What the heck are suprahyoid muscles and how do they affect our voice?
If you have tight muscles under your chin or if you experience tension when speaking
or singing, then you want to watch this video because I am going to tell you what suprahyoid
muscles are, how you can tell if they are tight and how to release tension from this
area.
Hi!
I am Katarina, speech language pathologist from How 2 Improve Singing and here on this
channel, I share practical tips about using your voice in a healthy way.
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What are suprahyoid muscles?
As the name says, supra means above and hyoid is the name of a U-shaped bone in our neck
under the chin.
So, suprahyoid muscles are muscles, which are above the hyoid bone.
So, these are the muscles that you find under your chin in this small area.
These are relatively small muscles but they can cause a lot of trouble when speaking or
singing.
They can also cause pain when swallowing or even mimic pain in the tongue or teeth.
Very often tight suprahyoid muscles can be mistaken for swollen lymph nodes.
There are four suprahyoid muscles: the digastric, mylohyoid, stylohyoid, and geniohyoid muscles.
I know, strange names but these names tell us where the muscles originate and where they
are attached.
All four muscles attach to the hyoid bone.
The digastric, mylohyoid and geniohyoid muscles originate on the inside of the lower jaw.
The stylohyoid muscle originates on a bony structure behind your ear called the styloid
process and runs down to the hyoid bone.
Because these muscles are above the hyoid bone, when they contract, they move the hyoid
bone upward.
Why do we care?
Well, when we swallow, these muscles are active and make sure that the food is going down
the right way.
However, when we speak or sing, we don’t want these muscles engage unnecessarily because
they can affect our voice and cause tension.
Here is why.
The hyoid bone is the only bone in a human body that is not attached to any other bone.
Our larynx is suspended from the hyoid bone, like a basket from an air balloon.
If the hyoid bone moves up, the larynx moves up too.
Now, you can imagine that if the suprahyoid muscles are strained, contracted or have to
work overtime, the hyoid bone is permanently elevated, which means that the larynx is also
elevated.
And you may be aware of the fact that the position of the larynx directly affects voice
quality.
As I said before, the suprahyoid muscles participate in swallowing.
That’s how we are going to find them and assess if they are tight.
Place your hand or your thumbs under the chin and swallow.
You will feel muscle movement under your chin.
You will feel how these muscles engage; they sort of bulge out a little bit when you swallow.
But you should not feel any discomfort, pain or soreness when you do this.
Now, keep your hand or fingers under your chin and hum a short song or a short scale.
This time, you should not be feeling anything: any movement, any bulging out, any muscle engagement.
You should not feel any movement or muscle engagement even when you sing a short scale on a single vowel.
Try that.
Hold your hand under the chin and sing on a single vowel.
When we produce sound during humming, only the intrinsic laryngeal muscles are working.
You don’t need any of these muscles under your chin when you change pitch or sustain
a sound.
So, if you feel movement, engagement or even discomfort or pain when you hum, you know
that your suprahyoid muscles are working overtime.
You will feel muscle engagement during normal speech or when singing a song.
Suprahyoid muscles are engaged during articulation.
So, there will be slight movement under the chin but again, there should be no stiffness,
tightness, excessive movement, soreness, strain or pain.
The muscles under my chin are still soft and supple when I talk or sing.
So, how do we release tension from the muscles under the chin?
Let’s give these muscles a gentle massage and see if your voice changes or if singing
or speaking becomes easier.
But first, I want you to either count from 1 to 10 or sing a short song.
Pause the video and do it, I will be waiting here.
Done?
Good.
Did you feel any tension?
How would you rate ease of voice production?
How clear is your voice?
How loud is it?
How resonant is it?
Remember your findings because we will compare it to your voice after the massage.
By the way, if you want to learn more about vocal massage, click this link here or the
link under the video.
With your thumbs, massage the origin of these muscles on the inner side of the lower jaw
bone.
Just press lightly along the lower jaw, on the inside.
Do not clench your teeth.
Do this for a few seconds.
Now, gently massage the origin of the stylohyoid muscles on the bony structures behind your
ears.
Use your fingers and apply gentle pressure.
Now, place your thumbs under the chin.
Apply gentle pressure and move your fingers from the chin towards the hyoid bone.
Keep your head straight.
Breathe normally and massage for several seconds.
Now, locate the hyoid bone.
It sits right under your chin and it moves up when you swallow.
With your fingers, massage the place where the muscles insert on the hyoid bone.
The movements with your fingers are very small because the muscles are small.
And the massage takes a few seconds.
Lastly, we are going to stretch the fascia under the chin.
Place one hand on your neck, very gently; no pushing.
Move your head slightly back so that you stretch the muscles under the chin.
Gently stretch the muscles by moving your fingers from the hyoid bone towards the chin
in a slow and steady pull.
Don’t push, gently stretch.
Continue for several seconds.
So, how did it feel?
How is your voice now?
It’s time to reassess your voice.
Count from 1 to 10 or sing a short song.
Any changes in your voice?
How about tension?
How would you rate ease of voice production?
How clear is your voice now?
How loud is it?
How resonant is it?
Let me know in the comments below.
And that is all for today.
Next week, I will be talking about jaw tension, so stay tuned or even better subscribe to
my channel so that you don’t miss this video.
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information.
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Thank you and I will see you in my next video. Bye.
Bye.