How You Shape Your Mouth When You Sing; One Of The Easiest Ways To Improve Your Singing.

**For the video version of this blog visit: https://youtu.be/Kj4_36EtPDc

Today I want to talk about how you can quite quickly improve your vocal tone and vocal expression using your mouth. To be exact, how you shape your mouth.

We all know that it’s really important to work on your breath control for your singing. To develop resonance. And have an understanding of how the larynx works. But what a lot of people forget to pay attention to, is what they’re doing with their mouth. What they’re doing with their tongue, their jaw and their lips and how that affects the sound and expression that comes out.

Sometimes a new singer comes to me for lessons and they have a very nice voice. They often have a good understanding of breath control and how to use the diaphragm, but what is often neglected is for them to really pay attention to what they’re doing with their mouth and use it in a way that it develops and shapes the sound and expresses fully the subtleties and nuances of the song they’re singing.

It’s usually not that they just don’t know how to use their mouth, but rather from habits picked up from the way we speak in everyday life. These seemingly small habits, which affect us all, and develop over a lifetime of speaking to people can include quirks of regional and country-specific accents as well as habits we pick up from our family and friends without even knowing. Sometimes people can be shy about opening their mouths if, for example, they wore braces when they were younger and became self-conscious at a crucial stage of their development. Some people grew up in households where there was an emphasis on being quiet, which might lead to a person speaking from the side of their mouth or through an only partially opened mouth. Also, sometimes with singing, you can feel quite self-conscious, so opening your mouth a little bit wider and being that little bit more expressive can make you feel a bit vulnerable.

However, thinking about how you use your mouth when you sing can make all the difference and, if you have a little fun with it and get a feel for what happens when you play around with the different sounds you can massively expand your range of expression.

How do I work on this?

The First thing I’d suggest is to grab a mirror and take a look at what you’re doing with your mouth when you sing. You might notice that you thought you were opening your mouth really wide, but actually, you were barely opening it at all. You might notice that what you thought was a strong “Oooo” sound with your lips in an “O” shape was performed with a downward mouth. Those are things a lot of people do.

So, you have to become a bit of a Jim Carey about it. Play with the mouth and see what happens. How does it change the sound? The tone? The expression? Be a bit silly with it and see how far you can go. Your neighbours might worry about you but the more you’re prepared to experiment the more you’ll feel less afraid to try things when you sing.

Let’s have a think about some of the shapes and what happens when you form them.

Take the “Ahhh” sound for example. If you are singing and “Ahhh” and you have the corners of your mouth turned up, a bit like a smile, and the jaw nice and loose, then you’re going to create a nice bright sound. On the other hand, if you have the corners of the mouth turned downwards, you’ll create a darker sound.

The same goes with “Oooo” of the corners of the mouth are turned down, you’ll get a flatter, less bright sound.

So, play, discover and, listen to the changes. Listen for the brightness and darkness and the changes in tone and expression.

The other reason the way you use your mouth can have a dramatic impact on your singing is that it can really help with storytelling. Ella Fitzgerald was a master of this when it came to her voice. She never let a word or phrase come out of her mouth without feeling and expressing the full meaning. Watch her singing Summertime live in Berlin and see her deliver a masterful performance. You’ll see the way she uses her mouth to express the lyrics in a melancholy way and really capture the feeling of a hot lazy summer as she sings. I love the way she shapes her vowel sounds and doesn’t throw anything away.

This concept is really important because if you have something to say, you need to make sure you say it the way you intend it, the way you feel it. if you’re singing a sad song or a happy song, you need to make sure you express words and feel their weight, (or lightness) and express the tones so you can tell the story you mean to tell.

it’s not about right or wrong. There is no correct way to use your mouth. The key is awareness, playfulness and, making sure you express the song the way you want to.

Have fun and happy singing.

Helen Barrett Vocal Coach