Vocal Tension and The Purposed Touch

In my vocal coaching practice, I use a very valuable tool I learned about from three different sources. This tool is at the tip of my fingers… in fact, it’s at the tip of yours, too. It is the purposed touch, which can drop tension out of an area – or cause the area to wake up!

First of all, I’d like to credit the following friends for sharing this concept with me:

• Pro vocal coach Jeannie Deva
• Chiropractor Dwaine Allison 
• Alexander Technique practitioner Ethan Kind

The purposed touch is deceptively simple to be so powerfully effective. You (or  your vocal coach or health practitioner) use the power of suggestion: touch yourself wherever you sense muscular tension, and tell yourself to ‘let go’, ‘relax there’, ‘drop it’, whatever phrase works. For the voice, here are common spots where I use this purposed touch with my clients:

• outer corner of cheekbone
• eye pad (tissue under eye)
• Jaw hinge
• Adam’s apple (front tip of thyroid cartilage )
• shoulder
• neck
• occipital bone (bottom of skull)

You can use this touch to suggest that the spot relax or activate. For instance, I sometimes have a numb vocal student who can’t ‘get into’ the eyes to touch an eyebrow and tell it to communicate. Usually works like a charm:) 

It is very important to understand you can’t just touch the area and expect results. You have to mentally ‘will’ that place to respond.

Used correctly, it’s a light, focused and purposed touch. It’s the awesome power of suggestion, and it can change things.