The scalene muscles along the front and sides of your neck can make singing difficult if they are too tight. This has been a major issue for me in recent years. In the never-ending battle against the effects of aging and gravity, I knew that keeping a decent posture and working to tone my abdominal muscles – particularly the lower portion – were important work, if I expected to keep my voice in decent operating condition. But I didn’t realize the importance of stretching, or the importance of keeping the entire vocal muscle support system in tip-top shape.
Last year, after a battle with some strange temporary arthritic ‘event’ I underwent some months of physical therapy. Fortunately, my wonderful PT gave me some neck exercises that really seemed to open up my voice. This was an added benefit! I really wish that medical types would be a little more forthcoming with information. I would have loved to know the names of the muscles she was targeting when she was helping me. That was one of the very few questions I didn’t bombard her with. My HMO PTs are in big demand, and their time is limited. I learned that asking more than a couple of questions per session was not exactly de rigueur.
Apparently tension in these scalene muscles is very common. Sitting incorrectly at a poorly configured computer workstation (as I tend to do) and sitting at a piano (which I do so many hours of the day) are major contributors to the problem. My keyboard is electronic. With most acoustic pianos the music stand is placed higher. I tend to look down at the music. I’m still working out the ideal solution to this problem.
Car seats and backrests that don’t accommodate women’s bodies are a problem. This makes perfect sense to me. I’ve always said that somebody needs to create a ‘baby got back-rest’ for driving. (Someone please take the idea and manufacture one – soon!) My bottom pushes the backrest up, so that it no longer provides support in the lumbar area. We women need a backrest with an (ahem) ‘space’ for the cheeks to meet the back of the seat. Car seats with ‘no’ backrest are worse.
Driving and craning the neck in a forward position to check for traffic is problematic. I’m particularly tall. In fun, I’ve compared my shape to that of Big Bird on Sesame Street – pear-shaped, Nefertiti neck. The only difference is that my legs are longer. And I’m not quite as yellow… or feathered. The muscles of my upper body have always been weak. A sports chiropractor once tossed-off that I had no muscles in my back. (Talk about starting from zero and having to get up to 60MPH!) He also mentioned that women with my body shape tend to have problems when they gain weight. I’m up about 25 lbs. and I now see his point.
A note about dropping weight. I’m down about 7 to 10 lbs. over the last handful of weeks. It is critical to stretch and exercise while the body is readjusting to the weight loss. Also, we have to be careful not to lose too much weight too quickly, or the body will try to burn the muscle. (I am not a doctor. I’ve been told this over and over again. If it is incorrect, blame a doctor.)
Dependence upon backrests can be a problem. This makes so much sense. If we depend upon a thing to do the work, our muscles atrophy. Exercise, posture, stretching. We have to do it ourselves. Besides, chairs that really support cost over $1,000. That’s probably a laughable very conservative figure.
You might not feel the pain from the tense scalene muscles in the scalene muscles. The pain might manifest in the upper pectoral region (as it did for me), as tension headaches (me), and between the shoulder blades (me). This also explains my having one cold hand and occasional numbness when I spend too much time behind any keyboard.
Beware the mouse! Keep the chest high, the head on top of the neck, on top of the shoulders. Don’t cave the chest, curve the lower back outward, jut the head forward and reach for the mouse. Recipe for disaster.
The scalene muscles serve the breathing system. If they are tight and not functioning well, breathing suffers. If breathing suffers, singing suffers.
As I mentioned, the upshot of working on my neck muscles was that freeing the muscles seemed to free my voice. I recorded the sound, just to see if I was imagining things, and I wasn’t! My sound was rounder and ‘cleaner’ than it had been.
Keeping the scalene muscles in check is a never-ending process. But it is so worth it to feel better and to sing better as part of the bargain. What a deal!
I was recently at a choir festival, and the director there was working with the posture of the neck. Despite what I thought was taking years of care to have good posture, I found out that I was being lazy sometimes, and relaxing those scalene muscles (although I didn't know that's what they were called until I read your post) and kind of resting my head slightly back. The choir director (Joe Miller) showed me how to lengthen there and get my head back up on "the stick" (he used an apple on a stick image). I have been experiencing much more freedom of head and neck movement since I've been made aware of this, but from years of laziness, I am having to be very mindful to get the muscles strong.
ReplyDeleteAdding these stretches will be even more helpful I'm sure. Thanks!