it can do that for you too.