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Vocal
Enemy Number 1
Oh, no! It’s Jiggly Jaw!
EEEEK! Now it may seem like I’m overstating the case a bit, but
Jiggly Jaw messes up just about everything beautiful in the
voice. Jiggly Jaw is also a symptom of many other problems in the
voice. The jaw is completely passive in singing from a
physiological perspective. Once the mouth is open and the jaw is
dropped and relaxed, there is no other reason for the jaw to move in
order to make vocal sound. The problem is, there are many
different muscles in the area around the jaw, and all of them can
interfere with the voice. If you’ve got Jiggly Jaw, something is
not relaxed and it’s messing with your voice. Here’s how to find
Jiggly Jaw: watch a singer hold a note for a long time, and
notice if their jaw is shaking, or vibrating slightly up and down while
they hold the note (it’s easiest to find this by watching someone else
do it.) If you suspect you may have it, sing some really long
notes in the mirror and see if your jaw is moving around while you hold
the note. This is a tricky thing to get rid of, because holding
the jaw to try and prevent it from moving only makes the problem
worse! The thing to do if you have Jiggly Jaw is try to feel what
muscles are not completely passive. If you can feel around in
your jaw for what muscles may be “holding” or tense or, worse yet,
“helping” the voice, you’ve got the culprit. The thing to do once
you find which muscles are tense is try to relax those individual
muscles while you make noise. It’s difficult, but it can be done. |