If you think a student has tongue tension, ask these useful questions to better understand – and address – the problem.
Manual therapist Walt Fritz has observed thousands of tongues in his long career (now, not many people can say that).
“I’ve seen everything from tiny, skinny, pointy snake tongues to massive Rolling Stones tongues,” says Walt. “Some feel very thick and dense, and others are loose and flexible.”
So, what has Walt learnt from his years working with clients with swallowing and voice disorders?
Among other things, that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to helping people with tongue issues.
“I’ve observed thousands of tongues but would struggle to create correlations in terms of a person with this kind of tongue is more apt to this kind of problem (with perhaps the exception of someone with tongue tie).”
Talking about tongue tension
For this reason, Walt says he’s careful about the language he uses when talking about tongue problems with clients.
“We don’t want to medicalise or enforce our own ideas on a client,” he says.
Instead, he aims to help patients develop self-awareness and trust in their sensations.
He does this by taking a shared decision-making approach where the client is encouraged to be an active participant rather than a passive follower.
“We don’t want to diminish ourselves or our training, but nor do we want to trample on a person’s views and experiences,” he says.
“We want to bring that sense of awareness and increase a sense of connectivity.”
Asking the right questions
Walt uses carefully considered questions to tease out what the client is feeling – and what they hope to achieve with treatment and exercises.
For example, a question such as ‘Do you feel tongue tension?’ might not tell you that much at all. The student might say yes, but what does that mean?
“Terms like ‘tongue tension’ and ‘tongue fatigue’ are abstract concepts. They’re so subjective,” Walt says.
“If someone says they have tongue tension, what are they really talking about? It could be a physical feeling, a sharpness, pain or a sense of weakness.
“Or it could be a more ill-defined concept, a psychosocial concept of ‘I feel defeated when my tongue feels painful’.”
His advice when talking to students is to “make it personal, not theoretical”.
“I want to make it as bare bones as possible, not too complex or medical,” he says.
Here are some of the questions Walt uses in his practice
- How does it feel?
- When does it manifest?
- How does what you’re feeling limit you?
- Is that something you notice at the end of a performance?
- How does it stop you from being the singer that you want to be?
- How does it affect your quality of life?
- Here’s something that works for some people, does it work for you?
- [When you try an exercise or tongue stretch] Does that feel helpful?
- [When you try an exercise or tongue stretch] Does that feel familiar to you?
- How did it feel after we’d made those changes?
- Can you envision yourself capable of change?
Learn more
Check out the full interview with Walt on the Singing Teachers Talk podcast. Watch it on our YouTube channel so that you can see Walt demonstrate some tongue stretches.
