“Help, I am a singer who struggles to sing anything without recruiting my shoulder and neck muscles.”
Oh, what a common refrain this statement is in voice studios round the world!
It is easy to get caught in the cycle of working on tension reduction, finding immediate relief and an easier sound, but the next time you sing, the tension has crept back in, and is in need of releasing. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Rather than tension reduction, I think the voice world needs to embrace the concept of tension redistribution.
To be clear, tension has never been the problem. Without it, we would not be upright, able to move, or sing. Tension is the result of how we manage our relationship to gravity. Gravity is always pulling us down and tension is the body’s response. Gravity says ‘fall down’ and our body says ‘not yet!’
However, it is possible to create too much tension in parts of the body and we end up with excessive tension or gripping and rigidity.
Put perhaps too simply: too much tension in one location simply means we are not creating tension in another area of the body effectively.
What we need are bodies with a more evenly distributed ability to generate tension when needed and release tension when needed.
When we redistribute tension we move toward finding long term shifts in how the signing body functions.
Where Does Extra Tension Show Up?
I typically see singers who have patterns of gripping in the:
Shoulders/neck/jaw/tongue – this singer may rub their neck and/or shoulders, or you may be able to observe that their clavicles form a more of a V shape than a T shape with the sternum. Sometimes they will unintentionally recruit secondary muscles of respiration located at the clavicles and above on inhale.
Abdominals – this singer may take a breath in and not be able to release the belly and you will not see any expansion in the belly on inhale. In some cases the belly can get sucked farther in on inhale. Some are more likely to grip in the upper abdominals and some may grip more in the low belly.
Back – this singer may stand in an extension pattern with an excessive arch in the back when viewed from the side. When they inhale the front ribcage may swing forward and up like a bell. Often the pelvis is also tipped forward.
Pelvis/Bum – this singer may have lower buttocks that are narrower than the top due to contracting the glutes strongly (think being in a public place and holding in an extreme need to fart). When tensed like this the glute muscles will cause the pelvis to be pulled into a tuck position where the tailbone is pulled under and forward.
Each of these are strategies implemented by the body as a way of staying upright and moving through space.
It is seldom that these gripping strategies are optimal and when they begin to impact our ability to sing with ease it is time to address them!
Why does extra tension show up in these different spots?
Places where we hold extra tension in our body happen for a variety of reasons.
- We are creatures that often use a predictive strategy to accomplish tasks with the least amount of energy. So once we are in the cycle of gripping, we build the habit and we will repeat it because it saves us energy to live/move that way. That might mean bypassing muscles that we’d like to be working for more easily accessible muscles to do the work.
- Our lives are (relatively) sedentary. We are designed to move and move a lot. Like, a lot a lot. But modern life doesn’t require us to do that. When we stay in a sedentary position our bodies begin to adapt to that shape and muscles that should be working more aren’t so other muscles pick up the work.
- Chronic low level punctuated by periodic high level stress. When you live with chronic stress your nervous system creates patterns of tension in the body.
- Our breathing patterns may be contributing. Chronic hyperventilation is linked to higher levels of tension in the body due to reduced levels of carbon dioxide in the body. This is especially common in hypermobile bodies. And, in those bodies, changing the breathing pattern is not necessarily the right first step!
- There are lots of natural asymmetries in the body, especially on the inside of the body – places like the two halves of the diaphragm, the liver only on one side, the heart only on one side. Those asymmetries on the inside can show up on the outside of the body as patterns of tension and compression.
You could have 1 or or any combination of the above options happening in your body at any given time.
How we see the Singing Body
When we learn about the body in our singing pedagogy classes, we primarily use a mechanical model – talking about levers and pulleys, thinking mostly about the skeleton, muscles and joints, and talking about alignment – similar to a car needing its axle adjusted so the tires wear evenly. That leads us to think if we simply find a way to reposition the axle (or bones in this case) the body will function better.
We also tend to look at individual systems – the respiratory system or musculoskeletal system, for example – rather than the body as a whole. That is useful to learning but not always useful when we look at how the body works as a whole.
None of those are bad models, but in the words of EP Box, “All models are wrong, but some are useful”
I think we get a little farther in our thinking about tension redistribution when we incorporate the model of biotensegrity.
Biotensegrity relates the mechanical system to every part of the organism and allows them to be viewed as integrated. It allows for a constantly evolving system that seeks to move with minimum effort.
In this model, we see the body as held together through a series of compressions and tensions – sort of like a tent – we have the actual fabric of the tent, the poles that keep the fabric in place and then the extra rope to help hold the structure steady.
Biotensegrity requires a blend of tension and mobility for the body to be in balance. Excess tension in one place means the bones (or tent poles) no longer work effectively at supporting the structure. In that case, the work of tensioning can be outsourced to the soft tissues (extra rope).
In biotensegrity we can see how a pull in one part of the body will result in a change of shape elsewhere in the body – think about how a tent would distort if one of the extra ropes was pulling too tightly.
Through this model we can see how tension in one part of the body is likely connected to a lack of tension somewhere else in the body.
How do we move from Tension Reduction to Tension Redistribution?
In the case of the neck and shoulders holding excess tension when we create sound, we need to zoom out and look at the entire torso and how it is being tensioned. And then we can zoom out some more and see how the whole body stands, moves and breathes.
Most commonly, when I see shoulder and neck tension in a singer, I predominantly see issues with breathing patterns and how the pelvic floor and deep core are working both together and on their own. To address this we need to consider:
- How the diaphragm relates to those areas (mainly observed through how the ribcage expands and contracts),
- Spinal mobility in Cervical, Thoracic and Lumbar areas – how they move together and the ability to move segmentally.
- The responsivity of the pelvic floor and deep core to breath, movement and sound.
- How the feet are functioning as they create expressions of supination and pronation through the legs and hips.
- What the state the nervous system is in and how flexible it is in achieving other states.
For this singer to create sound without the shoulders and neck being overly recruited, they have to discover what other area of the body need to be engaging. When that other area is able to generate good tension the neck and shoulders will no longer try to help in sound production.
When we begin to think about what isn’t working efficiently when one part is over working, we can start to think about redistributing that over working tension to other parts of the body as a long term solution leading to better function.
The missing piece that I see in most bodies is the connection between the voice and the deep core system – the tissues that lie closest to the center of the body. When those are responsive we find a body that is functions better globally. While we might need to do some nervous system work first to facilitate being able to access this area of the body, this is almost always going to be a place singers benefit from working.
Finding a body that can evenly and effectively distribute tension can be the difference between a voice that is a struggle and a voice that is produced with ease. If you are ready to explore how to create better patterns of useful tension, check out the Singer Synergy Movement Series, a self-paced 9 week movement program designed to create a seamless, functional connection from the pelvic floor, to diaphragm and the throat.
